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DS4PS / cpp-528-spr-2020

Course shell for CPP 528 Foundations of Data Science III for Spring 2020.
http://ds4ps.org/cpp-528-spr-2020/
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Creating a GitHub Website #23

Open JaesaR opened 4 years ago

JaesaR commented 4 years ago

I am having trouble getting started on creating the website. I cannot fork the beautiful-jekyll repository, since we already used that to create our own personal websites in CPP 527. How do I go about creating a jekyll site for our project?

castower commented 4 years ago

@JaesaR I used the instructions here: https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/setting-up-a-github-pages-site-with-jekyll for my group's site

castower commented 4 years ago

@JaesaR actually, it's this direct link: https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/getting-started-with-github-pages I didn't have to install jekyll or anything because it's already compatible with the repository

JaesaR commented 4 years ago

@castower thank you so much, Courtney! This is super helpful!

castower commented 4 years ago

@JaesaR you're welcome!

lecy commented 4 years ago

Thank you @castower !

When you activate your GitHub site under settings you will see that they provide you with a few free themes. If you select a theme your repo will be populated with the pertinent CSS and layout files.

I have not been impressed with the default themes, but you can always fork any of the hundreds of free theme templates created by GitHub enthusiasts and website developers.

https://jekyllthemes.io/free

Similar to your assignment in 527, when you adapt an existing theme you clone the template then delete files you will not need (example pages or demo logos and images, for example). Activate GitHub pages in your project repository and make sure the site is operational. Then begin customizing elements as needed - change banner colors and navigation bars, change the site style by updating the CSS, maybe create a new page layout that helps present specific content like a gallery view for graphs from a report.

That level of customization is not necessary for this project, but it is good to know that you can roll out a professional-looking website in a few days when you need to.

My only advice is that less is more. Themes built primarily with CSS and HTML will be easiest to adapt and maintain.

You can always make a simple site more complex. It's comparatively harder to start with a complex template and try to simplify it without breaking it.