Cookbook

This section contains tutorial-style articles on various Zotonic subjects.

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Add Chat to Your Zotonic Site

Thanks to Michael Connor's zchat, it's easy to add chat system on your Zotonic…
Advanced Dispatch URL Matching

There is an almost-unknown-but-added-because-someone-needed-it feature of…
Backing up your site

A short guide to backing up your site content over SSH.
Calling Zotonic from Javascript

There are three main ways to call Zotonic from Javascript: wired events
Configuring and Securing SSH

How to configure SSH to communicate between your local computer and a remote…
Debugging db (query) issues

Techniques for finding root cause when queries are involved.
Displaying a Sitemap

For the benefit of search engines and fans of tables of contents you can easily…
Enabling Growl Notifications

Using growl outside admin requires some magic to make it work.
Enabling role-based access control (ACLs)

Locking down access to pages and admin features based on users and groups.
Filter and convert characters in Erlang

Applying Erlang Binary syntax to get fast character manipulation.
Get localized pages into search engines

Normally only the pages in the default language get indexed.
Implementing a simple contact form

This tutorial teaches you to create a form, validate it, submit it over Ajax…
Install on APT-based systems

[0.7+] Step by step guide to installing Zotonic on a Debian Squeeze or Ubuntu
Just enough Erlang shell

An indispensible tool for both learning and programming Erlang.
Just Enough Mercurial

Get started with one of the major distributed version control systems.
Just enough Postgres

Understand the primary data-store of Zotonic.

Just enough Webmachine

Getting a solid foundation for your Zotonic skillset.
Just enough Zotonic source

Zotonic source code have you scratching your head? Learn Rebar first.
Just enough Zotonic Source - Part 2

Building a gen_server to front the library and generating documentation.
Just Enough Zotonic Source Part 3 - Regular Expressions

Learn how to manipulate string data with the re module.
Managing redirection after login and signup

Configure mod_signup to redirect to something other than a member's home page.
Modifying an existing module

Safely overriding core modules to make them do what you need or want.
Multiple blogs in a site

Supporting multiple member blogs.
Page-specific dynamic backgrounds

Use page connections to associate backgrounds with pages.
Passing Select value to another template
Production Pre-Launch Checklist

Some steps that should be taken in configuring Zotonic prior to opening a…
Restore/upgrade content db from backup

[0.7+] How to protect your Zotonic content and bring it back in case of…
Retrieving the category of a page

Getting the category from a URL is somewhat involved, but not impossible. This…
Running on Port 80 and Port 443

[0.7+] Using standard ports helps visitors discover your page and removes the…
Searchable Keywords

Adding custom keywords to a page and customer the indexer.
Sending mail: the sender’s domain

Setting your e-mail bounce/sender domain and fixing domain errors when sending…
Share variable binding across blocks

How to avoid having to call the same query inside several blocks of the same…

Shell: Activate/deactivate modules

[0.7+] Rescuing a dysfunctional site from the Zotonic shell.
Shell: Erlang tab completion

Get quicker access to Zotonic code on the shell.
Shell: Reset user password

Emergency password reset when you can't get into the admin interface.
Showing Menu Trail only for submenu items

It is sometimes useful to suppress the menu trail on top level items. Here is…
Site-specific signup actions

Performing additional, project-specific actions when a user signs up
Storing date/time fields

Some interesting tidbits about saving/updating a date/time field of a rsc.
Supporting right-to-left languages: Arabic and Hebrew

To support right-to-left languages you need to make some changes to your…
Template Best Practices and Pitfalls

Preferred solutions to common tasks and pitfalls you may encounter.
Translations

Zotonic is completely multilingual out of the box.
Tweaking Zotonic Search

Workaround for pages not showing up in Zotonic's search.
Understanding resource dispatch rules

A walk through of the syntax and semantics of dispatch rules.
Updating form field from a dialog

Ever wanted to update a form field from a dialog, possibly giving the user some…
Using your registered domain

Before others can view your site you will need a domain name.
Writing consistent Cookbook items

How to write and submit a Zotonic Cookbook item (and why)
Writing readable templates

Some simple techniques for making templates shorter and easier to read.