1. Advanced Configuration

1.1. Sitemaps

One of the cool features of Django is the sitemap application, so if you want to fill your website’s sitemap with the entries of your blog, follow these steps.

  • Register django.contrib.sitemaps in the INSTALLED_APPS section.
  • Edit your project’s URLs and add this code :
from zinnia.sitemaps import TagSitemap
from zinnia.sitemaps import EntrySitemap
from zinnia.sitemaps import CategorySitemap
from zinnia.sitemaps import AuthorSitemap

sitemaps = {'tags': TagSitemap,
            'blog': EntrySitemap,
            'authors': AuthorSitemap,
            'categories': CategorySitemap,}

urlpatterns += patterns('django.contrib.sitemaps.views',
                        url(r'^sitemap.xml$', 'index',
                            {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
                        url(r'^sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', 'sitemap',
                            {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),)

1.2. Akismet Anti-Spam

If you want to benefit of the Akismet spam protection on your comments, it’s possible to do it by installing the akismet python module, and add this setting:

ZINNIA_SPAM_CHECKER_BACKENDS = ('zinnia.spam_checker.backends.automattic',)

Important

You need an API key. If you don’t have any, get one for free at http://akismet.com/signup/ then set it in your project’s settings like this:

AKISMET_SECRET_API_KEY = 'your key'

1.3. TypePad Anti-Spam

It’s also possible to benefit of the TypePad AntiSpam service to fight the spam. Like the Akismet protection you need to install the akismet python module.

The register the TypePad AntiSpam protection with this setting:

ZINNIA_SPAM_CHECKER_BACKENDS = ('zinnia.spam_checker.backends.typepad',)

Important

You need an API key. If you don’t have any, get one for free at http://antispam.typepad.com/info/get-api-key.html then set it in your project’s settings like this:

TYPEPAD_SECRET_API_KEY = 'your key'

1.4. Bit.ly

You find http://bit.ly useful and want to use it for your blog entries ?

It’s simple, install django_bitly in your project’s settings and add these settings:

BITLY_LOGIN = 'your bit.ly login'
BITLY_API_KEY = 'your bit.ly api key'
ZINNIA_URL_SHORTENER_BACKEND = 'zinnia.url_shortener.backends.bitly'

Zinnia will do the rest.

1.5. Twitter

When you post a new entry on your blog you might want to tweet it as well.

In order to do that, you first need to activate the Bit.ly support like described above.

Then install tweepy and add these settings.

TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY = 'Your Consumer Key'
TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET = 'Your Consumer Secret'
TWITTER_ACCESS_KEY = 'Your Access Key'
TWITTER_ACCESS_SECRET = 'Your Access Secret'

Note that the authentification for Twitter has changed since September 2010. The actual authentification system is based on oAuth. That’s why now you need to set these 4 settings. If you don’t know how to get these information, follow this excellent tutorial at:

http://jmillerinc.com/2010/05/31/twitter-from-the-command-line-in-python-using-oauth/

Now in the admin, you can post an update containing your entry’s title and the shortened url of your entry.

1.6. Django-CMS

If you use Django-cms 2.0, Zinnia can be integrated into your pages, thanks to the plugin system.

Simply register zinnia.plugins in the INSTALLED_APPS section of your project’s settings.

It will provides custom plugins for adding entries into your pages, an App-Hook and Menus for easy integration.

If you want to use the plugin system of django-cms in your entries, an extended EntryModel with a PlaceholderField is provided.

Add this line in your project’s settings.

ZINNIA_ENTRY_BASE_MODEL = 'zinnia.plugins.placeholder.EntryPlaceholder'

1.7. TinyMCE

If you want to replace WYMEditor by TinyMCE install django-tinymce and follow the installation instructions.

TinyMCE can be customized by overriding the admin/zinnia/entry/tinymce_textareas.js template.

1.8. Markup languages

If you doesn’t want to write your entries in HTML, because you are an über coder knowing more than 42 programming languages, you have the possibility to use a custom markup language for editing the entries.

Currently MarkDown, Textile and reStructuredText are supported, so if you want to use one of these languages, simply set this variable as appropriate in your project’s settings.

ZINNIA_MARKUP_LANGUAGE = 'restructuredtext'

Note that the name of the language must be in lowercase.

More informations about the dependencies at this URL :

http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/ref/contrib/markup/

1.9. XML-RPC

Zinnia provides few webservices via XML-RPC, but before using it, you need to install django-xmlrpc.

Then register django_xmlrpc in your INSTALLED_APPS section of your project’s settings.

Now add these lines in your project’s settings.

from zinnia.xmlrpc import ZINNIA_XMLRPC_METHODS
XMLRPC_METHODS = ZINNIA_XMLRPC_METHODS

ZINNIA_XMLRPC_METHODS is a simple list of tuples containing all the webservices embedded in Zinnia.

If you only want to use the Pingback service import ZINNIA_XMLRPC_PINGBACK, or if you want you just want to enable the MetaWeblog API import ZINNIA_XMLRPC_METAWEBLOG.

You can also use your own mixins.

Finally we need to register the url of the XML-RPC server. Insert something like this in your project’s urls.py:

url(r'^xmlrpc/$', 'django_xmlrpc.views.handle_xmlrpc'),

Note : For the Pingback service check if your site is enabled for pingback detection. More information at http://hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback-1.0#TOC2