Basically Basic Jekyll Theme

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Basically Basic is a Jekyll theme meant as a substitute for the default Minima, with a few enhancements thrown in for good measure:

If you enjoy this theme, please consider sponsoring:

Buy Me A Coffee Support via PayPal

Basically Basic live preview

Installation

If you’re running Jekyll v3.5+ and self-hosting you can quickly install the theme as a Ruby gem. If you’re hosting with GitHub Pages you can install as a remote theme or directly copy all of the theme files (see structure below) into your project.

Ruby Gem Method

  1. Add this line to your Jekyll site’s Gemfile:

    “by gem “jekyll-theme-basically-basic”

    “

  2. Add this line to your Jekyll site’s _config.yml file:

    “ml theme: jekyll-theme-basically-basic

    “

  3. Then run Bundler to install the theme gem and dependencies:

    “rminal bundle install

    “

GitHub Pages Method

GitHub Pages has added full support for any GitHub-hosted theme.

  1. Replace gem "jekyll" with:

    “by gem “github-pages”, group: :jekyll_plugins

    “

  2. Run bundle update and verify that all gems install properly.

  3. Add remote_theme: "mmistakes/[email protected]" to your _config.yml file. Remove any other theme: or remote_theme: entries.

Note: Your Jekyll site should be viewable immediately at http://USERNAME.github.io. If it’s not, you can force a rebuild by Customizing Your Site (see below for more details).

If you’re hosting several Jekyll based sites under the same GitHub username you will have to use Project Pages instead of User Pages. Essentially you rename the repo to something other than USERNAME.github.io and create a gh-pages branch off of master. For more details on how to set things up check GitHub’s documentation.

Remove the Unnecessary

If you forked or downloaded the jekyll-theme-basically-basic repo you can safely remove the following files and folders:

  • .editorconfig
  • .gitattributes
  • .github
  • .scss-lint.yml
  • CHANGELOG.md
  • jekyll-theme-basically-basic.gemspec
  • LICENSE
  • Rakefile
  • README.md
  • screenshot.png
  • /docs
  • /example

Upgrading

If you’re using the Ruby Gem or remote theme versions of Basically Basic, upgrading is fairly painless.

To check which version you are currently using, view the source of your built site and you should something similar to:

“!– Basically Basic Jekyll Theme 1.4.5 Copyright 2017-2018 Michael Rose - mademistakes.com | @mmistakes Free for personal and commercial use under the MIT license https://github.com/mmistakes/jekyll-basically-theme/blob/master/LICENSE –>

“

At the top of every .html file, /assets/css/main.css, and /assets/js/main.js.

Ruby Gem

Simply run bundle update if you’re using Bundler (have a Gemfile) or gem update jekyll-theme-basically-basic if you’re not.

Remote Theme

Verify you have the latest version assigned in _config.yml

“emote_theme: “mmistakes/[email protected]”

“

Note: If @x.x.x is omitted the theme’s current master branch will be used. It is advised to “lock” remote_theme at a specific version to avoid introducing breaking changes to your site.

The next step requires rebuilding your GitHub Pages site so it can pull down the latest theme updates. This can be achieved by pushing up a commit to your GitHub repo.

An empty commit will get the job done too if you don’t have anything to push at the moment:

“rminal git commit –allow-empty -m “Force rebuild of site”

“

Use Git

If you want to get the most out of the Jekyll + GitHub Pages workflow, then you’ll need to utilize Git. To pull down theme updates you must first ensure there’s an upstream remote. If you forked the theme’s repo then you’re likely good to go.

To double check, run git remote -v and verify that you can fetch from origin https://github.com/mmistakes/jekyll-theme-basically-basic.git.

To add it you can do the following:

“rminal git remote add upstream https://github.com/mmistakes/jekyll-theme-basically-basic.git

“

Pull Down Updates

Now you can pull any commits made to theme’s master branch with:

“rminal git pull upstream master

“

Depending on the amount of customizations you’ve made after forking, there’s likely to be merge conflicts. Work through any conflicting files Git flags, staging the changes you wish to keep, and then commit them.

Update Files Manually

Another way of dealing with updates is downloading the theme — replacing your layouts, includes, and assets with the newer ones manually. To be sure that you don’t miss any changes it’s probably a good idea to review the theme’s commit history to see what’s changed since.

Here’s a quick checklist of the important folders/files you’ll want to be mindful of:

Name
_layoutsReplace all. Apply edits if you customized any layouts.
_includesReplace all. Apply edits if you customized any includes.
assetsReplace all. Apply edits if you customized stylesheets or scripts.
_sassReplace all. Apply edits if you customized Sass partials.
_data/theme.ymlSafe to keep. Verify that there were no major structural changes or additions.
_config.ymlSafe to keep. Verify that there were no major structural changes or additions.

Note: If you’re not seeing the latest version, be sure to flush browser and CDN caches. Depending on your hosting environment older versions of /assets/css/main.css, /assets/js/main.js, or *.html may be cached.

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.

“rminal 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
langUsed to indicate the language of text (e.g., en-US, en-GB, fr)
titleYour site’s title (e.g., Dungan’s Awesome Site)
descriptionShort site description (e.g., A blog about grasshopper mash)
urlThe full URL to your site (e.g., https://groverloaf.org)
authorGlobal author information (see below)
logoPath to a site-wide logo ~100x100px (e.g., /assets/your-company-logo.png)
twitter_usernameSite-wide Twitter username, used as a link in sidebar
github_usernameSite-wide GitHub username, used as a link in sidebar

For more configuration options be sure to consult the documentation for: jekyll-seo-tag, jekyll-feed, jekyll-paginate, and 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: defaultskin: nightskin: plum
default-skinnight-skinplum-skin
skin: seaskin: softskin: steel
sea-skinsoft-skinsteel-skin

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.

“ml 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.

“ml t: skip_links: “Skip links” skip_primary_nav: “Skip to primary navigation” skip_content: “Skip to content” skip_footer: “Skip to footer” menu: “Menu” search: “Search” site_search: “Site Search” results_found: “Result(s) found” search_placeholder_text: “Enter your search term…” 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” cv_awards: “Awards” cv_summary_contact: “Contact” cv_summary_contact_email: “Email” cv_summary_contact_phone: “Phone” cv_summary_contact_website: “Website” cv_location: “Location” cv_education: “Education” cv_education_courses: “Courses” cv_interests: “Interests” cv_languages: “Languages” cv_publications: “Publications” cv_references: “References” cv_skills: “Skills” cv_volunteer: “Volunteer” cv_work: “Work”

“

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:

  1. Create a custom list to override the default setting by adding a navigation_pages array to your /_data/theme.yml file.

  2. Add raw page paths in the order you’d like:

    “ml 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.

  1. Include the jekyll-paginate plugin in your Gemfile.

    “by group :jekyll_plugins do gem “jekyll-paginate” end

    “

  2. Add jekyll-paginate to gems array in your _config.yml file and the following pagination settings:

    “ml paginate: 5 # amount of posts to show per page paginate_path: /page:num/

    “

  3. Create index.html (or rename index.md) in the root of your project and add the following front matter:

    “ml layout: home paginate: true

    “

To enable site-wide search add search: true to your _config.yml.

Lunr (default)

The default search uses Lunr to build a search index of all your documents. This method is 100% compatible with sites hosted on GitHub Pages.

Note: Only the first 50 words of a post or page’s body content is added to the Lunr search index. Setting search_full_content to true in your _config.yml will override this and could impact page load performance.

Algolia

For faster and more relevant search (see demo):

  1. Add the jekyll-algolia gem to your Gemfile, in the :jekyll_plugins section.

    “by group :jekyll_plugins do gem “jekyll-feed” gem “jekyll-seo-tag” gem “jekyll-sitemap” gem “jekyll-paginate” gem “jekyll-algolia” end

    “

    Once this is done, download all dependencies by running bundle install.

  2. Switch search providers from lunr to algolia in your _config.yml file:

    “ml search_provider: algolia

    “

  3. Add the following Algolia credentials to your _config.yml file. If you don’t have an Algolia account, you can open a free Community plan. Once signed in, you can grab your credentials from your dashboard.

    “ml algolia: application_id: # YOUR_APPLICATION_ID index_name: # YOUR_INDEX_NAME search_only_api_key: # YOUR_SEARCH_ONLY_API_KEY powered_by: # true (default), false

    “

  4. Once your credentials are setup, you can run the indexing with the following command:

    “LGOLIA_API_KEY=your_admin_api_key bundle exec jekyll algolia

    “

    For Windows users you will have to use set to assigned the ALGOLIA_API_KEY environment variable.

    “et ALGOLIA_API_KEY=your_admin_api_key bundle exec jekyll algolia

    “

    Note that ALGOLIA_API_KEY should be set to your admin API key.

To use the Algolia search with GitHub Pages hosted sites follow this deployment guide. Or this guide for deploying on Netlify.

Note: The Jekyll Algolia plugin can be configured in several ways. Be sure to check out their full documentation on how to exclude files and other valuable settings.

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:

“ml 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:

“ml 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:

“ml author: megaman

“

And you have the following in _data/authors.yml:

“ml 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:

“ml 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:

“ml 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.

By default the copyright line in the footer displays the current year (at build time) followed by your site’s title. e.g. © 2018 Basically Basic.

If you would like to change this add copyright to your _config.yml file with appropriate text:

“ml copyright: “My custom copyright.”

“

Layouts

This theme provides the following layouts, which you can use by setting the layout Front Matter on each page, like so:

“ml

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:

“ml

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. 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

“

Note: Hero images can be overlaid with a transparent “accent” color to unify them with the theme’s palette. To enable, customize the CSS with the following Sass variable override:

“ss $intro-image-color-overlay: true;

“

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:

“ml paginate: true # enables pagination loop, see section above for additional setup entries_layout: # list (default), grid

“

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

layout: posts

This layout displays all posts grouped by the year they were published. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page.

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

layout: categories

This layout displays all posts grouped category. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page.

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

layout: tags

This layout displays all posts grouped by tag. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page.

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

layout: collection

This layout displays all documents grouped by a specific collection. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page with the addition of the following:

“ml collection: # collection name entries_layout: # list (default), grid show_excerpts: # true (default), false sort_by: # date (default) title sort_order: # forward (default), reverse

“

To create a page showing all documents in the recipes collection you’d create recipes.md in the root of your project and add this front matter:

“ml title: Recipes layout: collection permalink: /recipes/ collection: recipes

“

By default, documents are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter. If you want to sort the collection by title add sort_by: title. If you want reverse sorting, add sort_order: reverse.

layout: category

This layout displays all posts grouped by a specific category. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page with the addition of the following:

“ml taxonomy: # category name entries_layout: # list (default), grid

“

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

To create a page showing all posts assigned to the category foo you’d create foo.md in the root of your project and add this front matter:

“ml title: Foo layout: category permalink: /categories/foo/ taxonomy: foo

“

layout: tag

This layout displays all posts grouped by a specific tag. It accommodates the same front matter as layout: page with the addition of the following:

“ml taxonomy: # tag name entries_layout: # list (default), grid

“

By default, posts are shown in a list view. To change to a grid view add entries_layout: grid to the page’s front matter.

To create a page showing all posts assigned to the tag foo bar you’d create foo-bar.md in the root of your project and add this front matter:

“ml title: Foo Bar layout: tag permalink: /tags/foo-bar/ taxonomy: foo bar

“

layout: about

This layout accommodates the same front matter as layout: page, with the addition of the following to display an author picture:

“ml 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.

Images

Suggested image sizes in pixels are as follows:

ImageDescriptionSize
page.image.pathLarge full-width document image.Tall images will push content down the page. 1600 x 600 is a good middle-ground size to aim for.
page.imageShort-hand for page.image.path when used alone (without thumbnail, caption, or other variables).Same as page.image.path
page.image.thumbnailSmall document image used in grid view.400 x 200
author.pictureAuthor page image.300 x 300

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.html file, create an _includes directory in your project, copy _includes/head.html from Basically Basic’s gem folder to <your_project>/_includes and start editing that file.

ProTip: to locate the theme’s files on your computer run bundle info 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:

  1. Copy directly from the Basically Basic gem

    • Go to your local Basically Basic gem installation directory (run bundle info jekyll-theme-basically-basic to get the path to it).
    • Copy the contents of /assets/stylesheets/main.scss from there to <your_project>.
    • Customize what you want inside <your_project>/assets/stylesheets/main.scss.

  2. 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 of 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 the following:

“ss $accent-color: red;

“

Customizing JavaScript

To override the default JavaScript bundled in the theme, do one of the following:

  1. Copy directly from the Basically Basic gem

    • Go to your local Basically Basic gem installation directory (run bundle info jekyll-theme-basically-basic to get the path to it).
    • Copy the contents of /assets/javascripts/main.js from there to <your_project>.
    • Customize what you want inside <your_project>/assets/javascripts/main.js.

  2. 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.

IconFilename
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:

“ml

“

Alongside the SVG assets, there are icon helper includes to aid in generating social network links.

Include ParameterDescriptionRequired
usernameUsername on given social networkRequired
labelText used for hyperlinkOptional, defaults to username

For example, the following icon-github.html include:

“quid include icon-github.html username=jekyll label=‘GitHub’ %

“

Will output the following HTML:

“ml GitHub

“

Customizing Sidebar Content

Development

To set up your environment to develop this theme:

  1. Clone this repo
  2. cd into /example and run bundle install.

To test the theme the locally as you make changes to it:

  1. cd into the root folder of the repo (e.g. jekyll-theme-basically-basic).
  2. Run bundle exec rake preview and open your browser to http://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? Then by all means submit an issue or take a stab at submitting a pull request. If this is your first pull request, it may be helpful to read up on the GitHub Flow.

Pull Requests

When submitting a pull request:

  1. Clone the repo.
  2. Create a branch off of master and give it a meaningful name (e.g. my-awesome-new-feature) and describe the feature or fix.
  3. 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) 2017-2021 Michael Rose and contributors

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.

Basically Basic incorporates icons from The Noun Project. Icons are distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States (CC BY 3.0 US).

Basically Basic incorporates photographs from Unsplash.

Basically Basic incorporates Susy, Copyright (c) 2017, Miriam Eric Suzanne. Susy is distributed under the terms of the BSD 3-clause “New” or “Revised” License.

Basically Basic incorporates Breakpoint. Breakpoint is distributed under the terms of the MIT/GPL Licenses.