Content

coltrane is designed around content. There are no URL routes to configure or views (if you are used to Django) or controllers (if you are used to other MVC frameworks) to create. coltrane automatically routes URLs to the correct content based on where the files exist on the filesystem. markdown files will get converted to HTML for rendering. HTML template files can also be served directly for more control.

Markdown

Add markdown files (or sub-directories with markdown files) to the content directory and rendered HTML will be accessible via auto-generated routes. index.md would be used similarly to index.html.

  • / would convert the markdown in content/index.md and render is as HTML

  • /about/ would convert the markdown in content/about.md and render it as HTML

  • /articles/ would convert the markdown in /content/articles/index.md and render it as HTML

  • /articles/this-is-the-first-article/ would convert the markdown in /content/articles/this-is-the-first-article.md and render it as HTML

  • /not-there/ would 404

Frontmatter

YAML before the actual markdown content is supported. Any keys and their values will be added to the context variable that is used when rendering the HTML. The default base.html template will use lang (to specify the HTML language; defaults to “en”), and title variables if they are specified in the frontmatter.

template

Used to specify a custom template that Django will use to render the markdown.

content/index.md

---
lang: en
title: This is a good title
template: another_app/new-template.html
adjective: perfect
---

This is sample text

another_app/new-template.html

<title>{{ title }}</title>

{{ content }} and it's {{ adjective }}

Generated HTML

<title>This is a good title</title>

<p>This is sample text and it's perfect</p>

HTML

If a markdown file can not be found for the based on the URL’s slug, but there is an HTML file with the same slug in the templates directory the HTML template will be rendered.

  • /app/ would render the HTML in /templates/app.html or /templates/app/index.html

Wildcards

A filename with an asterisk can be used as a “wildcard” and will be served for any slug that does not have a matching markdown or specific HTML template file.

  • /app/some-user would render the HTML from /templates/app/*.html

Directories can also be a wildcard to handle a specific part of a slug.

  • /app/some-user would render the HTML from (in priority order) /templates/app/some-user.html or /templates/app/*.html or /templates/*/some-user.html or /templates/*/*.html

  • /app/another-user would render the HTML from (in priority order) /templates/app/another-user.html or /templates/app/*.html or /templates/*/another-user.html or /templates/*/*.html