Social Media¶

Django Cast automatically generates Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags for posts and episodes, enabling rich social previews when links are shared.

Open Graph and Twitter Card Meta Tags¶

Post templates emit meta tags inside a {% block social_meta %} block, which is nested inside {% block meta %}. Theme authors can override this block to customize social meta output. The default post metadata is rendered by cast/includes/post_social_meta.html so the built-in Bootstrap 4 and plain themes share the same fallbacks and structured-data contract. External themes must opt into that partial; cast-bootstrap5 0.0.77 does so, while other themes retain their own metadata behavior until updated.

Blog Posts¶

Posts use the summary_large_image Twitter card type when a social cover is available and the image-optional summary type otherwise. The following meta tags are generated:

Meta Tag	Source
`twitter:card`	`"summary_large_image"` with a cover, otherwise `"summary"`
`twitter:title`	`page.seo_title`, falling back to `page.title`
`twitter:description`	`page.search_description`, falling back to `page.title`
`twitter:image`	`social_cover_image_url` (1200x630 rendition)
`twitter:image:alt`	`cover_alt_text`
`og:url`	`absolute_page_url`
`og:title`	`page.seo_title`, falling back to `page.title`
`og:description`	`page.search_description`, falling back to `page.title`
`og:image`	`social_cover_image_url`
`og:image:alt`	`cover_alt_text`
`og:image:width`	`social_cover_image_width` (only if image exists)
`og:image:height`	`social_cover_image_height` (only if image exists)
`og:type`	`"article"`
`og:site_name`	Parent blog title
`article:published_time`	First publication time, falling back to the post’s visible date
`article:modified_time`	Last publication time, falling back to the post’s visible date

Post pages also emit a canonical link and BlogPosting JSON-LD containing the canonical URL, title, description, publication/modification dates, author, and social image when available. Image tags are omitted entirely when neither the post nor its parent blog has a cover; empty image URLs are not emitted.

The seo_title and search_description fields are standard Wagtail page fields. Set them in the Promote tab of the Wagtail editor or through the editor API. Empty fields fall back to page.title so older content never emits blank Open Graph or Twitter titles/descriptions, though a concise explicit description remains strongly recommended.

Podcast Episodes¶

Episodes with an attached podcast_audio file reuse the shared title, description, image, timestamp, and canonical metadata. When a social cover is also available they select the Twitter Player Card type, enabling inline audio playback directly in the Twitter/X timeline. A coverless audio episode falls back to an image-optional summary card because Player Cards require an image. Both paths emit PodcastEpisode rather than BlogPosting JSON-LD and use absolute player/audio URLs.

In addition to the shared tags above, episodes add:

Meta Tag	Source
`twitter:card`	`"player"` (overrides `summary_large_image`)
`twitter:player`	`player_url` (the Twitter Player view URL)
`twitter:player:stream`	`episode.podcast_audio.m4a.url`
`twitter:player:stream:content_type`	`"audio/mp4"`
`twitter:player:width`	`480`
`twitter:player:height`	`240`
`og:audio`	`episode.podcast_audio.m4a.url`

If the episode has no audio file, the template falls back to the standard post metadata, including the cover-dependent summary_large_image/summary choice. If it has audio but no cover, Open Graph still receives og:audio while Twitter receives the valid non-player summary card.

Twitter Player View¶

The Twitter Player Card requires a URL pointing to an embeddable player page. Django Cast provides this via the twitter_player view at:

/<blog_slug>/<episode_slug>/twitter-player/

URL name: cast:twitter-player

This view renders a minimal HTML page (cast/twitter/card_player.html) containing only a Podlove Web Player play button. The page is designed to be embedded in a 480x240 iframe by Twitter/X.

The player is initialized with:

The episode’s M4A audio file URL
The episode’s duration
The show title and URL from the parent blog

The player_url context variable is automatically set on episode detail pages and passed to the episode.html template as an absolute URL.

Template Customization¶

To customize the social meta tags in your theme, override the social_meta block in your post.html template:

{% block social_meta %}
  <!-- your custom meta tags -->
  <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
  <meta name="twitter:title" content="{{ page.seo_title|default:page.title }}">
  <!-- ... -->
{% endblock social_meta %}

For episodes, override the same block in episode.html. Use {{ block.super }} to fall back to the post-level tags when the episode has no audio:

{% block social_meta %}
  {% if episode.podcast_audio %}
    <!-- player card tags -->
  {% else %}
    {{ block.super }}
  {% endif %}
{% endblock social_meta %}