Bludit

Bludit is a web application to build your own website or blog in seconds, it’s completely free and open source. Bludit is a Flat-File CMS this means Bludit uses files in JSON format to store the content, you don’t need to install or configure a database. You only need a web server with PHP support.


Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

License

Bludit is released under the MIT License.

All relevant legal information can be found here

Prerequisites

We’re using PHP in the stable version 7.1:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace tools version show php
Using 'PHP' version: '7.1'
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Your blog domain needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

cd to your document root, then download and configure Bludit.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ wget https://github.com/bludit/bludit/archive/3.8.0.tar.gz
[…]
Saving to: ‘3.8.0.tar.gz’

   [    <=>                                ] 1,016,833   1.58MB/s   in 0.6s

2019-02-27 20:02:16 (1.58 MB/s) - ‘3.8.0.tar.gz’ saved [1016833]
[isabell@stardust html]$

Untar the archive and then delete it.

[isabell@stardust html]$ tar -xzvf 3.8.0.tar.gz --strip-components=1
bludit-3.8.0/.github/
[…]
bludit-3.8.0/install.php
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm 3.8.0.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust html]$

Finishing installation

Now point your Browser to your installation URL https://isabell.uber.space/install.php. Complete the form and follow the installation instructions.

You will need to enter the following information:

  • language: the language you prefer.

  • admin password: set up your admin password.

Tuning

For plugins, themes and other stuff go to Bludit.

Updates

Note

Check the update feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

Your first plugin you have to install, is the Version plugin. It will show you in the admin panel the current used version of bludit. When there will be a new version of bludit, the plugin show you an info and a link to the bludit site. To install log into admin panel and go to Plugins. The last plugin at the list is Version. Only click activate and wait a moment. There it is.

Update

  1. First make a full backup from all files and folders and move it to your home folder.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ tar cfvz 3.8.0_backup.tar.gz *
bl-content/
[…]
README.md
[isabell@stardust html]$ mv 3.8.0_backup.tar.gz $HOME
[isabell@stardust html]$
  1. Download the latest version from Bludit or Github. In this example we´re download it from Github.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ wget https://github.com/bludit/bludit/archive/3.8.1.tar.gz
[…]
Saving to: ‘3.8.1.tar.gz’

   [   <=>                                 ] 1,026,715   1.70MB/s   in 0.6s

2019-03-03 10:23:07 (1.70 MB/s) - ‘3.8.1.tar.gz’ saved [1026715]
[isabell@stardust html]$

4. Extract the tar file. Untar the archive and replace existing files. After this, delete the tar file.

Warning

The files in the directory /bl-content should not be deleted. There the user accounts and other important stuff are stored. For more information look at the next chapter.

[isabell@stardust html]$ tar -xzvf 3.8.1.tar.gz --strip-components=1
bludit-3.8.1/.github/
[…]
bludit-3.8.1/install.php
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm 3.8.1.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust html]$
  1. Log into the admin area and check your settings.

Important folders

Folder structure of Bludit.

/html

/bl-content/ « Databases and uploaded images

/bl-kernel/ « Core of Bludit

/bl-languages/ « Languages files

/bl-plugins/ « Plugins

/bl-themes/ « Themes

/bl-content/

Note

This folder is very important, it is where Bludit stores all files, as well as databases and images. Before making some update it’s highly recommended to make a backup of this folder.

Important

databases/
plugins/ (Database: plugins)
  • pages.php (Database: pages)

  • security.php (Database: black list, brute force protection, others)

  • site.php (Database: site variables, name, description, slogan, others)

  • tags.php (Database: tags)

  • users.php (Database: users)

pages/ (Content: pages)
  • about/index.txt

  • imprint/index.txt

tmp/ (Temp files)

uploads/ (Uploaded files)
  • profiles/ (Profiles images)

  • thumbnails/ (Thumbnails images)

  • example1.jpg

  • example2.png

workspaces/ (Workspaces for the plugins)

/bl-kernel/

This folder contains the core of Bludit.

/bl-languages/

This folder contains all language files, each file is a JSON document, encoded in UTF-8.

/bl-languages/
  • bg_BG.json

  • cs_CZ.json

  • de_CH.json

  • en.json

  • es.json

/bl-plugins/

This folder contains all plugins, you can download new plugins and upload here.

/bl-plugins/
  • about/

  • disqus/

  • rss/

  • sitemap/

  • tinymce/

/bl-themes/

This folder contains all themes, you can download new themes and upload here.

/bl-themes/
  • alternative/

  • blogx/

Security

Password recovery for user admin

When you forgot the admin password, you can reset it manually.

  1. Download the file recovery.php from Bludit in your document root.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bludit/password-recovery-tool/master/recovery.php
[…]
Saving to: ‘recovery.php’

100%[======================================>] 1,703       --.-K/s   in 0s

2019-03-03 10:35:32 (139 MB/s) - ‘recovery.php’ saved [1703/1703]
[isabell@stardust html]$
  1. Open the file with your browser, https://isabell.uber.space/recovery.php

  2. A new password for the admin user is generated and displayed on the browser.

  3. Log in to the admin panel with the user admin and the new password generated.

Note

The script recovery.php is going to try to delete himself but if this doesn’t happen we recommend delete the file recovery.php by hand.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm recovery.php
[isabell@stardust html]$

Tested with Bludit 3.8.0 “APA” (3.8.1 “APA” for update), Uberspace 7.2.2.2

Written by: Christian Kantelberg <uberlab@mailbox.org>