LFC - Lightning Fast CMS¶

Data¶

The data tab holds some global information about the site.

Title

The title of the site. The title is displayed within the meta title tab of the site.

Note

This title is displayed on an exposed place within search engine result pages (SERP).

Page

The page which is displayed if one browses to the root of the portal.

From e-mail address

This e-mail address is used as sender of outgoing mails.

Notification email addresses

These e-mail address get all notification mails. For instance all messages which are sent via the contact form to the portal.

Allow comments

Turns comments on/off generally.

Images¶

The images tab handles the global images of the site.

Add Images

Click the Select Images-button and select the images you want to upload.

Update Images

Change the data you want and click the Update-button.

Delete Images

Select the checkboxes beside the images you want to delete and click the Delete-button.

Children¶

The children tab displays the direct children of the portal as a list. Here you can bulk edit (change position, active state, etc.) or delete objects.

Portlets¶

The portlets tab manages the root portlets to the site. By default portlets are inherited from child objects.

Portlets a pieces of content which are displayed in Slots left and right of your page.

Slots

Here you will find all assinged portlets per slot for this page. By default there is a left and a right slot.

Add a portlet

To add a portlet, select the kind of portlet and click the Add Portlet-button Fill in position, slot, title and the specific portlet data and click the Save Portlet-button.

Edit a portlet

In order to edit a portlet, click on the Edit-button of the portlet in question, change the data within the specific portlet form and click the Save Portlet-button.

Delete a portlet

Click on the Delete-button of the portlet and answer the question with yes.

Data¶

Title

The title of the page. The title is displayed on top of the page and as within the title tab of the page.

Display Title

When this is checked the title is displayed on top of the page.

Slug

The unique URL of the page within the parent page.

Description

The description of the page. This is used within the overview template and search results.

Text

The main HTML text of a page.

Tags

The tags of the page. Tags are keywords. This kind of metadata helps describe a page and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching.

Metadata¶

Template

The template which is used to display the object’s content. Please note: If this field is not displayed just the default template has been registered.

Standard

The sub page which should be displayed instead of the page itself. Please note: If this field is not displayed the page has no sub pages.

Active

Only active objects are displayed. If an user tries to display an inactive objects he gets a page not found disclaimer (404).

Exclude from navigation

If checked this object is not displayed within the tabs or the navigation portlet.

Exclude from search results

If checked this object is not displayed within search results.

Language

The language of the object.

Note

If this field is not displayed your site has multi languages deactivated.

Publication date

The publication date of the object

Children¶

Displays the direct children (sub pages) of an object as a list. Here you can bulk edit (change position, active state, etc.) or delete objects.

Images¶

The images tab handles the local images of the page.

Add Images

Click the Select Images-button and select the images you want to upload.

Update Images

Change the data you want and click the Update-button.

Delete Images

Select the checkboxes beside the images you want to delete and click the Delete-button.

Files¶

The files tab handles the local files of the page.

Add Files

Click the Select File-button and select the file you want to upload. Repeat that for all files and click Save Files-button.

Update Files

Change the data you want and click the Update-button.

Delete Files

Select the checkboxes beside the files you want to delete and click the Delete-button.

Portlets¶

Here you can add portlets to an content object.

Blocked parent slots

By default portlets are inherited from the parent content object or the portal. If you want you can block this portlets per slot. For that just select the checkbox beside the slot and click the Save Blocked Parent Slots-button.

Slots

Here you will find all assinged portlets per slot for this page. By default there is a left and a right slot.

Add a portlet

To add a portlet, select the kind of portlet and click the Add Portlet-button. Fill in position, slot, title and the specific portlet data and click the Save Portlet-button.

Edit a portlet

In order to edit a portlet, click on the Edit-button of the existing portlet, change the data within the specific portlet form and click the Save Portlet-button.

Delete a portlet

Click on the Delete-button of the portlet and answer the question with yes.

Comments¶

The comments tab manages the behaviour of commenting of the page.

Commentable

This decides if commments are allowed for this page or not. There are three choices:

• Default: The state is inherited from the parent object.
• Yes: Comments are allowed.
• No: Comments are disallowed.

Comments

Displays all comments for this page. Here you can bulk edit (public, etc.) or delete comments.

SEO¶

Meta Keywords

This field will be displayed as content attribute of the meta keywords tag. By default it displays the tags of the content object.

Meta description

This field will be displayed as content attribute of the meta description tag. By default it displays the description of the content object.

Permissions¶

Data¶

Username

The unique name of the user. This is used to log in.

First name

The first name of the user.

Last name

The last name of the user.

E-Mail

The e-mail address of the user.

Active

If checked the user is active and can log in. Otherwise the use can’t log in.

Superuser status

If checked the user is allowed to do everything.

Roles

The global roles of the user. Via roles the user inherits specific permissions.

Groups

The global groups of the user. Groups combines users together. Groups can have roles. And roles can have permissions. Hence the user can inherit permissions also via groups.

Change password¶

Password / Password (again)

Both fields must be filled in with the same password to set a new password for the user.

Add an user¶

To add an user proceed as following:

1. Click on the “Add user” link
2. Fill in the form
3. Click on the “Save user” button

Delete an user¶

To delete an user proceed as following:

1. Browse to the user you want to delete
2. Click on the “Delete user” link
3. Answer the questions with “Yes”

Filter¶

Set filter

In order to filter the users on the left side type in the full- or user name into the text field.

Reset filter

In order to reset the filter click on the “X” button.

Filter¶

Set filter

Fill in the “name” field or select a specific “active” state and click on the “Go!” button.

Reset filter

Click on the red “x” button.

Change users state

Change all states of the users you want to change and click on the “Update” button.

Delete users

Select all checkboxes beside the users you want to delete and click on the “delete” button

Data¶

Name

The unique name of the group.

Roles

The global roles of the group.

Data¶

Name

The unique name of the role.

Available options¶

Display select standard

If checked, the user can select a standard object from the children of the object. See Standard.

Display position

If checked, the user can change the position of a content object. See Position.

Global addable

If checked the content object can be added to the portal.

Default template

The default template of the selected content object.

Workflow

The workflow for the content type. All instances of this content type have this workflow.

Warning

If you change the workflow all instances of this content type will get the initial state of the new assigned workflow.

Allowed sub types

Content types which can be added to the content type.

Templates

Allowed templates for the content type.

Cut and Paste¶

To cut and paste an object just browse to it and select Cut from the Actions menu. The object is now put to the clipboard and ready to paste.

Now browse to the new location to which you want to paste the object and select Paste from the Actions menu

The object is now added to the new and removed from the old location. Moreover it is removed from the clipboard so that you cannot move it to another location accidently.

Copy and Paste¶

To copy and paste an object just browse to it and select Copy from the Actions menu. The object is now put to the clipboard and ready to paste.

Now browse to the new location to which you want to paste the object and select Paste from the Actions menu.

The object is now added to the new location. The object is not removed from the old location. It is also not removed from the clipboad so that you can repeatedly paste the object to the same or different locations.

If you copy an object following related objects are also copied:

• Children
• Images
• Files
• Translations
• Portlets

Miscellaneous¶

• Objects can only pasted to objects for which the object is an allowed sub type. You will get a proper error message if you try to paste a disallowed type.
• Objects cannot be cut and pasted to it’s own descendants. You will get a proper error message if you try it.
• Objects will automatically get a unique slug within the parent object. That means if an object with the slug “my-object” already exists the object will get the slug “my-object-1”.

Preparations¶

In order to use multi languages it has to be turned on. To do that please add/edit following settings within your settings.py:

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en'
LANGUAGES = (("en", _(u"English")), ("de", _(u"German")))

Whereas LANGUAGE_CODE (which is a default Django setting) is the default language (all objects will be created with this one) and LANGUAGES are all available languages. There must be at least two languages to turn the multi language feature on.

Create a translation¶

In order to create a translation browse to the object and select the language you want from the Translate to menu.

Fill in the form and click the Save button.

Now following has taken place:

• The translation in the selected language has been created, i.e.: the created content object has the language you choosed above.
• The translation has been assigned to the source object (see the canonical field of the Metadata tab), which means that the user is redirected to the connected object in the selected language after the changed the language.

Change between translations¶

If translations exist for an object you will see the languages menu. With the help of that you see the current language (in this case: “English”) and you can switch to all existing languages (in this case: “English” and “German”).

The same is true for the navigation tree.

Site structures¶

As you have seen the source object and the translations are connected automatically to each other.

But you can change or remove this connections completely. In this way it is possible to create completely independent site structures in different languages. For that go to the “Metadata” tab and change or remove the “canonical” field of the object.

Neutral objects¶

It is also possible to add language neutral objects. These objects are displayed for every language. For that, go to the “Metadata” tab and change the language to neutral.

General¶

• LFC comes with several permissions out of the box.
• Permissions are needed by users to do specific actions on content objects.
• The only way to grant permissions to users is via roles.
• Permissions per role may vary dependent on the workflow and current workflow state of a content object.

Permissions¶

Add

Needed to add content objects.

Delete

Needed to delete a content object.

Edit

Needed to modify a content object.

Manage content

Needed to manage a content object’s permissions and local roles.

Manage portal

Needed to edit the portal object an to manage users, groups, roles, workflows, permissions, etc.

Publish

Needed to publish a content object.

Reject

Needed to reject a content object.

Review

Needed to review submitted content objects.

Submit

Needed to submit a content object for review.

View

Needed to view a content object.

General¶

• Every user has automatically the Anonymous role.
• The creator of an object has automatically the Owner role
• The Manager role can do everything independent on workflow and current workflow state.
• The Reviewer role can change the workflow state of an object independent on workflow and current workflow state.

Simple workflow¶

Anonymous

Can read public content objects.

Owner

Can do anything on own content objects, except change permissions.

Editor

Can do anything on the content object, except change permissions.

Reader

Can read public content objects.

Manager

Can do everything.

Portal workflow¶

Anonymous

Can read public content objects.

Owner

Can do anything on his own private content objects, except change permissions.

Once the object is submitted or published the owner has to retract the object to be able to modfiy it.

Editor

Can do anything on content objects, except change permissions.

Reader

Can read public content objects.

Reviewer

Can publish submitted content objects.

Manager

Can do everything.

General¶

A workflow consists of a sequence of connected (through transitions) states. The transitions can be restricted by permissions.

A workflow can be assigned to models and model instances. All instances will “inherit” the workflow of its model. If an instance has an own workflow this will have precedence. In this way all instances of a content type have the same workflow unless a specific instance of that content type have an other workflow assigned.

Every workflow manages a set of permissions. Every workflow state can grant or remove this permissions from the instance for several roles. In this way objects have different permissions per workflow state.

Simple workflow¶

A simple workflow for smaller sites where only one or a few authors add content objects.

A common workflow cycle would be:

• An user creates a content object. Only the Owner, Editors and Managers can view the content object.
• The Owner publishes the object. Users can view the content object.

Portal workflow¶

A workflow for larger sites where content is provided by several authors. Every content object must be submitted for review before it can be published.

A common workflow cycle would be:

• An user creates a content object. Only the Owner, Editors and Managers can view the content object.
• The Owner submits the content object for review.
• A Reviewer publishes the content object. Users can view the content object.

Preparations¶

First you have to create a new Django application. This is beyond the purpose of this tutorial and you should refer to Django’s excellent tutorial if you want to learn more.

In short, your starting file structure should look like this:

lfc_events
    __init__.py
    models.py

For an easier start you can also use lfc-skel. See there on how to install it.

Content type¶

In order to create a own content type you just need to add few lines of code within models.py

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

# python imports
import datetime

# django imports
from django import forms
from django.db import models

# lfc imports
from lfc.models import BaseContent

class Event(BaseContent):
    """A simple event type for LFC.
    """
    start = models.DateTimeField(blank=True, default=datetime.datetime.now)
    end = models.DateTimeField(blank=True, default=datetime.datetime.now)

    def form(self, **kwargs):
        """Returns the add/edit form of the Event
        """
        return EventForm(**kwargs)

class EventForm(forms.ModelForm):
    """Form to add / edit an Event.
    """
    class Meta:
        model = Event
        fields = ("title", "slug", "description", "start", "end")

1-6:

Default imports from python and django.

9:

BaseContent is the base class from which all LFC content types should inherit.

11:

The new content type. It Inherits from BaseContent.

14/15:

Adds default Django fields to the content type, in this case two date/time fields.

17-20

The form method is the only method which has to be implemented by a LFC content type. It has to return the form to add/edit the related content type.

22-27

Default Django model form to add/edit the Event type.

Template¶

In order to create a LFC template you just have to create a default Django template and register it to the models you want to use it.

Within your existing Django application create a folder called “templates” and then a folder called “lfc_events”. Your folder structure should now looks like this:

lfc_events
    __init__.py
    models.py
    templates
        lfc_events

Now create a file called event_1.html within the lfc_events folder and add these lines of code:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

{% extends "lfc/base.html" %}

{% block content %}
    <h1>Event 2</h1>

    <h2>
        Start
    </h2>
    <p>
        {{ lfc_context.start }}
    </p>

    <h2>
        End
    </h2>
    <p>
        {{ lfc_context.end }}
    </p>
{% endblock %}

1:

Extends the LFC base template

3:

Fill the block content of the base template

10/17:

lfc_context is the current viewed content object. “start” and “end” are the fields we added to our content object.

Now create another template in the same way and call it “Event 2”.

Portlet¶

In order to create a own portlet you need to create two parts: The python part, which contains the portlet class and the template to present the portlet as HTML.

Create the portlet class

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

# django-portlets imports
from portlets.models import Portlet

class EventsPortlet(Portlet):
    """A simple portlet to display Events.
    """

    limit = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)

    def render(self, context):
        """Renders the content of the portlet.
        """
        obj = context.get("lfc_context")
        request = context.get("request")

        events = Event.objects.restricted(request).order_by("start")[:self.limit]

        return render_to_string("lfc_events/events_portlet.html", {
            "title" : self.title,
            "events" : events,
        })

    def form(self, **kwargs):
        """Returns the add/edit form of the EventPortlet
        """
        return EventsPortletForm(instance=self, **kwargs)

class EventsPortletForm(forms.ModelForm):
    """Form to add / edit an EventPortlet.
    """
    class Meta:
        model = EventsPortlet

2:

Import the portlet base class. All portlets should inherit from it.

4:

The new portlet. Inherits from BaseContent.

8:

Adds default Django fields to the portlet, in this case an integer field to limit the amount displayed events.

10:

The render method must be implemented. It must return the rendered HTML content of the portlet.

13:

Gets the current object, which is always within context.get(“lfc_context”)

14:

Gets the request, which is always within context.get(“request”)

17:

Gets all events limited by the stored limit attribute. Please note, we using the restricted method of the manager here in order to get only active events (for anonmyous users).

24:

The form method must be implemented. It must resturn the form to add / edit the portlet.

29:

Default Django model form to add/edit the Events portlet.

Create the portlet template

Create a file called “events_portlet.html” within the template folder and add the following HTML code:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15

{% extends "lfc/portlets/base.html" %}

{% block portlet_name %}events{% endblock %}
{% block body %}
    {% for event in events %}
        <div>
            <a href="{{ event.get_absolute_url }}">
                {{ event.title }}
            </a>
        </div>
        <div align="right">
            {{ event.start }}
        </div>
    {% endfor %}
{% endblock %}

1:

Reusing LFC’s base template for portlets

3:

Fill the block “portlet_name” with the name of the portlet. This can be used within CSS to provide specific formats for the EventsPortlet.

4:

Fill the block “body” with the content of the portlet.

Registration¶

At last we have to provide an install method which registers all the components.

For that go to the __init__.py of your application and add an install method like following:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

# lfc imports
from lfc.utils.registration import register_content_type
from lfc.utils.registration import unregister_content_type
from lfc.utils.registration import register_template
from lfc.utils.registration import unregister_template

# portlets imports
from portlets.utils import register_portlet
from portlets.utils import unregister_portlet

# lfc_events import
from lfc_events.models import Event
from lfc_events.models import EventsPortlet

def install():
    register_template(name = "Event 1", path="lfc_events/event_1.html")

    register_content_type(obj = Event, name = "Event",
        templates=["Event 1"], default_template="Event 1")

    register_portlet(EventsPortlet, "Events")

1-13:

Import all the stuff we need for registration

15:

The install method. This must exist in order to install a application for LFC.

16:

Register the template with name “Event 1”.

18/19:

Registers the content type to LFC’s model registration, which means in this case:

• We register the model Event under the name “Event”.
• An Event has two possible templates from which the user can choose: “Event 1” and “Event 2” (which has to be written yet).
• The default template is “Event 1”.

21:

Registers the portlet with name “Events”.

Unregistration¶

To be a good LFC citizen we provide also an uninstall method which removes all the stuff we have added.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10

def uninstall():
    # unregister content type
    unregister_content_type("Event")

    # unregister templates
    unregister_template("Event 1")
    unregister_template("Event 2")

    # unregister portlet
    unregister_portlet(EventsPortlet)

Preparations¶

First you have to create a new Django application. This is beyond the purpose of this tutorial and you should refer to Django’s excellent tutorial if you want to learn more.

Add a templates folder and within that add a lfc folder.

In short, your starting file structure should look like this:

mytheme
    __init__.py
    templates
        lfc

Registration¶

Register mytheme to Django’s template engine.

1. Move the mytheme folder to the PYTHONPATH.

   The easiest way to do that is to put it into the lfc_project folder of the buildout.

2. Register the theme

   Add mytheme to INSTALLED_APPS before lfc_theme:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
       ...
       "mytheme",
       "lfc_theme",
       "django.contrib.admin",
       ...
   

Copy templates¶

Now copy the templates you want to change into the lfc folder of mytheme and adapt them to your needs.

Important: you have to keep the original path, e.g: base.html must be within the root of the lfc folder whereas navigation_portlet.html must be within the portlets folder:

mytheme
    __init__.py
    templates
        lfc
            base.html
            portlets
                navigation_portlet.html

Use own CSS¶

To use own CSS several steps are neccessary (this is going to be improved a lot for future versions).

1. Create a “static” folder within mytheme:

   mytheme
       static
       ...
   

2. Within that create a new CSS-file, e.g. mytheme.css and add your CSS rules, e.g.:

   h1.logo a {
       color: #E5AB52 !important;
   }
   

   Alternatively you might copy lfc.css from lfc_theme and adapt it to your needs.

3. Go to the lfc_project/media folder and create a symbolic link to the static folder:

   $ ln -s <path/to/buildout>/lfc_project/mytheme/static mytheme
   

4. Copy base.html to mytheme/templates/lfc (if you haven’t done it so far)

5. Include your CSS file to the header:

   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{{ MEDIA_URL }}mytheme/mytheme.css">
   

6. Optionally delete the link to lfc.css (if you just want to use your own CSS).

Situation¶

All content types of LFC inherit from LFC’s BaseContent type. In order to get a list of all content types one could try to do:

BaseContent.objects.all()

The problem with this is, that Django will deliver instances of BaseContent (via a query set) and not, as you might expect, the specific content objects.

Approaches¶

There are several ways to get around that:

1. Use the instance of a BaseContent to get the specific content type:

   from lfc.models import BaseContent
   
   obj = BaseContent.objects.get(pk=1)
   ct = obj.get_content_object()
   

   which is of course the same as:

   obj = BaseContent.objects.get(pk=1).get_content_object()
   

2. Use the get_content_objects method of the LFC specific query set:

   qs = BaseContent.objects.filter(pk=1)
   objs = qs.get_content_objects()
   

As get_content_objects is a method of the query set you can use it at the end of the Django’s common query set chains, e.g.:

objs = BaseContent.objects.filter(pk=1).get_content_objects()
objs = BaseContent.objects.restricted(request).filter(pk=1).get_content_objects()
objs = BaseContent.objects.filter(langugae="en").exclude(pk=1).get_content_objects()

Please note: get_content_objects itselfs returns a list of objects so you can’t call query set methods on it.

3. Use the provided utility methods:

   import lfc.utils
   
   obj = lfc.utils.get_content_object(pk=1)
   objs = lfc.utils.get_content_objects(pk=1)
   

You can also pass the request in order to take care of the current users’ permissions:

obj = lfc.utils.get_content_object(request, pk=1)
objs = lfc.utils.get_content_objects(request, pk=1)

Utilities¶

Classes¶

Classes¶

Functions¶

Utils¶

Template tags¶

ifhasperm

Checks whether the current user has passed permission:

{% ifhasperm view %}
    <span>Has permission</span>
{% else %}
    <span>Doesn't have permission</span>
{% endifhasperm %}

Models¶

Utils¶

Classes¶