All Contents

• Installation and Setup
  • Installing OpenBlock on Amazon AWS
    • Get an Account
    • Launch an Instance ...
      • Don't forget to stop it!
    • Does It Work?
    • What You Have
    • Get ssh access
    • Once you're in...
      • Change Settings
      • Make an Admin User
      • What's Next
  • Preparing Your System
    • If you have problems...
    • System Requirements
      • Don't forget ldconfig!
    • Database Setup
      • PostGIS template setup
      • Database Access Settings
    • Next Steps
  • Installing the Openblock Software
    • Creating a virtualenv
    • Installing OpenBlock Packages
      • Installing Stable Packages
      • Installing Development Code
    • Next Steps: Install the Demo, or Create a Custom App
  • Common Installation Problems
    • Python Package Conflicts / Failures
    • Virtualenv: Global packages available or not?
    • Problems Installing lxml
      • Installing the easy way
      • The slightly harder way
    • Problems Installing GDAL
      • Installing the easy way
      • GDAL the hard way
      • Still no luck?
  • Installing and Setting Up the Demo Site
    • Step-By-Step Demo Installation
      • Basic Setup
      • Installing obdemo - stable release
      • Installing obdemo for development
      • Editing Settings
      • Database Initialization
      • Starting the Test Server
      • Loading Demo Data
    • Next Steps
  • Creating a Custom Site Based on OpenBlock
    • Setting up the app
      • Basic Setup
      • Create Custom App Package
      • What You Get
      • Adjust Django Settings
      • Create and Initialize the Database
      • Starting the Test Server
    • Loading Data: Things You Will Need
      • Additional Resources
    • Theming
  • Configuring OpenBlock
    • Sensitive Settings
    • Choosing Your Map Base Layer
      • Default: OpenStreetMap tiles hosted by OpenGeo
      • Other Publicly Available Layers
      • Custom or Other Base Layers
    • Multiple databases?
    • Configuring Cities / Towns: METRO_LIST
      • short_name
      • extent
      • multiple_cities
      • city_location_type
      • When would you put more than one dictionary in METRO_LIST?
    • Email
      • Don't have an SMTP Server?
    • User-Contributed Content
      • Enabling neighbornews
      • Disabling neighbornews
      • Configuration
      • Moderation
      • Restricting or disallowing edits
    • OpenBlock REST API
    • Django-Static
    • Django Background Tasks
    • Miscellaneous Settings
  • Loading Geographic Data
    • Overview
      • Background Tasks
    • US ZIP Codes
      • Load ZIP Codes via Admin UI
      • Load ZIP Codes via Command Line
      • Verifying ZIP Codes
    • Streets / Blocks
      • Finding Blocks Data
      • Loading Blocks using the Admin UI
      • Loading Blocks using the Command Line
      • Verifying Blocks
    • Other Locations: Neighborhoods, Etc.
      • What kinds of locations?
      • Drawing Locations by Hand
      • Finding Location Data
      • Loading Location Data
      • Can I load KML, GeoJSON, OpenStreetMap XML, or other kinds of files?
    • Places
      • Places in the OpenBlock UI
      • Searching and Geocoding Places
      • Places in the REST API
    • Alternate Names / Misspellings / Synonyms
  • Indices and tables
• Using OpenBlock
  • Creating a Custom NewsItem Schema
    • Experimenting with Existing Schemas
    • Make a Schema From Scratch
      • Creating the Schema
      • Making Maps Prettier
      • Adding Custom Fields
      • Creating a NewsItem with the Schema
    • Lookups: normalized enums
    • Other Fields
    • Further Reading
  • Data Scraper Tutorial
    • Setting up Schemas
    • Using the REST API
    • "Expedient Hack" scraping
    • Using NewsItemListDetailScraper for List/Detail pages
      • Saving Extra Data in Attributes
      • Summary
      • Advantages
      • Disadvantages
    • Blobs
    • Running Your Scrapers
  • Running Scrapers
    • Cron Configuration
    • Updaterdaemon Configuration
  • Sending Alerts
    • Disabling Alerts
  • Theming OpenBlock
    • Overriding Templates
      • Custom NewsItem lists
      • Custom NewsItem detail pages
      • Custom Map Popups
      • Custom Schema filter pages
      • Custom Schema detail pages
      • Custom Rich Map headlines
    • Overriding CSS and Images
    • Overriding Views
      • OpenBlock features available in views
  • OpenBlock REST API
    • Introduction
      • Purpose
      • Caveat
      • See Also
      • Examples / Quickstart
    • API Overview
      • URL prefix
      • Authentication and API Keys
      • Support for Cross Domain Access
      • Rate Limits, AKA Throttling
    • Read API Endpoints
      • GET [api prefix]
      • GET items.json
      • GET items.atom
      • GET items/<id>.json
      • GET geocode
      • GET items/types.json
      • GET locations.json
      • GET locations/<locationid>.json
      • GET locations/types.json
      • GET places/types.json
      • GET places/<placetype>.json
    • Item Search Parameters
      • Spatial Filtering
      • Other Filters
    • Write API Endpoints
      • POST items/
    • News Item Formats
      • NewsItem JSON Format
      • NewsItem Atom Format
  • Widgets
    • Introduction
    • Widgets
      • Adding a new Widget
      • Configuring a Widget
      • Embedding Content
    • Templates
      • Creating A Template
      • Item Info
      • Widget Info
    • Item Link Templates
    • Pinned Items, aka "Sticky Widgets"
    • Intersecting Locations
  • Deployment
    • Apache
    • Threading
    • Paths and Permissions
    • Example Apache Config
  • Maintaining an OpenBlock Site
    • Upgrades
      • Make Backups!
      • Check the Release Notes
      • Update the Code
      • Database Migrations
    • The OpenBlock Admin UI
      • Moderating User-Submitted Content
      • Upload NewsItems from Spreadsheets
  • Indices and tables
• Python API Documentation
  • Main Code Packages
    • obdemo
      • How The Demo Works
      • Deployment
      • obdemo Package
    • ebpub
      • ebpub Package
      • constants Module
      • geoadmin Module
      • monkeypatches Module
      • settings_default Module
      • Subpackages
    • ebdata
      • ebdata.nlp
      • ebdata.retrieval
      • ebdata.scrapers
      • ebdata Package
    • obadmin
      • The oblock command
      • obadmin Package
    • obdemo
    • ebpub
    • ebdata
    • obadmin
  • Other Packages
• Changes
  • OpenBlock 1.2 (Released 5/23/2012)
    • Upgrade Notes
    • Backward Incompatibilities
    • New Features in 1.2
    • Bugs fixed
    • Documentation
    • Other
    • Older Changes
  • OpenBlock change history
    • OpenBlock 1.1.0 (October 20, 2011)
      • Upgrade Notes
      • Backward Incompatibilities
      • New Features in 1.1
      • Bugs fixed
      • Documentation
      • Other
    • OpenBlock 1.0.1 (Sept 7 2011)
      • Documentation
    • OpenBlock 1.0.0 (August 30, 2011)
      • Upgrade Notes
      • New Features in 1.0
      • Bug fixes
      • Documentation
      • Other
    • OpenBlock 1.0 beta (August 18, 2011)
    • OpenBlock 1.0 alpha 1 (June 9, 2011)
      • Highlights