Blosxom Plugins README
======================

This is a collection of plugins for blosxom version 2.x. 

Installation
------------

The traditional install method is to unpack this collection 
somewhere temporary and then to copy the individual plugins you 
are interested in to your blosxom.cgi $plugin_dir directory (or
symlink on platforms that support it).

If you are using a blosxom newer than 2.0.2, you also have the
option of installing the entire collection in your $plugin_dir
directory (or another directory in your $plugin_path), and 
selecting the plugins to activate by using a blosxom.cgi 
$plugin_list file (a simple list of plugins, one per line).


Configuration
-------------

You should also check the top of the plugins you use for a 
configuration section, and configure to taste.

Configuration has traditionally involved updating any 
configuration variables within the plugin itself. In addition,
there are a couple of methods that allow you to configure 
plugins externally to the plugin itself, which simplifies
upgrades.

External configuration options:

1. If configuration variables are global/package variables, 
they can be configured outside of the plugin in 'blosxom.conf',
or in 'config' or 'prefs' files if using those plugins, using
fully-qualified variable names. For example, to configure the
'atomfeed' plugin, you might add the following variables to 
your blosxom.conf:

  $atomfeed::default_author = "author@example.com";
  $atomfeed::feed_yr = 2005;

If you want to use this configuration method you should run
the 'scripts/globalise-config-variables' script within your 
plugins directory, which will update all your plugins to be 
compatible with this method.


2. Alternatively, you can install the Blosxom::Include perl
module from CPAN, which does not require that configuration
variables are globals. It looks for per-plugin configuration 
files in your blosxom.conf directory, and includes those files
after the standard configuration section. So for example, to
configure the 'atomfeed' plugin you would create an 'atomfeed'
configuration file in your /etc/blosxom directory (or whatever)
containing your customised configuration entries from the 
plugin e.g.

  # In /etc/blosxom/atomfeed, for example
  $default_author = "author@example.com";
  $feed_yr = 2005;

If you want to use this configuration method you should run 
the 'scripts/activate-blosxom-include' script from your plugins 
directory, which will add the necessary 'use Blosxom::Include' 
instruction to the top of all your plugins.