Custom Plugins are Ignored

[jamiefolson]

I am trying to create a custom plugin and cannot get anything to work. I've tried all of the examples, which did nothing and resorted to a simple test tag:

In _plugins/testplugin.rb

module Jekyll
  class TestPlugin < Liquid::Tag
    def render(context)
      "It's Working!"
    end
  end
end

Liquid::Template.register_tag('testplugin', Jekyll::TestPlugin)

I even added this to my config:

plugins_dir: ./_plugins

But I still get an error:

jfolson@Ubuntu-Workstation:~/repos/jamiefolson.github.io.jekyll$ bundle exec jekyll build 
Configuration file: /home/jfolson/repos/jamiefolson.github.io.jekyll/_config.yml
            Source: /home/jfolson/repos/jamiefolson.github.io.jekyll
       Destination: /home/jfolson/repos/jamiefolson.github.io.jekyll/_site
 Incremental build: disabled. Enable with --incremental
      Generating... 
  Liquid Exception: Liquid syntax error (line 3): Unknown tag 'testplugin' in plugin_test.md
jekyll 3.1.6 | Error:  Liquid syntax error (line 3): Unknown tag 'testplugin'

when processing this file:

---
layout: default
title: Plugin Test

---

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Testing plugin output of '_plugins/testplugin.rb': {% testplugin %}

• [x ] I believe this to be a bug, not a question about using Jekyll.
• [ x] I Updated to the latest Jekyll (or) if on Github Pages to the latest github-pages

---

• [x ] I am on (or have tested on) _Debian/Ubuntu_ GNU/Linux
• [x ] I was trying to build.

[Crunch09]

Hi @jamiefolson ,

you're using the github-pages gem and it is always started in safe mode and the plugin_dir is a random string. If you want to use custom tags you need to use the jekyll gem directly. Hope this helps!

[jamiefolson]

Thanks, I didn't realize I'd need to remove it locally, too.

[errordeveloper]

I've just tripped over this also! Thanks @Crunch09 👍

[maxfarrior]

I've been trying to solve this problem for 3 days now. I could not figure out why my plugin would not run. I made sure all the software was installed, my _config.yml was good, all the directories existed, and even looked over the ruby plugin itself... Everything looked fine.

Then I found this post and changed 'github-pages' to 'jekyll' in my Gemfile and it worked. Great thanks to @Crunch09.

I knew that I couldn't use the plugin with Github Pages (from trying to figure out the problem), but I wasn't using Github Pages, I was building locally. This was the only info that I found that said to check my Gemfile.

[pathawks]

@maxfarrior Why were you using github-pages in your Gemfile to begin with? Was there something in our documentation?

Unless a user has a specific reason, we should be instructing them to use jekyll directly rather than github-pages I think.

[maxfarrior]

@pathawks I was using github-pages because I was modifying (somebody else's) theme that was intended to be hosted at Github Pages. I have no idea if they should be using github-pages or jekyll. But I didn't understand the difference, which caused the problem.

I misled myself. It was not the documentation.

[benbalter]

It sounds like the best solution here would be to post warning level feedback to the build output when a plugin is requested but ignored?

[errordeveloper]

Ben, that sounds good to me :)

…

On Fri, 5 May 2017, 5:31 pm Ben Balter ***@***.***> wrote: It sounds like the best solution here would be to post warning level feedback to the build output when a plugin is requested but ignored? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5265 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAPWS80qrJyY7tIn2yr_kImdpWqwm-XCks5r207WgaJpZM4JpNJ2> .

[thatkookooguy]

I'm having problems with this. Can someone point me to what I need to change in my _config.yml? where do I change gh-pages to jekyll?

[paradite]

For anyone experiencing this issue with github-pages gem:

I was trying to update github-pages gem to address a security vulnerability with jekyll, and bumped into this issue, it was working fine on github-pages version 50.

After some digging, I found that somewhere between version 60-75, the plugins starts to get ignored. I am not able to dig into it because the build was failing until I reached version 75.

I am surprised that a external gem can influence how jekyll works. I would expect bundle exec jekyll serve to work as documented: https://jekyllrb.com/docs/plugins/installation/. However, it seems that having an extra dependency breaks the behaviour even on local. Not sure why that happens.

[paradite]

I'm having problems with this. Can someone point me to what I need to change in my _config.yml? where do I change gh-pages to jekyll?

Just replace
gem 'github-pages', group: :jekyll_plugins
with
gem 'jekyll', group: :jekyll_plugins
inside Gemfile and run bundle install should be enough.