generates follow page mostly the way I want

microblog.py

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 
 import sys, os, traceback
 import dateutil.parser
+from time import strftime, localtime
 
 # returns html-formatted string
 def make_buttons(btn_dict, msg_id):
@@ -52,6 +53,8 @@ def make_gallery(indices, w, conf=None):
     tag.append("</div>")
     return tag
 
+# apply basic HTML formatting - only div class here is gallery
+from html import escape
 def markup(message, config):
     def is_image(s, image_formats):
         l = s.rsplit('.', maxsplit=1)
@@ -116,8 +119,6 @@ def markup(message, config):
             gallery = []
     return sep.join(output), tags
 
-# apply basic HTML formatting - only div class here is gallery
-from html import escape
 class Post:
     def __init__(self, ts, msg):
         self.timestamp = ts.strip() # string
@@ -321,6 +322,11 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                 demote_css(html, config["relative_css"], lvl), 
                 tcloud, timeline
             )
+        elif subdir == "placeholder":
+            lvl = 1
+            tcloud = make_tagcloud(tagcloud, "./tags/%s/latest.html")
+            with open ("follows.html", 'w') as f:
+                print(pagectrl.singlepage(html, tcloud, timeline),file=f)
         else: # if timelines per tag
             is_tagline = True
             lvl = 2
@@ -351,14 +357,15 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     def export_profile(post_count, last_update, config):
         if "profile" not in config:
             return
-        if "alias" not in config["profile"] \
+        if "username" not in config["profile"] \
         or "url" not in config["profile"]:
             print("Warning: no profile exported", file=sys.stderr)
             return
         profile = {
-            "username" : config["profile"]["alias"],
+            "username" : config["profile"]["username"],
             "url": config["profile"]["url"],
             "last-updated": last_update,
+            "short-bio" : config["profile"]["short_bio"],
             "post-count" : post_count
         }
         if "avatar" in config["profile"]: 
@@ -367,13 +374,49 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
             print(json.dumps(profile), file=f)
 
     import urllib.request as http
-    def fetch(follow_list):
+    def fn1(config):    # come up with better name later
-        objects = []
+        def fetch(follow_list):
-        for eceleb in follow_list:
+            oither_people = []
-            with http.urlopen(eceleb) as response:
+            for someone in follow_list:
-                data = response.read()
+                try:
-                objects.append(json.loads(data))
+                    with http.urlopen(someone) as response:
-        return objects
+                        data = response.read()
+                        objects.append(json.loads(data))
+                except urllib.error.HTTPError:
+                    print("http error - skipping", file=sys.stderr)
+                    pass
+            return other_people
+        list_of_json_objs = []
+        with open("meta.json",'r') as f:
+            list_of_json_objs.append(json.loads(f.read()))
+        # list_of_json_obj = fetch(config["profile"]["following"])
+        rendered = []
+        template = config["format"]
+        SHORT_BIO_LIMIT = 150
+        for profile in list_of_json_objs:
+            epoch_timestamp = profile["last-updated"]
+            if not isinstance(epoch_timestamp, int):
+                epoch_timestamp = 0
+
+            post_count = profile["post-count"]
+            if not isinstance(post_count, int):
+                post_count = 0
+
+            self_desc = profile["short-bio"]
+            if len(profile["short-bio"]) >= SHORT_BIO_LIMIT:
+                self_desc = profile["short-bio"][:SHORT_BIO_LIMIT] + "..."
+
+            rendered.append(template.format(
+                __avatar__=escape(profile["avatar"]),
+                __handle__=escape(profile["username"]),
+                __url__=escape(profile["url"]),
+                __post_count__ = post_count,
+                __shortbio__= escape(self_desc),
+                __lastupdated__= strftime(
+                    "%Y %b %d", localtime(epoch_timestamp))
+            ))
+        # print(html, file=sys.stderr)
+        return rendered
 
     def main():
         tpl, content = get_args()
@@ -388,11 +431,6 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
             print("exit: table 'page' absent in settings.toml", file=sys.stderr)
             return
         p = parse_txt(content)
-        if "syndication" in cfg:
-            if cfg["syndication"]["enabled"] == True:
-                export_profile(
-                    len(p), p[0].get_epoch_time(), cfg["syndication"]
-                )
         tl, tc, tg = get_posts(p, cfg["post"])
         if tl == []:
             return
@@ -412,6 +450,14 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                 tpl, tagline, tc, cfg["page"], \
                 subdir="tags/%s" % key[1:]     \
             ) 
+        if "syndication" in cfg:
+            if cfg["syndication"]["enabled"] == True:
+                export_profile(
+                    len(p), p[0].get_epoch_time(), cfg["syndication"] )
+            if "following" in cfg["syndication"]:
+                fellows = fn1(cfg["syndication"]["following"] )
+                updated += writepage(
+                    tpl, fellows, tc, cfg["page"], subdir="placeholder" )
         with open("updatedfiles.txt", 'w') as f:
             for filename in updated:
                 print(filename, file=f) # sys.stderr)
@@ -422,8 +468,11 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     except KeyError as e:
         traceback.print_exc()
         print("\n\tA key may be missing from your settings file.", file=sys.stderr)
-    except dateutil.parser._parser.ParserError as e:
+    except dateutil.parser._parser.ParserError:
         traceback.print_exc()
         print("\n\tFailed to interpret a date from string..",
               "\n\tYour file of posts may be malformed.",
               "\n\tCheck if your file starts with a line break.", file=sys.stderr)
+    except toml.decoder.TomlDecodeError:
+        traceback.print_exc()
+        print("\n\tYour configuration file is malformed.")