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Blogging

SkyCMS includes a dedicated blogging subsystem with support for multiple independent blog streams, post management, banner images, and public preview.

Audience: Editors, Authors, Administrators

Quick Start

  1. Navigate to Editor → Blogs from the sidebar.
  2. Click Create to set up a new blog stream.
  3. Give it a title, description, and optional banner image.
  4. Open the stream and click New Entry to write your first post.
  5. Edit the post in the standard page editor, then Publish when ready.

Blog Streams

A blog stream is a named collection of blog posts — similar to a blog category or publication channel. A single site can host multiple independent blog streams (e.g., "Company News", "Engineering Blog", "Product Updates").

Creating a Blog Stream

  1. Go to Editor → Blogs.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Fill in the fields:
Field Required Description
Title Yes Display name shown on the blog index (max 128 characters)
Blog Key Yes URL-safe identifier, auto-generated from the title. Only lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores are allowed (^[a-z0-9-_]+$). Must be unique. Max 64 characters.
Description Yes Summary text shown on the stream index page (max 512 characters)
Banner Image No Featured image for the stream. Click the image placeholder to upload or select from the File Manager.
Publish Date No Optional publication date/time. Leave blank to keep the stream in draft.
  1. Click Create to save.

Editing a Blog Stream

  1. From the blog list, click Edit on the stream row.
  2. Update any fields — title, description, banner image, or publish date.
  3. Click Save.

Note: Changing the title does not change the Blog Key. The key is permanent once created.

Deleting a Blog Stream

  1. Click Delete on the stream row.
  2. Review the confirmation page.
  3. Click Confirm Delete.

Warning: Deleting a blog stream also deletes all posts within it. This is a soft delete — the content is marked as deleted but may be recoverable by an administrator.

Default Blog Stream

One blog stream can be designated as the site default. Use the Make Default action in the blog list to promote a stream. The default stream is used as the reassignment target for orphaned posts.

Blog Posts

Blog posts are articles that belong to a blog stream. They use the same editing tools as standard pages (Page Editor, Code Editor, Page Builder) but are organized and rendered through the blog infrastructure.

Creating a Blog Post

  1. Open the blog stream from Editor → Blogs.
  2. Click New Entry.
  3. Enter a title in the modal dialog and click Create.
  4. You are redirected to the page editor with an empty post. Write your content.
  5. Optionally set a banner image, introduction text, and publish date.
  6. Click Publish to make the post live, or save as a draft.

Post Properties

Property Description
Title Post headline (max 254 characters). The URL slug is auto-generated from the title.
Content The post body, edited with any of the standard editors.
Introduction Short excerpt or summary (max 512 characters). Shown in blog stream listings.
Banner Image Featured image displayed at the top of the post and in listings.
Published Set a date/time to make the post live. Leave blank for draft.
Category Optional taxonomy label (max 64 characters).

Managing Posts

From the blog entries list, each post has these quick actions:

Action Description
Edit Open the post in the page editor
Delete Soft-delete the post (with confirmation)
Preview on Site View the post as visitors will see it

Post URLs

Blog post URLs follow this pattern:

/{blog-key}/{post-slug}

For example, a post titled "Getting Started with SkyCMS" in the "engineering" blog stream would have the URL:

/engineering/getting-started-with-skycms

Blog Templates

SkyCMS uses dedicated templates for blogs: the Blog Stream template and the Blog Post template. These templates use blog-specific CSS classes and editable regions.

Blog Stream Template

The stream template renders the blog index page with a list of posts. Key elements:

  • Stream title and introduction text
  • Banner image (optional)
  • Paginated post listing with title, excerpt, date, and thumbnail
  • Navigation controls (previous/next page)

Blog Post Template

The post template renders individual blog posts. Key elements:

  • Post title (h2)
  • Publication date and author info
  • Banner image
  • Post body content
  • Previous/Next post navigation links

Editable Regions

Blog templates define these editable regions using data-ccms-ceid attributes:

Region ID Purpose
skycms-blog-post-content Main post body content
skycms-blog-post-author Author information widget
skycms-blog-post-bi Banner image widget

CSS Classes

Blog templates use a consistent CSS class naming convention for styling:

Stream classes (prefix sky-blog-stream-): sky-blog-stream-section, sky-blog-stream-container, sky-blog-stream-header, sky-blog-stream-h1, sky-blog-stream-intro, sky-blog-stream-row, sky-blog-stream-nav-container, sky-blog-stream-nav-pagination, sky-blog-stream-figure, sky-blog-stream-card-image

Post classes (prefix sky-blog-post-): sky-blog-post-article, sky-blog-post-body, sky-blog-post-info, sky-blog-post-info-updated, sky-blog-post-title, sky-blog-post-content, sky-blog-post-image

You can customize blog appearance by overriding these classes in your layout's stylesheet.

Blog Preview

Each blog stream has an anonymous preview endpoint:

/editor/blogs/{blog-key}/preview

This renders a simplified view of the blog stream without requiring authentication. Use it to share a preview link with stakeholders who don't have editor accounts.

Blog Rendering

Client-Side Architecture

Blog streams use a client-side rendering pattern for performance:

  1. The server generates a wrapper HTML containing the stream header, an empty post container, and an embedded JSON array of post metadata.
  2. The browser loads /js/blog-stream-loader.js which reads the embedded JSON.
  3. Posts are inserted into the #post-list container dynamically.
  4. Pagination is handled client-side via the #pagination nav element.

Post Display

Each post in the stream listing shows:

  • Title (linked to the full post)
  • Publication or last-updated date
  • Introduction/excerpt text
  • Banner image thumbnail (if available)

Posts are sorted by publication date (newest first), then by title.

Post Navigation

When viewing an individual blog post, previous/next navigation links appear at the bottom of the page. Navigation order follows publication date.

See Also