Micropub Reader for Pelican

A pelican plugin for reading json-formatted micropub entries, like the ones produced from micropub-git-server.

The micropub-git-server will commit plain, minimally processed JSON files, representing micropub entries, into a configured location of your choice. If that configured location is part of a pelican content folder, then you can use this plugin to display those entries in a pelican blog.

Background

A micropub server allows users to post content on their own website by means of an associated micropub client, and forms one part of the IndieWeb ecosystem, a decentralized alternative to corporate social networks, based on open standards, where users post and control their own content.

Micropub is based heavily on the idea of microformats - little pieces of metadata sprinkled in an HTML document that give some clues as to what the content is supposed to represent. Examples of different types of content include:

• h-entry - an authored bit of online content, like a blog post, tweet, comment or reply.
• h-event - a calendar event
• h-card - contact information about a person

Please consult the wiki for information on the IndieWeb and how to join.

Article Types and Category

The h-entry type is by far the most common type of content, and the only one that pelican-micropub supports at this time. The IndieWeb community defines several different types of h-entry:

• articles (not to be confused with pelican articles), otherwise known as blog posts
• short, titleless notes, similar to tweets or status updates
• bookmarks
• replies
• likes

The pelican micropub plugin will identify the type of h-entry and assign the pelican article to a category based on the classification. This means that if you are using the concept of categories for some other form of classification, then this plugin will not work for you out of the box.

By way of advice, I have found that categories, as a general classification scheme, are really only useful when applied to blog entries, or what the IndieWeb community calls articles; the whole point of things like notes and likes is that they are meant to be quick, one off pieces of content, and categorizing them tends to get in the way of that.

For categorizing pelican articles within each category, I have found the subcategory plugin useful.