opentwincities.github.com

Main website for the Open Twin Cities group

About

This site is designed to run on Github (through Github pages) with Jekyll.

Run Locally (Docker)

1. Install Docker.
2. Run docker compose up
3. Go to http://localhost:4000 in your web browser.

Run Locally (Host System)

1. Install Ruby and NodeJS
   • If you are using rbenv, do a rbenv version and rbenv install whatever rbenv version reports
2. Install OpenSSL dev files: sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
   • If using brew to install OpenSSL
     • brew install openssl
     • echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile or echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
     • export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib"
     • export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include"
3. gem install bundler
4. bundle install
5. bundle exec jekyll server --watch
6. Go to http://localhost:4000 in your web browser.

GitHub runs the close-to-newest release of Jekyll, so be sure to bundle install often.

This should watch for changes, so there is no need to restart server while working on this. Also, for reference see the Jekyll install instructions.

Editing content

The idea of Jekyll is that it compiles things into static HTML, so most of the content is handled with basic HTML or Markdown in flat files in the repository.

If you just want to update content, consider using prose.io, as it is a nice web based interface for editing text files on Github.

If you want to include some type of icon in content, consider using an icon from the Foundation Icon Fonts that are already made available to all pages on OpenTwinCities.org.

Content Types

There are three main types of content on Open Twin Cities.

Blog Posts

General articles. Updates, recaps, discussion pieices. Basically any general content.

Blog posts live in /_posts and use the blog layout. All published blog posts will appear in the post listing pages. The first paragraph of a blog post will be displayed on post listing pages as an excerpt.

Metadata Variables

• title - Name of the post
• published - If True, the post will be visable to site goers. Otherwise, the post is a draft.
• author (Optional) - If provided, a by-line will be added to the post's page and post's listing displaying this value. The author's name with a link to some profile is recommended.
• social_image (Optional) - Absolute URL to an image that social media platforms should display with this post. Image should be fairly large (at least 200px square). If not provided, the default image is the OTC logo.
• tags (Optional) - Similar to tags on any other blog. Used by other content types to list similar posts.

Events

A special type of Post for OTC associated events.

Event posts live in /events/_posts and use the event layout. All published events will appear in post listing pages (ordered by publication date) and event listing pages (ordered by date of the event). Again, the first paragraph of a blog post will be displayed on post listing pages as an excerpt.

Metadata Variables

• title - Name of the event
• published - If True, the event will be visable to site goers. Otherwise, the event is a draft.
• meetup_id - ID of an associated Meetup event. If this is provided, a Meetup RSVP button will appear on the event's page.
• source_meetup_content - If True, the event's description will be pulled by the browser from Meetup's API and inserted into the body of the event post.
• rsvp_url - Absolute URL to a webpage that allows the user to register for the event. If meetup_id isn't provided, this will appear on the event's page.
• venue_name - Name of the place that the event is being held at. This will appear on the event's page.
• venue_location - Address (ideally full physical address) that this event will take place at. this will appear on the event's page.
• social_image (Optional) - Absolute URL to an image that social media platforms should display with this event. Image should be fairly large (at least 500px square). If not provided, the default image is the OTC logo.
• related_tag (Optional) - If provided, the event's page will list any blog posts that have this tag. Useful for gathering all content about an event on one page.
• event_date - Date and time that the event will take place. Format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, and if set, event_date must be in this format or else the site will fail to build. If using Prose.io, this variable must currently be set via the Raw Metadata field in. If not set, event_date will default to the date of publication of the event post, and the event will always appear at the top of event lists. This will appear on the event's page and in post listings.

Everything Else

Most static content will be a Post or Event. Only special static pages should not be a Post or Event (such as the Sponsorship page). Dynamic content pages, such as post/event listing pages, also fall into this category.

All other content uses the default layout, except for the homepage, which uses the home layout.

RSS Feeds

Open Twin Cities provides a couple of RSS feeds:

• /feed.xml - RSS of the 10 most recent posts of any type on the site
• /events/feed.xml - RSS of the 10 events with the latest date on the site

Both of these RSS feeds are linked to in the Head of every page on the site.

Giants

• HTML5Boilerplate
• Modernizer
• jQuery
• Foundation
• Foundation Icon Fonts
• snaptortise's jekyll-rss-feeds
• Loading animation from Wikipedia Commons