ElastiQuill is a modern blog engine built on top of Elasticsearch

Features:

• Fully featured blog engine - posts, comments and replies to comments
• Anti-spam with Akismet and Recaptcha
• Medium-like writing interface
• Blog analytics 100% powered by Elastic
• Fully customizable design and layout via handlebars templates
• Support for content pages and a contact form
• Password-less admin interface (social login / SSO)
• Cross-posting between other blogs and Medium
• Social posting integration (Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit)
• Built-in backup and full database dump
• Content caching
• Themes support

Demo: https://elastiquill.bigdataboutique.com

Deploying

The easiest way to deploy ElastiQuill is to use the official Docker image:

docker pull bigdataboutique/elastiquill

Instructions for running on Kubernetes are available under _k8s/.

Set up admin login

Google

First, you will need to have a Google project and to enable Google+ APIs for it. Go to https://console.developers.google.com/apis/dashboard, click Enable APIs and Services. Search for google plus and enable the Google+ API.

Once that is done, go to https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials, click Credentials -> OAuth Client ID -> Web Application. Set:

• Authorized JavaScript origins to hostname
• Authorized redirect URIs to https://{hostname}{prefix}{api-route}/auth/google/callback

Where hostname is your blog DNS, prefix is the value of the blog.blog-route-prefix configuration and api-route the blog.api-route configuration. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret and add them to your config.yml file.

Github

Go to https://github.com/settings/applications/new to create a new application.

Set:

• Homepage URL to hostname
• Authorization callback URL to hostname/api/auth/github/callback

Where hostname is your blog DNS. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret and add them to your config.yml file.

Themes

ElastiQuill supports loading custom themes to override the default provided theme or any part of it.

Themes are using the Handlebars syntax, and all view files are expected to have the .hbs extension.

Theme structure:

theme-root/
|- layouts/    # contains the layout files, default layout name is "main"
|- partials/   # partias for the layout and pages, you can override existing or create new
|- public/     # public assets to serve (CSS, JS, images, etc)
| contact.hbs  # Handlebars views you can override as needed

You can use the default view as a base (under backend/src/views/base) or create your own from scratch. ElastiQuill will expect your theme to be under the path configured as blog.theme-path in your config.yml file.

Examples for custom ElastiQuill themes:

• https://github.com/BigDataBoutique/elastiquill-demo-theme
• https://github.com/synhershko/elastiquill-code972-theme

Integration with social networks

You can connect your Linkedin, Twitter and Reddit accounts to Elastiquill to repost your blogposts from the admin panel.

Linkedin

• Go to https://www.linkedin.com/developers/apps/new and create an app with default settings
• Under OAuth 2.0 settings, add a redirect URL http://localhost:5000/api/connect/linkedin/callback. Change http://localhost:5000 to your blog.url configuration.
• In the app page, select the Auth tab. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret and add them to your config.yml file.

Twitter

• Go to https://developer.twitter.com/en/apps/create
• Set Callback URL to http://localhost:5000/api/social/twitter/callback. Change http://localhost:5000 to your blog.url configuration.
• Sign in with Twitter can be left disabled.
• In the app page, select the Keys and tokens tab. Generate both consumer API and access token keys and copy all four to your config.yml file (see configuration variables below).

Reddit

• Go to https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/ and create a web app.
• Set redirect uri to http://localhost:5000/api/connect/reddit/callback. Change http://localhost:5000 to your blog.url configuration.
• Copy Client ID (code under web app line) and Client Secret and add them to your config.yml file.

Medium

• Request access to API and create an app as described here.
• Set callback URL to http://localhost:5000/api/connect/medium/callback. Change http://localhost:5000 to your blog.url configuration.
• Copy Client ID and Client Secret and add them to your config.yml file.

Facebook

• Go to https://developers.facebook.com/apps and create a new app.
• Under basic settings, add your blog.url configuration to App Domains input.
• Copy App ID and add them to your config.yml file.

Configuration

All values in config.yml file can be overrided by ENV variables when they are set.
See config.yml for a sample configuration file.

Variable	Description	ENV variable	Default value
blog.admin-emails	Comma-separated list of admin emails, domains or _all_. Emails will be checked to match with Google/Github account email when using SSO on /admin	BLOG_ADMIN_EMAILS	None. Required.
blog.jwt-secret	A unique string used for encrypting authentication data.	BLOG_JWT_SECRET	None. Required.
blog.url	Blog URL including the prefix (if any). Should be equivalent to {blog.url.host}{blog-route-prefix}	BLOG_URL	http://localhost:5000
blog.url-format	Blog URL Format. Default is <blog.url>/year/month/post-slug , can be set to post-name to make it <blog.url>/post-slug	BLOG_URL_FORMAT	month-and-name
blog.title	Blog title. Used in /blog/rss xml	BLOG_TITLE	Sample blog
blog.description	Blog description. Used in /blog/rss xml	BLOG_DESCRIPTION	Sample description
blog.cache-ttl	Server-side page cache TTL in seconds. If 0 will disable caching (necessary for development).	BLOG_CACHE_TTL	60
blog.compression	Whether to compress HTTP responses	BLOG_COMPRESSION	false
blog.port	Port to run on	PORT	5000
blog.posts-page-size	Number of posts to be shown per page on pages with post listing (home, posts, tags, search, etc)..	BLOG_POSTS_PAGE_SIZE	10
blog.comments-noreply-email	When set, blogpost authors and commenters will receive email notifications about on new discussion from this email. Should be a single email string e.g. noreply@blog.com	BLOG_COMMENTS_NOREPLY_EMAIL
blog.comments-post-period	Number of days to keep commenting enabled after publishing the blogpost. Set -1 to never disable commenting	BLOG_COMMENTS_POST_PERIOD	60
blog.contact-email	Email to send contacts form submits to	CONTACT_FORM_SEND_TO
blog.contact-form-post-url	Url to be submitted on contacts form (can be cross-origin)	CONTACT_FORM_POST_URL	/contact
blog.theme-path	Path to a directory with custom handlebars views. Templates are first searched in this directory, and only then in views/base	BLOG_THEME_PATH
blog.theme-caching	View template compilation caching. Set this to false and blog.cache-ttl to 0 for hot-reloading.	BLOG_THEME_CACHING	true
blog.blog-route-prefix	Url prefix for all blog posts urls. Should be included in blog.url. Does not apply to content page urls.	BLOG_ROUTE_PREFIX
blog.admin-route	Url under which admin dashboard can be accessed. Should be a subpath of blog.url.	ADMIN_ROUTE	/admin
blog.api-route	Url under which the admin api can be accessed. Should be a subpath of blog.url.	API_ROUTE	/api
blog.uploads-bucket-prefix	Bucket prefix used for uploads	UPLOADS_BUCKET_PREFIX
elasticsearch.hosts	Comma-separated list of Elasticsearch hosts	ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS	http://localhost:9200
elasticsearch.blog-index-name	Elasticsearch index name to store blog posts	BLOG_POSTS_INDEX	blog-posts
elasticsearch.blog-comments-index-name	Elasticsearch index name to store blog comments	BLOG_COMMENTS_INDEX	blog-comments
elasticsearch.blog-logs-index-name	Elasticsearch index name to store error logs and metrics	BLOG_LOGS_INDEX	blog-logs
elasticsearch.blog-logs-period	Set to monthly to index logs in separate indices per month instead of per day	BLOG_LOGS_PERIOD	daily
credentials.sendgrid	Sendgrid API key	SENDGRID_API_KEY
credentials.google.analytics-code	GA tracking ID	GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_CODE
credentials.google.oauth-client-id	Google OAuth 2 client ID	GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID
credentials.google.oauth-client-secret	Google OAuth 2 client secret	GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET
credentials.github.oauth-client-id	Github OAuth client ID	GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
credentials.github.oauth-client-secret	Github OAuth client secret	GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
credentials.google.recaptcha-v2-key	Google Recaptcha v2 client key	GOOGLE_RECAPTCHA_V2_CLIENT_KEY
credentials.google.recaptcha-v2-secret	Google Recaptcha v2 client secret	GOOGLE_RECAPTCHA_V2_SECRET_KEY
credentials.akismet.api-key	Akismet API key	AKISMET_APIKEY
credentials.akismet.domain	Akismet domain	AKISMET_DOMAIN
credentials.google.gcs-bucket	GCS bucket	GOOGLE_GCS_BUCKET
credentials.google.gcs-keyfile	Path to the credentials file	GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS
credentials.aws.s3-bucket	S3 bucket	AWS_S3_BUCKET
credentials.aws.region	AWS region	AWS_REGION
credentials.aws.access-key-id	AWS access key ID	AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
credentials.aws.secret-access-key	AWS secret access key	AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
credentials.linkedin.client-id	Linkedin Client ID	LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID
credentials.linkedin.client-secret	Linkedin Client Secret	LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET
credentials.twitter.consumer-key	Twitter Consumer Key	TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY
credentials.twitter.consumer-secret	Twitter Consumer Secret	TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET
credentials.twitter.access-token-key	Twitter access token key	TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_KEY
credentials.twitter.access-token-secret	Twitter access token secret	TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET
credentials.reddit.client-id	Reddit Client ID	REDDIT_CLIENT_ID
credentials.reddit.client-secret	Reddit Client Secret	REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET
credentials.medium.client-id	Medium Client ID	MEDIUM_CLIENT_ID
credentials.medium.client-secret	Medium Client Secret	MEDIUM_CLIENT_SECRET
credentials.facebook.app-id	Facebook App ID. Used to enable sharing selected text and post to facebook.	FACEBOOK_APP_ID

Running locally

The easiest way is to run via docker-compose:

docker-compose up

• Please note that before you can create and start the containers for the first time, you might need to create a default docker network: docker network create blog

You might need to run the following on your machine if Elasticsearch refuses to run: sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144.

To build and run the blog engine in Docker:

docker build . -t elastiquill
docker run -p 5000:5000 -v /path/to/config.yml:/etc/elastiquill/config.yml elastiquill

Configuration file will be looked up at /etc/elastiquill/config.yml unless you set the CONFIG_PATH environment variable.

Alternatively, you can run the engine without Docker. Build the admin panel frontend

cd admin-frontend
npm install && npm run build

And run the backend

cd backend
npm install
npm run production