PineBlog is a light-weight blogging engine written in ASP.NET Core MVC Razor Pages, using Entity Framework Core. It is highly extendable, customizable and easy to integrate in an existing web application.

• Markdown post editor
• File management
• Light-weight using Razor Pages
• SEO optimized
• Open Graph protocol
• Clean Architecture (youtube: Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core)
• Entity Framework Core, SQL database
• Azure Blob Storage, for file storage
• ..only a blogging engine, nothing else..

Because PineBlog is very light-weight it is not a complete web application, it needs to be integrated in an existing web application or you need to create a basic web application for it. There are a few things PineBlog depends on, but that it does not provide.

• Authentication and authorization

Note: The admin pages require that authentication/authorization has been setup in your website, the admin area has a AuthorizeFilter with the default policy set to all pages in that area folder.

You can install the Opw.PineBlog metapackage from the console.

> dotnet add package Opw.PineBlog

The Opw.PineBlog metapackage includes the following packages.

• Opw.PineBlog.EntityFrameworkCore package
  The PineBlog data provider that uses Entity Framework Core.
  

• Opw.PineBlog.RazorPages package
  The PineBlog UI using ASP.NET Core MVC Razor Pages.
  

• Opw.PineBlog.Core package
  The PineBlog core package. This package is a dependency for Opw.PineBlog.RazorPages and Opw.PineBlog.EntityFrameworkCore.
  

You add the PineBlog services and the Razor Pages UI in the Startup.cs of your application.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    ...
    services.AddPineBlog(Configuration);
    
    services.AddRazorPages().AddPineBlogRazorPages();
    // or services.AddMvcCore().AddPineBlogRazorPages();
    // or services.AddMvc().AddPineBlogRazorPages();
    ...
}

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
    ...
    app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
    {
        // make sure to add the endpoint mapping for both RazorPages and Controllers
        endpoints.MapRazorPages();
        endpoints.MapControllers();
    });
    ...
}

And a few properties need to be configured before you can run your web application with PineBlog.

{
    "ConnectionStrings": {
        "DefaultConnection": "Server=inMemory; Database=pineblog-db;"
    },
    "PineBlogOptions": {
        "Title": "PineBlog",
        "Description": "A blogging engine based on ASP.NET Core MVC Razor Pages and Entity Framework Core",
        "ItemsPerPage": 5,
        "CreateAndSeedDatabases": true,
        "ConnectionStringName": "DefaultConnection",
        "AzureStorageConnectionString": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true",
        "AzureStorageBlobContainerName": "pineblog",
        "FileBaseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1"
    }
}

To be able to update the blog settings from the admin pages, you need to add the PineBlog IConfigurationProviders to the IConfigurationBuilder in the Program.cs. Add config.AddPineBlogConfiguration(reloadOnChange: true); to ConfigureAppConfiguration(..) on the IWebHostBuilder.

WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
    .UseStartup<Startup>()
    .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) => {
        config.AddPineBlogConfiguration(reloadOnChange: true);
    });

For more information, please check the documentation.

• Getting started
• Customizing the layout
• Features

For technical background information, check the blog: ofpinewood.com.

The sample project contains an example web application with PineBlog.

Please see the code :nerd_face

The demo site is a playground to check out PineBlog. You can write and publish posts, upload files and test application before install. And no worries, it is just a sandbox and will clean itself.

Url: pineblog.azurewebsites.net
Username: pineblog@example.com
Password: demo

PineBlog is used on the following website:

• ofpinewood.com

We accept fixes and features! Here are some resources to help you get started on how to contribute code or new content.

• Contributing
• Code of conduct

Copyright © 2019, Of Pine Wood. Created by Peter van den Hout. Released under the terms of the MIT license.