Zerm Theme - No RSS Feed

Support
1

I’m unable to get an RSS feed of any type (either atom.xml or rss.xml) working with the Zola theme.

In config.toml, I set generate_feed = true and should get an atom.xml feed available at base_url/atom.xml.

I get nothing. I’m using the Zero theme, which does not seem to provide an atom.xml template, so I added the default on to my /templates folder as an override.

Nothing.

I’m at a bit of a loss and also a bit frustrated. The docs for Zola are very poor, they don’t really explain anything in a way that makes sense.

Are all themes not created equal, with equal ability to turn things on and off?

Tips on what I’m doing wrong would be appreciated.

2

There has been a breaking change in 0.19, it’s now generate_feeds since you can generate multiple. If the theme hasn’t been updated it could be an issue.

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3

Thanks.

I was setting that variable to true in my config.toml, and nothing was happening. If I understand correctly, the theme has to be updated accordingly?

Zerm still seems to assume generate_feed in it’s config.toml.

I’m going to take a look at another theme and see what’s going on there, maybe will switch.

4

Only if it has logic to display an icon based on this configuration setting, for example.

You should be able to find base_url/atom.xml or base_url/rss.xml if you generate_feeds is true, even if the theme wasn’t updated.

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5

Thanks. Having a pretty rough time, honestly. I forked the Zerm theme and am seeing if maybe I need to update it on my own, as the author hasn’t worked on it in years.

Having a lot of trouble, overall, with Zola. I wish the documentation was written in a fashion that didn’t gloss over key steps. I’m thinking of starting an “Idiot’s Guide to Zola”, or something like that, rather than just give up and move on.

6

What is it you like about the Zerm theme?

I’m no expert, but I’ve had a stroke and I got my blog together through just knowing enough html and css. I don’t use a theme.

If it’s the use of mathematical expressions in Zerm then, correct me if I’m wrong someone, you can opt-in on a per-page basis.

I did cheat a bit by carrying across the CSS I was using in Eleventy, because I liked the look of it. But I couldn’t handle all the languages, JS, JSON, etc. they were discussing in the Discord group – way over my head.

7

I like the general look of Zerm, and it allowed me to get off my feet fairly quickly. The issue I’m having now is, if I want to do anything else (like an RSS feed) I can’t because reality and the documentation aren’t matching up.

The documentation says atom.xml is default, and will be built automatically if the appropriate variable is set in config.toml…but in reality that doesn’t work because the theme author hasn’t kept up. They don’t include a template for RSS feeds and their code is out of date. I can’t see how I can update what they’ve done.

I think I’m going to just follow your example and abandon themes altogether. Doing that would probably help me understand better from the ground up.

8

Sounds a lot like how I went about it, learning things from the ground up. Once you get over that, there’s a lot more you can do with Zola.

9

I think it’s the only way.

I’ve actually made my own fork of Zola. I want to understand how it works. I actually want to try my hand at updating its guts to Hyper 1.0, as I see it’s on Hyper 0.14. Going forward I might just maintain my own fork and go my own way with it, mostly as. way to learn.

10

I can empathise with the struggle of learning Zola at first.

If your goal is to set up your website/blog quickly, I see two options:

  • Use Zola 0.18.x with the Zerm theme
  • If you want to use the latest Zola, find another, recently-updated theme

For an overview of themes, including their last commit date, you can check out Jieiku/zola-themes-benchmarks.

My first steps with Zola were trying to get my blog set up quickly. I started tweaking a theme and ended up with a completely new theme after a few weeks of work.

Hope your Zola journey is a wonderful one!

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11

Thanks for your guidance. I can see now that pre-made themes are not the way to go for me. I’m going to put the effort into doing my own thing, as you did.

I intend on writing about the experience as I go, in order to help others.

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