New upstream version 8.1.2.upstream/8.1.2

1 files changed, 142 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/internals.rst b/docs/internals.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12df2b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/internals.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+.. title: Nikola Internals
+.. slug: internals
+.. date: 2012-03-30 23:00:00 UTC-03:00
+.. tags:
+.. link:
+.. description:
+.. author: The Nikola Team
+
+.. class:: lead
+
+When trying to guide someone into adding a feature in Nikola, it hit me that
+while the way it's structured makes sense **to me** it is far from obvious.
+
+So, this is a short document explaining what each piece of Nikola does and
+how it all fits together.
+
+Nikola is a Pile of Plugins
+    Most of Nikola is implemented as plugins using `Yapsy <http://yapsy.sourceforge.net/>`_.
+    You can ignore that they are plugins and just think of them as regular python
+    modules and packages with a funny little ``.plugin`` file next to them.
+
+    So, 90% of the time, what you want to do is either write a new plugin or extend
+    an existing one.
+
+    There are several kinds of plugins, all implementing interfaces defined in
+    ``nikola/plugin_categories.py`` and documented in
+    `Extending Nikola <https://getnikola.com/extending.html>`_
+
+    If your plugin has a dependency, please make sure it doesn't make Nikola
+    throw an exception when the dependency is missing. Try to fail gracefully
+    with an informative message.
+
+Commands are plugins
+    When you use ``nikola foo`` you are using the plugin ``command/foo``. Those are
+    used to extend Nikola's command line. Their interface is defined in the ``Command``
+    class. They take options and arguments and do whatever you want, so go wild.
+
+The ``build`` command is special
+    The ``build`` command triggers a whole lot of things, and is the core of Nikola
+    because it's the one that you use to build sites. So it deserves its own section.
+
+The Build Command
+-----------------
+
+Nikola's goal is similar, deep at heart, to a Makefile. Take sources, compile them
+into something, in this case a website. Instead of a Makefile, Nikola uses
+`doit <http://pydoit.org>`_
+
+Doit has the concept of "tasks". The 1 minute summary of tasks is that they have:
+
+actions
+    What the task **does**. For example, convert a markdown document into HTML.
+
+dependencies
+    If this file changes, then we need to redo the actions. If this configuration
+    option changes, redo it, etc.
+
+targets
+    Files that the action generates. No two actions can have the same targets.
+
+basename:name
+    Each task is identified by either a name or a basename:name pair.
+
+.. sidebar:: More about tasks
+
+   If you ever want to do your own tasks, you really should read the doit
+   `documentation on tasks <http://pydoit.org/tasks.html>`_
+
+So, what Nikola does, when you use the build command, is to read the
+configuration ``conf.py`` from the current folder, instantiate
+the ``Nikola`` class, and have it generate a whole list of tasks for doit
+to process. Then doit will decide which tasks need doing, and do them, in
+the right order.
+
+The place where the tasks are generated is in ``Nikola.gen_tasks``, which collects tasks
+from all the plugins inheriting ``BaseTask``, massages them a bit, then passes them
+to doit.
+
+So, if you want things to happen on ``build`` you want to create a Task plugin, or extend
+one of the existing ones.
+
+.. sidebar:: Tests
+
+    While Nikola is not a hardcore TDD project, we like tests. So, please add them if you can.
+    You can write unit tests or integration tests. (Doctests are not supported
+    anymore due to fragility.)
+
+Posts and Pages
+---------------
+
+Nikola has a concept of posts and pages. Both are more or less the same thing, except
+posts are added into RSS feeds and pages are not. All of them are in a list called
+"the timeline" formed by objects of class ``Post``.
+
+When you are creating a task that needs the list of posts and/or pages (for example,
+the RSS creation plugin) on task execution time, your plugin should call ``self.site.scan_posts()``
+in ``gen_tasks`` to ensure the timeline is created and available in
+``self.site.timeline``. You should not modify the timeline, because it will cause consistency issues.
+
+.. sidebar:: scan_posts
+
+   The ``Nikola.scan_posts`` function can be used in plugins to force the
+   timeline creation, for example, while creating the tasks.
+
+Your plugin can use the timeline to generate "stuff" (technical term). For example,
+Nikola comes with plugins that use the timeline to create a website (surprised?).
+
+The workflow included with nikola is as follows (incomplete!):
+
+#. The post is assigned a compiler based on its extension and the ``COMPILERS`` option.
+#. The compiler is applied to the post data and a "HTML fragment" is produced. That
+   fragment is stored in a cache (the ``posts`` plugin).
+#. The configured theme has templates (and a template engine), which are applied to the post's
+   HTML fragment and metadata (the ``pages`` plugin).
+#. The original sources for the post are copied to some accessible place (the ``sources`` plugin).
+#. If the post is tagged, some pages and RSS feeds for each tag are updated (the ``tags`` plugin).
+#. If the post is new, it's included in the blog's RSS feed (the ``rss`` plugin).
+#. The post is added in the right place in the index pages for the blog (the ``indexes`` plugin).
+#. CSS/JS/Images for the theme are put in the right places (the ``copy_assets`` and ``bundles`` plugins).
+#. A File describing the whole site is created (the ``sitemap`` plugin).
+
+You can add whatever you want to that list: just create a plugin for it.
+
+You can also expand Nikola's capabilities at several points:
+
+compilers
+    Nikola supports a variety of markups. If you want to add another one, you need to create
+    a ``Compiler`` plugin.
+
+templates
+    Nikola's themes can use Jinja2 or Mako templates. If you prefer another template system,
+    you have to create a ``TemplateSystem`` plugin.
+
+themes
+    To change how the generated site looks, you can create custom themes.
+
+And of course, you can also replace or extend each of the existing plugins.
+
+Nikola Architecture
+===================
+
+.. thumbnail:: https://getnikola.com/images/architecture.png