Developer Information

Notice

The following information is intended for programmers and advanced users only. If you just want to use LiveJournal to keep your journal, great! Normal users do not have to worry about this stuff.

That said, the content below is split up into two sections: information on how to customize the look of LiveJournal pages, and information on writing LiveJournal clients to the LiveJournal server.

LiveJournal Code Repository

To see the backend that makes LiveJournal tick, and to see the innards of a few of the available clients, go to the Code page.

Database Schema

Curious about the database schema? The SQL to create all the tables and populate them is included with the server code.

Customizing the look of a LiveJournal

Don't like the way your journal pages look? Never you fear... everything is flexible and if you read the documentation below you'll know all you need to make your pages look any which way you want.

Style System 1

Style System: General overview of how the first style system is setup.
View Types: A list of the different types of ways you can view your journal, and details on each.
Variable List: Straight alphabetical list of all variables that you can customize.

Style System 2

The S2 Manual: Comprehensive information about using S2 on LiveJournal.
S2 Layer Browser: A full list of public S2 layers that comprise the S2 system styles. Of importance here are the core layers, that define the base variables, functions, and classes that make S2 the powerful design language that it is.

Embedding LiveJournal

Want to embed your journal right into your homepage? There are several ways to do it, depending on what sort of control you have over your server. You only have to worry about this if you don't like having www.livejournal.com appear in your journal URL.

Writing LiveJournal Clients

So you want to create or improve a LiveJournal client on your platform? Wonderful! Below are some necessary resources to let you know how LiveJournal works.

LiveJournal Server<->Client Protocol: Learn how the LiveJournal client on your desktop talks to the LiveJournal server and vice versa. Understanding this is the primary thing you need to understand before developing or improving a client for your platform.
Complete Protocol Docs: All the different protocol modes & methods.
List of Clients: A list of most clients used to connect to LiveJournal. The majority of these clients are open source, and all of them are free to use. This is a great place to get examples for your client.

Exporting Comments

Exporting comments made on a journal or in a community can be accomplished with the comment exporting tool. Please see our comment exporting tutorial for more information.