Simple cellphone friendly blogging platform that runs on an ESP32. Currently designed for a Waveshare ESP32-S3-LCD-1.47, it could run on any ESP32 with a few changes, including the little XIAO SEEED ESP32 S3 Sense which is about the size of a postage stamp.
I was introduced to this Waveshare product via another project Im sorta contributing to (ESP32 powered offline media server). These boards are pretty feature packed and I definitely like the whole USB stick aspect to using and powering them.
If you're thinking that this is a lot like that Blog on a Wii project, you would be correct. I was definitely inspired by that project, but the final push was google's AI trying to convince me that an ESP32 could not host blogging software.
This project is live on the internet at https://blogonesp32.duckdns.org/
If you're a blogger and you're willing to cover costs (about $25 USD) and postage to you, write me and Ill cook one up and send it to you to try out.
In the esp32blog.ino file:
Please refer to the settings_preview.png file for how to configure the arduino IDE for deploying to a Waveshare ESP32-S3.
Set the SSID and password for the access point you are connecting to. No connecting to a network behind a captive portal at this time.
Decide if you want use internal storage (you will need at least 6mb of internal storage) or external SD card. There are only 6 small files needed for the server. A large SD card is not needed and if your chip has at least 16mb of flash, you can initially deploy without the SD card.
If using a SD card, set the SD pins for the device you want to use. Currently set for Waveshare ESP32-S3
Decide if you want to use duckdns.org to handle your domain. Going this route allows you to use a dynamic IP for your host. See below.
Set an admin account name and unique admin password.
Set the correct time parameters, or your posting dates/times will be wrong.
Currently index.html only shows five blog entries at a time. This can be changed by setting ENTRIES_PER_PAGE to a new value. Admin page is fixed at 5 entries per page.
Deployment:
Before you deploy, you will need to edit the index.html header to include your title, slogan, and other meta data, otherwise you're just advertising me. :)
If you are using a SD card, you will need to format it for FAT32, copy the files found in SD_CARD_LAYOUT to it and insert it into the device before powering it up.
On boot, watch the serial output, it will tell you what IP your server is connected as.
On first boot, an empty entries.json (your blog database) will be created. Its on you to fill it.
Now visit http://your.ip/admin, and after logging in, if you did not preload the SD card or you're using the internal storage, you will get a simple form to upload (in this order): index.html, aboutus.html, contactus.html, aboutus.png, preview.png, admin.html.
Visiting http://your.ip/ will bring up the public blog
visiting http://your.ip/admin will bring up the admin page.
When crafting a new post, you can use html markup to add links, pull pics in, etc. You just can't put quotes around any of it or the editing buttons get wierd.
I hugely recommend downloading your entries.json file after each new post. This way if you have problems due to json formating, you can hand edit the json file (as well as having a backup) and then reupload it using the import button.
If you need to power off the server, I recommend using the OFF button on the admin page. NOTE: It does not disable power to the device, but it puts the esp32 into deep sleep mode, which is as close as we can get to powering off via software. Although rare, I have incurred SD card corruption by just removing similar units from power.
Notes about SSL: While technically possible, deploying SSL on the ESP32 requires the use of special versions of the web serving packages. While there is nothing wrong with that, you still have to hunt them down, manually install them and then hope it works. Then there's cooking the certs and private keys to work with said packages. Its a lot of work and when it does work, your program is using more memeory to handle the SSL overhead.
What most people do (including me) is to leave the device working on http over port 80 and deploy a reverse proxy to handle the SSL traffic over port 443. I used Caddy, which took literally minutes to install and set up, took my new certs and keys (no cooking!) and I was up and running in no time.
The software now supports updating a domain with duckdns.org. Visit duckdns.org to create your own domain and get your token key. Drop those values into DOMAIN and DDNSTOKEN respectively and the blog will update duckdns.org with your ip.
I put the color led's to use: Green, we're up and running. Red, wifi failure. Yellow, SD card mount failure.
About us
This is a static html page that you will need to edit your own info into. No editor? Throw it at an ai and have it make the changes for you. Find a nice pic and save it as aboutus.png or have the ai make you one while it edits your aboutus.html page.