Stripped Down Jekyll Starter Project

Oh no, not another theme… 🙄

Nope this isn't a theme! I've been exploring jekyll lately and a few things annoy me:

1. Starting a new project via jekyll new [my-project-name] gives me a starter theme that's way too bloated.
2. On the flip side, using jekyll new [my-project-name] --blank doesn't even give me a config.yml file.
3. In both cases, no livereload or autoprefixing out of the box.

You can think of this as the Goldilocks of starter projects and you can check it out here: https://luclemo.github.io/jekyll-starter/

You can also read more about why I made this.

OMG it's so ugly! 😱

Yup. that's the point. Now go make it gorgeous.

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Features 🍬

This is not a theme. It's just a directory with some good starter bits:

Super basic file structure 📂

I've included a few things common to many projects:

• 404 and about page
• Navigation logic
• Heavily commented config file and useful site data
• Blog structure and permalinks. Don't want/need a blog it? Just delete the _posts directory and blog.html file. Done.

Minimal styling 🎨

• A few SCSS variables (colors & fonts)
• A few handy mixins (like really, there are 3)
• A bunch of empty sass partials for organization. Use 'em or don't.

Do I need Gulp … Grunt … PostCSS … la-la-la ? 👯

Nope. If all you're after is livereload and autoprefixing, it just works out of the box. However, you can definitely add/replace with your tooling of choice.
This is just a starting point; go wild.

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Getting started 🚦

Assumptions before we get going:

You will need some very minimal command line abilities. You will also need to know what jekyll is and have it installed on your machine. A few good resources for each: Command Line Power User and Jekyll docs.

1. Let's get this project to your machine ⬇️

Move into directory of your choice:

cd path/to/directory-of-your-choice

Create the project inside that directory:

git clone https://github.com/luclemo/jekyll-starter.git

2. Working locally 👩‍💻

Fire up your project:

jekyll serve --config _config.yml,_config_dev.yml

Files are served at localhost:4000 from the _site directory.

Your browser will automatically reload to show you your changes on save.

Development environment

Add development-specific settings to _config_dev.yml (these override _config.yml)

I have included a handy development variable to use anywhere in your logic:

{% if environment == development %}
   
    Do things only locally!

{% endif %}

Note about autoreload:
All changes are compiled and auto-reloaded on save except edits to _config.yml and _config_dev.yml.
Restart the server when you change these files.

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Basic Hosting (FTP) 🚀

1. Configuration

You should only have to do this once...

Open _config.yml file and edit the url and baseurl values for your host:

The hostname & protocol for your site:

url: "https://yourdomain.com"

If your site will be served from a subdirectory, add it here:

baseurl: "/sub-directory"

Otherwise leave a set of empty quotes:

baseurl: ""

2. Build step for production

Rebuild your files with your new productions details:

jekyll build

3. Getting it on your server

Just upload the content of _site directory via FTP.

Visit your site at yourdomain.com 👏

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Hosting on Github 😺

1. Configuration

You should only have to do this once...

Open _config.yml file and edit the url and baseurl values for Github:

url: "http://username.github.io"

baseurl: "/repository-name"

2. Edit repo settings

In the settings tab for your repo, point Github pages source to your master branch.

Alternatively create/use another branch.

3. Push your changes

Commit and push recent changes.

4. See your site live

Give it a few minutes and your site should be live at

http://username.github.io/repository

5. Making Updates

• Fire up your local server
• Make your changes
• Push your changes

Github pages automatically runs the build process for you when you commit.

I have questions, complaints, high-fives…!

Ok. Shoot. Do it with an issue or a tweet ✌️