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
- GitHub account
Installation and Deployment
-
Tap Use this template on the source repository (upper-right green button)
-
Choose the name for your new repository to contain the copied site files and then tap Create repository from template
-
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)
-
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
-
Go to the Docsify Markdown (.md) page in the
docs
folder of your repository you want to edit -
Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor
-
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
-
Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor
-
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
- Tap Code on your repository (upper-right green button)
- Choose Open Desktop and follow the prompts, installing GitHub Desktop if not already present
- You will now be able to edit your Docsify site (in the
docs
folder) using the desktop editor of your choice (e.g. Atom) - 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
- Open the
index.html
file for editing. - Locate the line
var standalone = false;
and change it tovar standalone = true;
. - Save the
index.html
file and reload site.
To Display Page Table of Contents
- Open the
index.html
file for editing. - Locate the line
var ToC = false;
and change it tovar showToC = true;
. - 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.