Ode is simple! (Simple means that you know how it works.)

Hi.

This is the project website for Ode (pronounced oh-dee), a personal publishing engine for the web. Ode is unique in that it is designed to be simple – not necessarily easy.

Simple means understandable (at least it does here).

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  • 2010

Getting to know Ode: Posts

Posts are plain text files. OK, but let's get to know posts a little better.

Posts

Posts are discrete text files that can be created in any plain text editor.

Post structure

A post consists of the following 3 elements:

  1. Title
  2. Tags
  3. Body
Title

The first line of the post (i.e. everything before the first line ending) is considered the title of the post.

Tip: Keep post titles plain. These are often used in page titles, and links to posts. They may be included in search results, or used to reference content on your site at some 3rd party web service. Keeping titles uncomplicated will avoid compatibility issues.

For example, you will probably want to avoid including links in page titles.

Tags (optional)

The title is followed by one or more tags.

Tags are bits of text inserted directly into post files either by Ode itself or one or more installed addins. They can be used to store information and instructions relevant to the post.

Individual tags are a single line of text and have the following general form:

tag prefix literal : tag source/addin name : tag name  : tag value

!--jump--!

tag prefix literal - All tags start with the string 'tag'.

tag source/addin name - All tags should include the name of the source addin so that it's easy to match each tag with the associated addin.

tag name - Addins may support more than one tag. The name identifies a specific tag. Though more than one addin may use the same tag name(s), the combination of addin name : tag name should be unique among all addins. This correctly implies that no two addins should have the same name. (For the time being we'll resolve naming conflicts on a case by case basis.)

tag value - the corresponding value of the named tag.

Example

The Markdown addin that ships with Ode supports a single tag.

> tag: markdown : on_off : on|off

Markdown's 'on_off' tag can be used to disable markdown conversion for an individual post.

There may be as few as zero (0) tags, in which case the title is immediately followed by the body of the post, and there is no limit on the number of tags that can be attached to any single post.

Body

Everything following the tag block is considered the body of the post.

The body of the post can include anything you like, including valid HTML, Markdown formatted text (assuming the markdown addin is installed and active), even javascript, flash objects, and anything else you might want to put in a post.

There are no inherent limitations. This is a big advantage of using something like Ode, as opposed to a hosted service, Facebook, or Twitter.

Just keep in mind that posts are always part of the larger page structure, which is provided by the theme. So, you never want to include structural elements in your posts that would conflict with the theme.

Next

Did you know that Ode let's you maintain a live history of your themes as you make changes and then revisit any prior version on a per request basis. (It's your own local Wayback Machine.) Let's learn a little more about themes.