ReStructuredText in Django
16 May 2008
dbr left a comment on this site:
I concur with the other two comments - this is one of the nicer blog'y site layouts I've seen. The comment system is also actually pleasant to use, unlike every single other one I've (not)-used \o/
—dbr (May 16, 2008)
Thanks for the compliment. I have talked before about my philosophy towards forms:
I do not make want to make it like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade just to make a comment: roll under a flying saw, spell something in Hebrew and then take a flying leap into the abyss. Furthermore moderation of spam is my problem, not yours.
—Zeth on comment-spam (3 July 2007)
dbr continues:
One slight bug, you need to enter two backslashes to make it visible.
—dbr (May 16, 2008)
That is not a bug that is a feature! That is the escaping mechanism of ReStructuredText (as well as Python and lots of other languages). The comments form does not allow HTML but it allows ReStructuredText, as I explain below.
Ryan also left a comment:
For your blog post model, what did you do for entering posts? Do you still use the default admin interface, or did you make your own views for posting and whatnot? I haven't looked into it much, but does Django automatically include much in the way of wysiwyg text editors for text fields?
—Ryan (May 15, 2008)
Answering your questions in reverse order:
- Wysiwyg text editors
There is no default Django WYSIWYG text field, but some people use Javascript components such as TinyMCE which slots in nicely (instructions).
- Default admin interface vs own views
I have the admin interface as one way to enter posts, but I also made a simple command-line tool for entering posts, I also made some scripts for importing all my old posts from Pyblosxom.
I did create one admin view, I overrode the 'delete comment' view to create a button that adds the IP addresses of deleted spam comments to a block list.
At some point I will make a 'Preview' view and button. At the moment I can save posts as drafts but not view drafts in the site template before it goes live.
- What did you do for entering posts?
I write a new post in a real text editor such as Emacs or gedit in ReStructuredText format, which I can then either paste into the admin interface, or use my little script to squirt them into Django.
Markup in Django
'contrib' forms the 'standard library' of Django. One of these packages is called "markup". It provides filters for three markup languages: ReStructured Text, Markdown and Textile.
I chose to use ReStructured Text because using that to write my new posts because I like the format and getting confident with ReStructured Text will be useful in lots of other contexts also.
To use it in Django, just add django.contrib.markup to the INSTALLED_APPS list in settings.py. In a template, you can load it and use it like this:
{% load markup %}
{{ comment.comment|restructuredtext }}
In the next post I will explain how to write in ReStructured Text,
