Apostrophe Blog

Add blog functionality to ApostropheCMS sites with article management, date-based filtering, and multiple blog support. Provides both the blog piece type and page templates to get started quickly.

Features

• 📝 Blog Article Management - Complete CRUD interface for blog posts with publication dates
• 🗓️ Date-based Filtering - Built-in year/month/day query filters for archives and navigation
• 🎨 Fully Customizable — Override templates, add fields, and style it to match your brand
• 🔗 Multiple Blog Types - Extend to create different blog categories (news, updates, etc.)
• ⏰ Publication Control - Articles only appear when published date is in the past

Installation

To install the module, use the command line to run this command in an Apostrophe project's root directory:

npm install @apostrophecms/blog

Usage

Configure the blog modules in your app.js file:

import apostrophe from 'apostrophe';

export default apostrophe({
  root: import.meta,
  shortName: 'my-project',
  bundles: [ '@apostrophecms/blog' ],
  modules: {
    '@apostrophecms/blog': {},
    '@apostrophecms/blog-page': {}
  }
});

Enable the page type

Add the blog page type to your page configuration:

// modules/@apostrophecms/page/index.js
export default {
  options: {
    types: [
      {
        name: '@apostrophecms/home-page',
        label: 'Home'
      },
      {
        name: '@apostrophecms/blog-page',
        label: 'Blog'
      }
    ]
  }
};

Customizing Templates

The included templates (index.html, show.html, filters.html) are starting points that demonstrate the available data. Override them in your project to implement your own styling and layout:

modules/
├── @apostrophecms/
│   └── blog-page/
│       └── views/
│           ├── index.html      # Blog listing page
│           ├── show.html       # Individual blog post
│           └── filters.html    # Date filtering controls

Date-based Filtering

The blog includes built-in query filters for creating archive navigation and date-based URLs:

Filter	Format	Example URL
year	YYYY	/blog?year=2024
month	YYYY-MM	/blog?month=2024-03
day	YYYY-MM-DD	/blog?day=2024-03-15

Publication Control

Blog posts use the publishedAt field to control visibility. Only articles with publication dates in the past appear on the public site. Editors see all articles in the admin interface.

Note: This doesn't automatically publish draft changes on the publication date. For scheduled publishing of draft content, consider the @apostrophecms/scheduled-publishing module.

Multiple Blog Types

Sometimes a website needs multiple, distinct types of blog posts. If the blog posts types can be managed together, it might be easiest to add a new field and query builder to customize blog views. But if the blog posts types should be managed completely separately, it may be better to create separate piece types for each.

Creating a Custom Blog Type

// modules/news-blog/index.js - for news articles
export default {
  extend: '@apostrophecms/blog',
  options: {
    label: 'News Article',
    pluralLabel: 'News Articles'
  },
  fields: {
    add: {
      priority: {
        type: 'select',
        choices: [
          { label: 'Standard', value: 'standard' },
          { label: 'Breaking', value: 'breaking' },
          { label: 'Featured', value: 'featured' }
        ]
      },
      source: {
        type: 'string',
        label: 'News Source',
        help: 'Original source of this news item'
      }
    },
    group: {
      basics: { fields: ['priority', 'source'] }
    }
  }
};

Every blog piece type needs a corresponding page type that extends @apostrophecms/blog-page:

// modules/news-blog-page/index.js - page type for news articles
export default {
  extend: '@apostrophecms/blog-page'
};

Custom Templates for Blog Types

Each blog type can have its own templates. Create them in the corresponding page module:

modules/
├── news-blog-page/
│   └── views/
│       ├── index.html      # News listing page
│       ├── show.html       # Individual news article
│       └── filters.html    # Custom filters for news
└── @apostrophecms/
    └── blog-page/
        └── views/
            ├── index.html  # Default blog listing
            └── show.html   # Default blog post

This allows you to:

• Style news articles differently from regular blog posts
• Add custom filtering options specific to news content
• Display different fields or layouts for each blog type
• Create distinct navigation and user experiences

This approach works well when blog types have different:

• Content structures - News articles vs. technical tutorials vs. company announcements
• Editorial workflows - Different teams managing different content types
• Display requirements - Unique styling, filtering, or organization needs
• URL patterns - /blog/, /news/, /updates/ with distinct navigation

Field Reference

The blog piece type includes these fields by default:

• Title (title) - Article headline
• Slug (slug) - URL-friendly identifier
• Publication Date (publishedAt) - Controls public visibility
• Content (body) - Rich text content area
• Meta Description (metaDescription) - SEO description
• Tags (tags) - Taxonomy for categorization

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