Basically Basic Jekyll Theme
Basically Basic is a Jekyll theme meant as a substitute for the default --- Minima. Conventions and features found there are fully supported by Basically Basic, with a few enhancements thrown in for good measure:
- Clean responsive design with six customizable skins
- Curriculum Vitæ/Resume layout powered by JSON data
- About page layout
- Disqus Comments and Google Analytics support
- SEO best practices via Jekyll SEO Tag
Table of Contents
Installation
If you're running Jekyll v3.3+ and self-hosting you can quickly install the theme as Ruby gem. If you're hosting with GitHub Pages you'll have to use the "repo fork" method or directly copy all of the theme files (see structure below) into your project.
Ruby Gem Method
- Install the theme as a Ruby Gem by adding it to your
Gemfilelike so:
gem "jekyll-theme-basically-basic"
- Fetch and update your bundled gems by running the following Bundler command:
bundle
- Set the
themein your project's Jekyll configuration,_config.yml:
theme: jekyll-theme-basically-basic
GitHub Pages Compatible Method
Fork the Basically Basic repo, then rename it to USERNAME.github.io --- replacing USERNAME with your GitHub username.
Note: Your Jekyll site should be viewable immediately at http://USERNAME.github.io. If it's not, you can force a rebuild by configuring your site (see below for more details).
Replace the contents of Gemfile found in the root of your Jekyll site with
the following:
source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "github-pages", group: :jekyll_plugins
Then run bundle update and verify that the GitHub Pages gem
and its dependencies install properly.
Remove the Unnecessary
If you forked or downloaded the jekyll-theme-basically-basic repo you can
safely remove the following files and folders:
.codeclimate.yml.editorconfig.gitattributes.github.scss-lint.ymlCHANGELOG.mdjekyll-theme-basically-basic.gemspecLICENSE.mdRakefileREADME.mdscreenshot.png/docs/example
Structure
Layouts, includes, Sass partials, and data files are all placed in their default
locations. Stylesheets and scripts in assets, and a few development related
files in the project's root directory.
Please note: If you installed Basically Basic via the Ruby Gem method, theme
files found in /_layouts, /_includes, /_sass, and /assets will be
missing. This is normal as they are bundled with the jekyll-theme-basically-basic gem.
jekyll-theme-basically-basic
├── _data # data files
| └── theme.yml # theme settings and custom text
├── _includes # theme includes and SVG icons
├── _layouts # theme layouts (see below for details)
├── _sass # Sass partials
├── assets
| ├── javascripts
| | └── main.js
| └── stylesheets
| └── main.scss
├── _config.yml # sample configuration
└── index.md # sample home page (all posts/not paginated)
Starting Fresh
After creating a Gemfile and installing the theme you'll need to add and edit
the following files:
Note: Consult the pagination documentation below for instructions on how to enable it for the home page.
Starting from jekyll new
Using the jekyll new command will get you up and running the quickest.
Edit _config.yml and create _data/theme.yml as instructed above and you're
good to go.
Configuration
Configuration of site-wide elements (lang, title, description, logo,
author, etc.) happens in your project's _config.yml. See the
example configuration in this repo for additional
reference.
| Description | |
|---|---|
lang |
Used to indicate the language of text (e.g., en-US, en-GB, fr) |
title |
Your site's title (e.g., Dungan's Awesome Site) |
description |
Short site description (e.g., A blog about grasshopper mash) |
url |
The full URL to your site (e.g., https://groverloaf.org) |
author |
Global author information (see below) |
logo |
Path to a site-wide logo ~100x100px (e.g., /assets/your-company-logo.png) |
twitter_username |
Site-wide Twitter username, used as a link in sidebar |
github_username |
Site-wide GitHub username, used as a link in sidebar |
For more configuration options be sure to consult the documentation for: [jekyll-seo-tag][jekyll-seo-tag], [jekyll-feed][jekyll-feed], [jekyll-paginate][jekyll-paginate], and [jekyll-sitemap][jekyll-sitemap].
[jekyll-seo-tag]: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-seo-tag [jekyll-feed]: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-feed [jekyll-paginate]: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-paginate [jekyll-sitemap]: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-sitemap
Skin
This theme comes in six different skins (color variations). To change skins add
one of the following to your /_data/theme.yml file:
skin: default |
skin: night |
skin: plum |
|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
skin: sea |
skin: soft |
skin: steel |
|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Google Fonts
This theme allows you to easily use Google Fonts
throughout the theme. Simply add the following to your
/_data/theme.yml, replacing the font name and weights
accordingly.
google_fonts:
- name: "Fira Sans"
weights: "400,400i,600,600i"
- name: "Fira Sans Condensed"
Text
To change text found throughout the theme add the following to your
/_data/theme.yml file and customize as necessary.
t:
skip_links: "Skip links"
skip_primary_nav: "Skip to primary navigation"
skip_content: "Skip to content"
skip_footer: "Skip to footer"
menu: "Menu"
home: "Home"
newer: "Newer"
older: "Older"
email: "Email"
subscribe: "Subscribe"
read_more: "Read More"
posts: "Posts"
page: "Page"
of: "of"
min_read: "min read"
present: "Present"
Navigation
By default all internal pages with a title will be added to the "off-canvas"
menu. For more granular control and sorting of these menu links:
Create a custom list to override the default setting by adding a
navigation_pagesarray to your/_data/theme.ymlfile.Add raw page paths in the order you'd like:
navigation_pages:
- about.md
- cv.md
Each menu link's title and URL will be populated based on their title and
permalink respectively.
Pagination
Break up the main listing of posts into smaller lists and display them over multiple pages by enabling pagination.
- Include the
jekyll-paginateplugin in yourGemfile.
group :jekyll_plugins do
gem "jekyll-paginate"
end
- Add
jekyll-paginatetogemsarray in your_config.ymlfile and the following pagination settings:
paginate: 5 # amount of posts to show per page
paginate_path: /page:num/
- Create
index.html(or renameindex.md) in the root of your project and add the following front matter:
layout: home
paginate: true
Author
Author information is used as meta data for post "by lines" and propagates the
creator field of Twitter summary cards with the following front matter in
_config.yml:
author:
name: John Doe
twitter: johndoetwitter
picture: /assets/images/johndoe.png
Site-wide author information can be overridden in a document's front matter in the same way:
author:
name: Jane Doe
twitter: janedoetwitter
picture: /assets/images/janedoe.png
Or by specifying a corresponding key in the document's front matter, that
exists in site.data.authors. E.g., you have the following in the document's
front matter:
author: megaman
And you have the following in _data/authors.yml:
megaman:
name: Mega Man
twitter: megamantwitter
picture: /assets/images/megaman.png
drlight:
name: Dr. Light
twitter: drlighttwitter
picture: /assets/images/drlight.png
Currently author.picture is only used in layout: about. Recommended size is
300 x 300 pixels.
Reading Time
To enable reading time counts add read_time: true to a post or page's YAML
Front Matter.
Comments (via Disqus)
Optionally, if you have a Disqus account, you can show a comments section below each post.
To enable Disqus comments, add your Disqus shortname to your project's _config.yml file:
disqus:
shortname: my_disqus_shortname
Comments are enabled by default and will only appear in production when built
with the following environment value:
JEKYLL_ENV=production
If you don't want to display comments for a particular post you can disable
them by adding comments: false to that post's front matter.
Google Analytics
To enable Google Analytics, add your tracking ID
to _config.yml like so:
google_analytics: UA-NNNNNNNN-N
Similar to comments, the Google Analytics tracking script will only appear in
production when using the following environment value: JEKYLL_ENV=production.
Layouts
This theme provides the following layouts, which you can use by setting the
layout Front Matter on each page,
like so:
---
layout: name
---
layout: default
This layout handles all of the basic page scaffolding placing the page content
between the masthead and footer elements. All other layouts inherit this one
and provide additional styling and features inside of the {{ content }} block.
layout: post
This layout accommodates the following front matter:
# optional alternate title to replace page.title at the top of the page
alt_title: "Basically Basic"
# optional sub-title below the page title
sub_title: "The name says it all"
# optional intro text below titles, Markdown allowed
introduction: |
Basically Basic is a Jekyll theme meant to be a substitute for the default --- [Minima](https://github.com/jekyll/minima). Conventions and features found in Minima are fully supported by **Basically Basic**.
# optional call to action links
actions:
- label: "Learn More"
icon: github # references name of svg icon, see full list below
url: "http://url-goes-here.com"
- label: "Download"
icon: download # references name of svg icon, see full list below
url: "http://url-goes-here.com"
image: # URL to a hero image associated with the post (e.g., /assets/page-pic.jpg)
# post specific author data if different from what is set in _config.yml
author:
name: John Doe
twitter: johndoetwitter
comments: false # disable comments on this post
layout: page
Visually this layout looks and acts the same as layout: post, with two minor
differences.
- Author "by line" and publish date are omitted.
- Disqus comments are omitted.
layout: home
This layout accommodates the same front matter as layout: page, with the
addition of the following:
paginate: true # enables pagination loop, see section above for additional setup
layout: about
This layout accommodates the same front matter as layout: page, with the
addition of the following to display an author picture:
author:
name: John Doe
picture: /assets/images/johndoe.png
Recommended picture size is approximately 300 x 300 pixels. If author
object is not explicitly set in the about page's front matter the theme
will default to the value set in _config.yml.
If blank there no image will appear.
layout: cv
This layout accommodates the same front matter as layout: page. It
leverages a JSON-based file standard for
resume data to conveniently render a curriculum vitæ or resume painlessly.
Simply use JSON Resume's in-browser resume builder
to export a JSON file and save to your project as _data/cv.json.
Customization
The default structure, style, and scripts of this theme can be overridden and customized in the following two ways.
Overriding Includes and Layouts
Theme defaults can be overridden
by placing a file with the same name into your project's _includes or
_layouts directory. For instance:
- To specify a custom style path or meta data to the
_includes/head.htmlfile, create an_includesdirectory in your project, copy_includes/head.htmlfrom Basically Basic's gem folder to<your_project>/_includesand start editing that file.
ProTip: to locate the theme's files on your computer run
bundle show jekyll-theme-basically-basic. This returns the location of the
gem-based theme files.
Customizing Sass (SCSS)
To override the default Sass (located in theme's
_sass directory), do one of the following:
- Copy directly from the Basically Basic gem
- Go to your local Basically Basic gem installation directory (run
bundle show jekyll-theme-basically-basicto get the path to it). - Copy the contents of
/assets/stylesheets/main.scssfrom there to<your_project>. - Customize what you want inside
<your_project>/assets/stylesheets/main.scss.
- Copy from this repo.
- Copy the contents of assets/stylesheets/main.scss
to
<your_project>. - Customize what you want inside
<your_project/assets/stylesheets/main.scss.
Note: To make more extensive changes and customize the Sass partials bundled
in the gem. You will need to copy the complete contents the _sass directory to
<your_project> due to the way Jekyll currently reads those files.
To make basic tweaks to theme's style Sass variables can be overridden by adding
to <your_project>/assets/stylesheets/main.scss. For instance, to change the
accent color used throughout the theme add:
$accent-color: red;
Before any @import lines.
Customizing JavaScript
To override the default JavaScript bundled in the theme, do one of the following:
- Copy directly from the Basically Basic gem
- Go to your local Basically Basic gem installation directory (run
bundle show jekyll-theme-basically-basicto get the path to it). - Copy the contents of
/assets/javascripts/main.jsfrom there to<your_project>. - Customize what you want inside
<your_project>/assets/javascripts/main.js.
- Copy from this repo.
- Copy the contents of assets/javascripts/main.js
to
<your_project>. - Customize what you want inside
<your_project>/assets/javascripts/main.js.
SVG Icons
The theme uses social network logos and other iconography saved as SVGs for
performance and flexibility. Said SVGs are located in the _includes directory
and prefixed with icon-. Each icon has been sized and designed to fit a
16 x 16 viewbox and optimized with SVGO.
| Icon | Filename |
|---|---|
| icon-arrow-left.svg | |
| icon-arrow-right.svg | |
| icon-bitbucket.svg | |
| icon-calendar.svg | |
| icon-codepen.svg | |
| icon-download.svg | |
| icon-dribbble.svg | |
| icon-email.svg | |
| icon-facebook.svg | |
| icon-flickr.svg | |
| icon-github.svg | |
| icon-gitlab.svg | |
| icon-googleplus.svg | |
| icon-instagram.svg | |
| icon-lastfm.svg | |
| icon-linkedin.svg | |
| icon-pdf.svg | |
| icon-pinterest.svg | |
| icon-rss.svg | |
| icon-soundcloud.svg | |
| icon-stackoverflow.svg | |
| icon-stopwatch.svg | |
| icon-tumblr.svg | |
| icon-twitter.svg | |
| icon-xing.svg | |
| icon-youtube.svg |
Fill colors are defined in the _sass/basically-basic/_icons.scss partial and
set with .icon-name where class name matches the corresponding icon.
For example the Twitter icon is given a fill color of #1da1f2 like so:
<span class="icon icon--twitter">{% include icon-twitter.svg %}</span>
Alongside the SVG assets, there are icon helper includes to aid in generating social network links.
| Include Parameter | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
username |
Username on given social network | Required |
label |
Text used for hyperlink | Optional, defaults to username |
For example, the following icon-github.html include:
{% include icon-github.html username=jekyll label='GitHub' %}
Will output the following HTML:
<a href="https://github.com/jekyll">
<span class="icon icon--github"><svg viewBox="0 0 16 16" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="1.414"><path d="M8 0C3.58 0 0 3.582 0 8c0 3.535 2.292 6.533 5.47 7.59.4.075.547-.172.547-.385 0-.19-.007-.693-.01-1.36-2.226.483-2.695-1.073-2.695-1.073-.364-.924-.89-1.17-.89-1.17-.725-.496.056-.486.056-.486.803.056 1.225.824 1.225.824.714 1.223 1.873.87 2.33.665.072-.517.278-.87.507-1.07-1.777-.2-3.644-.888-3.644-3.953 0-.873.31-1.587.823-2.147-.09-.202-.36-1.015.07-2.117 0 0 .67-.215 2.2.82.64-.178 1.32-.266 2-.27.68.004 1.36.092 2 .27 1.52-1.035 2.19-.82 2.19-.82.43 1.102.16 1.915.08 2.117.51.56.82 1.274.82 2.147 0 3.073-1.87 3.75-3.65 3.947.28.24.54.73.54 1.48 0 1.07-.01 1.93-.01 2.19 0 .21.14.46.55.38C13.71 14.53 16 11.53 16 8c0-4.418-3.582-8-8-8"></path></svg></span>
<span class="label">GitHub</span>
</a>
Customizing Sidebar Content
Development
To set up your environment to develop this theme:
- Clone this repo
cdinto/exampleand runbundle install.
To test the theme the locally as you make changes to it:
cdinto the root folder of the repo (e.g.jekyll-theme-basically-basic).- Run
bundle exec rake previewand open your browser tohttp://localhost:4000/example/.
This starts a Jekyll server using the theme's files and contents of the
example/ directory. As modifications are made, refresh your browser to see
any changes.
Contributing
Found a typo in the documentation? Interested in adding a feature or [fixing a bug][issues]? Then by all means [submit an issue][new-issue] or take a stab at submitting a [pull request][using-pull-requests]. If this is your first pull request, it may be helpful to read up on the [GitHub Flow][github-flow].
[issues]: https://github.com/mmistakes/jekyll-theme-basically-basic/issues [new-issue]: https://github.com/mmistakes/jekyll-theme-basically-basic/issues/new [using-pull-requests]: https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/ [github-flow]: https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/
Pull Requests
When submitting a pull request:
- Clone the repo.
- Create a branch off of
masterand give it a meaningful name (e.g.my-awesome-new-feature) and describe the feature or fix. - Open a pull request on GitHub.
Sample pages can be found in the /docs and /example
folders if you'd like to tackle any "low-hanging fruit" like fixing typos, bad
grammar, etc.
Credits
Creator
Michael Rose
Icons + Demo Images:
Other:
License
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Michael Rose
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.






