- Version:
- 8.3.0
Nikola is extensible. Almost all its functionality is based on plugins, and you can add your own or replace the provided ones.
Plugins consist of a metadata file (with .plugin
extension) and
a Python module (a .py
file) or package (a folder containing
a __init__.py
file.
To use a plugin in your site, you just have to put it in a plugins
folder in your site.
Plugins come in various flavours, aimed at extending different aspects of Nikola.
Available Plugin Categories
Command Plugins
When you run nikola --help
you will see something like this:
$ nikola help Nikola is a tool to create static websites and blogs. For full documentation and more information, please visit https://getnikola.com/ Available commands: nikola auto builds and serves a site; automatically detects site changes, rebuilds, and optionally refreshes a browser nikola build run tasks nikola check check links and files in the generated site nikola clean clean action / remove targets nikola console start an interactive Python console with access to your site nikola default_config Print the default Nikola configuration. nikola deploy deploy the site nikola dumpdb dump dependency DB nikola forget clear successful run status from internal DB nikola github_deploy deploy the site to GitHub Pages nikola help show help nikola ignore ignore task (skip) on subsequent runs nikola import_wordpress import a WordPress dump nikola info show info about a task nikola init create a Nikola site in the specified folder nikola list list tasks from dodo file nikola new_page create a new page in the site nikola new_post create a new blog post or site page nikola orphans list all orphans nikola plugin manage plugins nikola reset-dep recompute and save the state of file dependencies without executing actions nikola rst2html compile reStructuredText to HTML files nikola serve start the test webserver nikola status display site status nikola strace use strace to list file_deps and targets nikola subtheme given a swatch name from bootswatch.com or hackerthemes.com and a parent theme, creates a custom theme nikola tabcompletion generate script for tab-completion nikola theme manage themes nikola version print the Nikola version number nikola help show help / reference nikola help <command> show command usage nikola help <task-name> show task usage
That will give you a list of all available commands in your version of Nikola. Each and every one of those is a plugin. Let's look at a typical example:
First, the serve.plugin
file:
[Core] Name = serve Module = serve [Documentation] Author = Roberto Alsina Version = 0.1 Website = https://getnikola.com Description = Start test server.
For your own plugin, just change the values in a sensible way. The
Module
will be used to find the matching Python module, in this case
serve.py
, from which this is the interesting bit:
from nikola.plugin_categories import Command # You have to inherit Command for this to be a # command plugin: class CommandServe(Command): """Start test server.""" name = "serve" doc_usage = "[options]" doc_purpose = "start the test webserver" cmd_options = ( { 'name': 'port', 'short': 'p', 'long': 'port', 'default': 8000, 'type': int, 'help': 'Port number', }, { 'name': 'address', 'short': 'a', 'long': '--address', 'type': str, 'default': '127.0.0.1', 'help': 'Address to bind', }, ) def _execute(self, options, args): """Start test server.""" out_dir = self.site.config['OUTPUT_FOLDER'] if not os.path.isdir(out_dir): print("Error: Missing '{0}' folder?".format(out_dir)) return 1 # Exit code on failure. (return 0 not necessary) else: os.chdir(out_dir) httpd = HTTPServer((options['address'], options['port']), OurHTTPRequestHandler) sa = httpd.socket.getsockname() print("Serving HTTP on", sa[0], "port", sa[1], "...") httpd.serve_forever()
As mentioned above, a plugin can have options, which the user can see by doing
nikola help command
and can later use, for example:
$ nikola help serve nikola serve [options] start the test webserver Options: -p ARG, --port=ARG Port number [default: 8000] -a ARG, --address=ARG Address to bind [default: 127.0.0.1] $ nikola serve -p 9000 Serving HTTP on 127.0.0.1 port 9000 ...
So, what can you do with commands? Well, anything you want, really. I have implemented a sort of planet using it. So, be creative, and if you do something interesting, let me know ;-)
TemplateSystem Plugins
Nikola supports Mako and Jinja2. If you prefer some other templating
system, then you will have to write a TemplateSystem
plugin. Here's how they work.
First, you have to create a .plugin
file. Here's the one for the Mako plugin:
[Core] Name = mako Module = mako [Documentation] Author = Roberto Alsina Version = 0.1 Website = https://getnikola.com Description = Support for Mako templates.
You will have to replace "mako" with your template system's name, and other data in the obvious ways.
The "Module" option is the name of the module, which has to look something like this, a stub for a hypothetical system called "Templater":
from nikola.plugin_categories import TemplateSystem # You have to inherit TemplateSystem class TemplaterTemplates(TemplateSystem): """Wrapper for Templater templates.""" # name has to match Name in the .plugin file name = "templater" # A list of directories where the templates will be # located. Most template systems have some sort of # template loading tool that can use this. def set_directories(self, directories, cache_folder): """Sets the list of folders where templates are located and cache.""" pass # You *must* implement this, even if to return [] # It should return a list of all the files that, # when changed, may affect the template's output. # usually this involves template inheritance and # inclusion. def template_deps(self, template_name): """Returns filenames which are dependencies for a template.""" return [] def render_template(self, template_name, output_name, context): """Renders template to a file using context. This must save the data to output_name *and* return it so that the caller may do additional processing. """ pass # The method that does the actual rendering. # template_name is the name of the template file, # context is a dictionary containing the data the template # uses for rendering. def render_template_to_string(self, template, context): """Renders template to a string using context. """ pass def inject_directory(self, directory): """Injects the directory with the lowest priority in the template search mechanism.""" pass
You can see a real example in the Jinja plugin
Task Plugins
If you want to do something that depends on the data in your site, you
probably want to do a Task
plugin, which will make it be part of the
nikola build
command. These are the currently available tasks, all
provided by plugins:
$ nikola list Scanning posts....done! copy_assets copy_files create_bundles post_render redirect render_galleries render_listings render_pages render_posts render_site render_sources render_taxonomies robots_file scale_images sitemap
These have access to the site
object which contains your timeline and
your configuration.
The critical bit of Task plugins is their gen_tasks
method, which yields
doit tasks.
The details of how to handle dependencies, etc., are a bit too much for this
document, so I'll just leave you with an example, the copy_assets
task.
First the task_copy_assets.plugin
file, which you should copy and edit
in the logical ways:
[Core] Name = copy_assets Module = task_copy_assets [Documentation] Author = Roberto Alsina Version = 0.1 Website = https://getnikola.com Description = Copy theme assets into output.
And the task_copy_assets.py
file, in its entirety:
import os from nikola.plugin_categories import Task from nikola import utils # Have to inherit Task to be a task plugin class CopyAssets(Task): """Copy theme assets into output.""" name = "copy_assets" # This yields the tasks def gen_tasks(self): """Create tasks to copy the assets of the whole theme chain. If a file is present on two themes, use the version from the "youngest" theme. """ # I put all the configurations and data the plugin uses # in a dictionary because utils.config_changed will # make it so that if these change, this task will be # marked out of date, and run again. kw = { "themes": self.site.THEMES, "output_folder": self.site.config['OUTPUT_FOLDER'], "filters": self.site.config['FILTERS'], } tasks = {} for theme_name in kw['themes']: src = os.path.join(utils.get_theme_path(theme_name), 'assets') dst = os.path.join(kw['output_folder'], 'assets') for task in utils.copy_tree(src, dst): if task['name'] in tasks: continue tasks[task['name']] = task task['uptodate'] = task.get('uptodate', []) + \ [utils.config_changed(kw)] task['basename'] = self.name # If your task generates files, please do this. yield utils.apply_filters(task, kw['filters'])
PageCompiler Plugins
These plugins implement markup languages, they take sources for posts or pages and create HTML or other output files. A good example is the misaka plugin or the built-in compiler plugins.
They must provide:
compile
-
Function that builds a file.
create_post
-
Function that creates an empty file with some metadata in it.
If the compiler produces something other than HTML files, it should also implement extension
which
returns the preferred extension for the output file.
These plugins can also be used to extract metadata from a file. To do so, the
plugin must set supports_metadata
to True
and implement read_metadata
that will return a dict containing the
metadata contained in the file. Optionally, it may list metadata_conditions
(see MetadataExtractor Plugins below)
MetadataExtractor Plugins
Plugins that extract metadata from posts. If they are based on post content,
they must implement _extract_metadata_from_text
(takes source of a post
returns a dict of metadata). They may also implement
split_metadata_from_text
, extract_text
. If they are based on filenames,
they only need extract_filename
. If support_write
is set to True,
write_metadata
must be implemented.
Every extractor must be configured properly. The name
, source
(from the
MetaSource
enum in metadata_extractors
) and priority
(MetaPriority
) fields are mandatory. There might also be a list of
conditions
(tuples of MetaCondition, arg
), used to check if an
extractor can provide metadata, a compiled regular expression used to split
metadata (split_metadata_re
, may be None
, used by default
split_metadata_from_text
), a list of requirements
(3-tuples: import
name, pip name, friendly name), map_from
(name of METADATA_MAPPING
to
use, if any) and supports_write
(whether the extractor supports writing
metadata in the desired format).
For more details, see the definition in plugin_categories.py
and default extractors in metadata_extractors.py
.
RestExtension Plugins
Implement directives for reStructuredText, see media.py for a simple example.
If your output depends on a config value, you need to make your post record a dependency on a pseudo-path, like this:
Then, whenever the OPTIONNAME
option is changed in conf.py, the file will be rebuilt.
If your directive depends or may depend on the whole timeline (like the
post-list
directive, where adding new posts to the site could make it
stale), you should record a dependency on the pseudo-path
####MAGIC####TIMELINE
.
MarkdownExtension Plugins
Implement Markdown extensions, see mdx_nikola.py for a simple example.
Note that Python markdown extensions are often also available as separate packages. This is only meant to ship extensions along with Nikola.
SignalHandler Plugins
These plugins extend the SignalHandler
class and connect to one or more
signals via blinker.
The easiest way to do this is to reimplement set_site()
and just connect to
whatever signals you want there.
Currently Nikola emits the following signals:
sighandlers_loaded
-
Right after SignalHandler plugin activation.
initialized
-
When all tasks are loaded.
configured
-
When all the configuration file is processed. Note that plugins are activated before this is emitted.
scanned
-
After posts are scanned.
-
new_post
/new_page
-
When a new post is created, using the
nikola new_post
/nikola new_page
commands. The signal data contains the path of the file, and the metadata file (if there is one). -
existing_post
/existing_page
-
When a new post fails to be created due to a title conflict. Contains the same data as
new_post
. deployed
-
When the
nikola deploy
command is run, and there is at least one new entry/post sincelast_deploy
. The signal data is of the form:{ 'last_deploy: # datetime object for the last deployed time, 'new_deploy': # datetime object for the current deployed time, 'clean': # whether there was a record of a last deployment, 'deployed': # all files deployed after the last deploy, 'undeployed': # all files not deployed since they are either future posts/drafts }
compiled
-
When a post/page is compiled from its source to html, before anything else is done with it. The signal data is in the form:
{ 'source': # the path to the source file 'dest': # the path to the cache file for the post/page 'post': # the Post object for the post/page }
One example is the deploy_hooks plugin.
ConfigPlugin Plugins
Does nothing specific, can be used to modify the site object (and thus the config).
Put all the magic you want in set_site()
, and don’t forget to run the one
from super()
. Example plugin: navstories
Shortcode Plugins
Shortcode Plugins are a simple way to create a custom shortcode handler.
By default, the set_site
method will register the handler
method as a
shortcode with the plugin’s name
as the shortcode name.
See the Shortcodes section for more details on shortcodes.
PostScanner Plugins
Get posts and pages from "somewhere" to be added to the timeline.
There are currently two plugins for this: the built-in scan_posts
, and
pkgindex_scan
(in the Plugin Index), which is used to treat .plugin/.theme
+ README.md as posts to generate the Plugin and Theme Indexes.
Plugin Index
There is a plugin index, which stores all of the plugins for Nikola people wanted to share with the world.
You may want to read the README for the Index if you want to publish your package there.
Path/Link Resolution Mechanism
Any plugin can register a function using Nikola.register_path_handler
to
allow resolution of paths and links. These are useful for templates, which
can access them via _link
.
For example, you can always get a link to the path for the feed of the "foo" tag
by using _link('tag_rss', 'foo')
or the link://tag_rss/foo
URL.
Here's the relevant code from the tag plugin.
# In set_site site.register_path_handler('tag_rss', self.tag_rss_path) # And these always take name and lang as arguments and return a list of # path elements. def tag_rss_path(self, name, lang): return [_f for _f in [self.site.config['TRANSLATIONS'][lang], self.site.config['TAG_PATH'], self.slugify_name(name, lang) + ".xml"] if _f]
Template Hooks
Plugins can use a hook system for adding stuff into templates. In order to use it, a plugin must register itself. The following hooks currently exist:
extra_head
(not equal to the config option!)body_end
(not equal to the config option!)page_header
menu
menu_alt
(right-side menu in bootstrap, aftermenu
in base)page_footer
For example, in order to register a script into extra_head
:
There is also another API available. It allows use of dynamically generated HTML:
# In set_site def generate_html_bit(name, ftype='js'): """Generate HTML for an asset.""" return '<script src="/assets/{t}/{n}.{t}">'.format(n=name, t=ftype) site.template_hooks['extra_head'].append(generate_html_bit, False, 'fancyplugin', ftype='js')
The second argument to append()
is used to determine whether the function
needs access to the current template context and the site. If it is set to
True
, the function will also receive site
and context
keyword
arguments. Example use:
# In set_site def greeting(addr, endswith='', site=None, context=None): """Greet someone.""" if context['lang'] == 'en': greet = u'Hello' elif context['lang'] == 'es': greet = u'¡Hola' t = u' BLOG_TITLE = {0}'.format(site.config['BLOG_TITLE'](context['lang'])) return u'<h3>{greet} {addr}{endswith}</h3>'.format(greet=greet, addr=addr, endswith=endswith) + t site.template_hooks['page_header'].append(greeting, True, u'Nikola Tesla', endswith=u'!')
Dependencies for template hooks:
if the input is a string, the string value, alongside arguments to
append
, is used for calculating dependenciesif the input is a callable, it attempts
input.template_registry_identifier
, theninput.__doc__
, and if neither is available, it uses a static string.
Make sure to provide at least a docstring, or a identifier, to ensure rebuilds work properly.
Shortcodes
Some (hopefully all) markup compilers support shortcodes in these forms:
{{% foo %}} # No arguments {{% foo bar %}} # One argument, containing "bar" {{% foo bar baz=bat %}} # Two arguments, one containing "bar", one called "baz" containing "bat" {{% foo %}}Some text{{% /foo %}} # one argument called "data" containing "Some text"
So, if you are creating a plugin that generates markup, it may be a good idea to register it as a shortcode in addition of to restructured text directive or markdown extension, thus making it available to all markup formats.
To implement your own shortcodes from a plugin, you can create a plugin inheriting ShortcodePlugin
.
By default, the set_site
method will register the handler
method as a
shortcode with the plugin’s name
as the shortcode name. To have other
shortcode names, you can call
Nikola.register_shortcode(name, func)
with the following arguments:
-
name
: -
Name of the shortcode ("foo" in the examples above)
-
func
: -
A function that will handle the shortcode
The shortcode handler must return a two-element tuple, (output, dependencies)
-
output
: -
The text that will replace the shortcode in the document.
-
dependencies
: -
A list of all the files on disk which will make the output be considered out of date. For example, if the shortcode uses a template, it should be the path to the template file.
The shortcode handler must accept the following named arguments (or variable keyword arguments):
-
site
: -
An instance of the Nikola class, to access site state
-
data
: -
If the shortcut is used as opening/closing tags, it will be the text between them, otherwise
None
. -
lang
: -
The current language.
If the shortcode tag has arguments of the form foo=bar
they will be
passed as named arguments. Everything else will be passed as positional
arguments in the function call.
So, for example:
{{% foo bar baz=bat beep %}}Some text{{% /foo %}}
Assuming you registered foo_handler
as the handler function for the
shortcode named foo
, this will result in the following call when the above
shortcode is encountered:
foo_handler("bar", "beep", baz="bat", data="Some text", site=whatever)
Template-based Shortcodes
Another way to define a new shortcode is to add a template file to the
shortcodes
directory of your site. The template file must have the
shortcode name as the basename and the extension .tmpl
. For example, if you
want to add a new shortcode named foo
, create the template file as
shortcodes/foo.tmpl
.
When the shortcode is encountered, the matching template will be rendered with
its context provided by the arguments given in the shortcode. Keyword arguments
are passed directly, i.e. the key becomes the variable name in the template
namespace with a matching string value. Non-keyword arguments are passed as
string values in a tuple named _args
. As for normal shortcodes with a
handler function, site
and data
will be added to the keyword arguments.
Example:
The following shortcode:
With a template in shortcodes/foo.tmpl
with this content (using Jinja2
syntax in this example)
Will result in this output
State and Cache
Sometimes your plugins will need to cache things to speed up further actions. Here are the conventions for that:
If it's a file, put it somewhere in
self.site.config['CACHE_FOLDER']
(defaults tocache/
.If it's a value, use
self.site.cache.set(key, value)
to set it andself.site.cache.get(key)
to get it. The key should be a string, the value should be json-encodable (so, be careful with datetime objects)
The values and files you store there can and will be deleted sometimes by the user. They should always be things you can reconstruct without lossage. They are throwaways.
On the other hand, sometimes you want to save something that is not a throwaway. These are things that may change the output, so the user should not delete them. We call that state. To save state:
If it's a file, put it somewhere in the working directory. Try not to do that please.
If it's a value, use
self.site.state.set(key, value)
to set it andself.state.cache.get(key)
to get it. The key should be a string, the value should be json-encodable (so, be careful with datetime objects)
The cache
and state
objects are rather simplistic, and that's intentional. They have no default values: if
the key is not there, you will get None
and like it. They are meant to be both threadsafe, but hey, who can
guarantee that sort of thing?
There are no sections, and no access protection, so let's not use it to store passwords and such. Use responsibly.
Logging
Plugins often need to produce messages to the screen. All plugins get a logger object (self.logger
) by default,
configured to work with Nikola (logging level, colorful output, plugin name as the logger name). If you need, you can
also use the global (nikola.utils.LOGGER
) logger, or you can instantiate custom loggers with
nikola.utils.get_logger
or the nikola.log
module.
Template and Dependency Injection
Plugins have access to two injection facilities.
If your plugin needs custom templates for its features (adding pages, displaying stuff, etc.), you can put them in the
templates/mako
and templates/jinja
subfolders in your plugin’s folder. Note that those templates have a very low
priority, so that users can override your plugin’s templates with their own.
If your plugin needs to inject dependencies, the inject_dependency(target, dependency)
function can be used to add a
dependency
for tasks which basename == target
. This facility should be limited to cases which really need it,
consider other facilities first (eg. adding post dependencies).
CommentSystem Plugins
Can be used to add a new comment system. (It doesn’t do anything by itself.) It’s expected to provide templates named
comment_helper_foo.tmpl
.Example plugin: cactuscomments