Docsify Open Publishing Starter Kit

This is a starter kit to quickly create Markdown-based article, portfolio and documentation websites with the site generator Docsify. Global navigation elements can be hidden for seamlessly embedding pages into other platforms or shared as standalone pages. Includes an optional "Edit this Page" link.

📸 Docsify Open Publishing Screenshots

Figure 1. Docsify Open Publishing Starter Kit. Explore a demo at hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/

🚀 GitHub Pages Quickstart

Pre-flight Checklist

1. GitHub account

Installation and Deployment

1. Tap Use this template on the source repository (upper-right green button)

2. Choose the name for your new repository to contain the copied site files and then tap Create repository from template

3. Go to Settings of your newly created repository, tap the Pages tab (on the left-hand side), choose main branch, then docs folder and finally tap the Save button (see more details in the Docsify documentation)

4. And you're done! (view your new site using the provided URL on the Pages tab - it can take up to 10 minutes for your site to be initially available)

Do you use GitLab? You can also use Docsify with GitLab Pages!

✏️ Editing Your Docsify Site Pages on GitHub

1. Go to the Docsify Markdown (.md) page in the docs folder of your repository you want to edit

2. Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap the Commit changes button to save your changes

Learn more about creating pages in Docsify.

🔗 Activating the “Edit this Page” on Your Docsify Site

1. At the top-level of your GitHub Repository copy the URL

2. Tap on the docs folder

3. Tap on the index.html file

4. Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor

5. Find the line var gitLinkRepoURL = ''; and enter the URL of your own GitHub Repository in between the two quotes and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap the Commit changes button to save your changes

💻 Locally Editing Your Docsify Site Pages

Editing Your Docsify Site Pages on Your Desktop

1. Tap Code on your repository (upper-right green button)
2. Choose Open Desktop and follow the prompts, installing GitHub Desktop if not already present
3. You will now be able to edit your Docsify site (in the docs folder) using the desktop editor of your choice (e.g. Atom)
4. Use GitHub Desktop to push any changes to your repository.

Learn more about using GitHub Desktop.

You can also clone (i.e download) a copy of your repository to your computer and run Docsify locally to preview your site. See the below video for details.

🧩 Using your Docsify Page Content with Other Systems

Figure 2. Docsify Open Publishing page ready for embedding or linking as standalone content

The optional ‘standalone’ (all lowercase) URL parameter hides a site’s sidebar for seamlessly embedding Docsify page content within another platform such as Canvas LMS, Moodle, Microsoft Teams or being displayed in an existing or new Browser tab. The parameter 'embedded' is supported as an alias for standalone.

To only display Docsify page content, add the following to a Docsify page URL:

?‘standalone’=true

Example standard Docsify page:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/

Example Docsify page displaying only page content (i.e., no sidebar is shown):
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/?standalone=true

To optionally show a page Table of Contents (based on included Headers), use the following:

?‘standalone’=true&toc=true

Example Docsify page displaying only page content:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/introduction?standalone=true

Example Docsify page displaying only page content with a page Table of Contents included:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/introduction?standalone=true&toc=true

To optionally hide the 'Edit this Page' link, use the following:

?‘standalone’=true&hidegitlink=true

Example Docsify page displaying only page content:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/introduction?standalone=true

Example Docsify page displaying only page content with the 'Edit this Page' link hidden:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/#/introduction?standalone=true&hidegitlink=true.

🖼 Presenting your Docsify Page Content as Standalone Webpages

In addition to using URL parameters when embedding Docsify page content into other systems, it is possible to permanently display all pages as standalone, and to also always display a page Table of Contents.

To Display all Pages as Standalone

1. Open the index.html file for editing.
2. Locate the line var standalone = false; and change it to var standalone = true;.
3. Save the index.html file and reload site.

To Display Page Table of Contents

1. Open the index.html file for editing.
2. Locate the line var ToC = false; and change it to var showToC = true;.
3. Save the index.html file and reload site.

Please note a page must have a series of Headings (#, ##, ###) for the Table of Contents to be displayed correctly.

🛸 Docsify Remote Rendering

It is possible to render remote Markdown files (for example, a Markdown file in a GitHub repository) using Docsify by passing a URL parameter.

For example, to render a Markdown file named README.md (the expected default name) as a regular Docsify page the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-course-starter-kit/main/

To render a Markdown file named README.md (the expected default name) as a standalone page the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-course-starter-kit/main/&standalone=true

To render a Markdown file named README.md (the expected default name) as a standalone page with a table of contents the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-course-starter-kit/main/&standalone=true&toc=true

To render a Markdown file named introduction.md as a regular Docsify page, the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/main/docs&homepage=introduction.md

To render a Markdown file named introduction.md as a standalone page, the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/main/docs&homepage=introduction.md&standalone=true

To render a Markdown file named introduction.md as a standalone page with a table of contents, the URL would be:
https://hibbitts-design.github.io/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit-remote/?basePath=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hibbitts-design/docsify-open-publishing-starter-kit/main/docs&homepage=introduction.md&standalone=true&toc=true

TIP: To get the path of a file on GitHub for the basepath URL parameter, tap the Raw button when viewing the file and then remove the filename. If not a README file, the filename will need to be passed using the homepage URL parameter.

📚 Docsify and Markdown Resources

Docsify
Docsify Documentation
Docsify Basics by MichaelCurrin

Docsify Themable
Docsify Themeable Documentation
Docsify Themeable GitHub

Markdown
Markdown Here Cheatsheet
Markdown Guide

📼 Video Walkthrough of Local Docsify Install/Config

Video 1. Generating Documentation Sites with GitHub and Docsify - Alysson Alvaran

🙇‍Credits and Special Thanks

Docsify Themeable
Beau Shaw for his Remote Docsify example.