Extending Shinmun

Shinmun is designed for customization. Modify templates, add helpers, or define new routes.

Templates

ERB templates in templates/ control rendering. Key files:

• layout.rhtml - Main HTML wrapper
• post.rhtml - Single post view
• index.rhtml - Homepage listing
• category.rhtml - Category pages

Example post.rhtml:

<article>
  <h1><%= @post.title %></h1>
  <time><%= human_date(@post.date) %></time>
  <%= @post.body_html %>
</article>

Custom Helpers

Add helpers in lib/shinmun/helpers.rb:

module Shinmun::Helpers
  def reading_time(post)
    words = post.body.split.size
    "#{(words / 200.0).ceil} min read"
  end
end

Use in templates: <%= reading_time(@post) %>

Custom Routes

Routes are defined in lib/shinmun/routes.rb using regex patterns:

Shinmun::Blog.map do
  # Custom page route
  page '/projects' do
    render 'projects.rhtml'
  end

  # Route with parameter capture
  archive '/archive/(.*)' do |year|
    render 'archive.rhtml', :year => year.to_i
  end
end

Configuration

config.ru sets blog properties:

blog.config = {
  title: "My Blog",
  author: "Name",
  categories: ["Ruby", "Web"],
  base_path: "/blog"
}

Access in templates via @blog.title, @blog.author, etc.

Extending the Exporter

Create custom export behavior by modifying the Exporter class:

module Shinmun
  class Exporter
    alias_method :original_export, :export

    def export
      original_export
      generate_sitemap
    end

    def generate_sitemap
      # Add custom sitemap.xml generation
      sitemap = blog.posts.map { |p| post_url(p) }
      write_file('sitemap.xml', sitemap.join("\n"))
    end
  end
end

Posted in category Ruby. Tagged with ruby, customization, templates.