Setting up this blog site: github, jekyll, and the hpstr theme

This blog site is powered by Jekyll and hosted for free using GitHub pages. The design is thanks to Michael Rose and his HPSTR Jekyll theme. One afternoon of casual Googling suggested this was the easiest way to get a blog up and running with: free hosting; easy automatic domain name; static site under git version control; blog tags and comments; and an elegant design aesthetic.

Basic steps

• Fork the HPSTR Jekyll theme repo
• Clone locally
• Create a new repo on GitHub called username.github.io
• Reset the primary remote repository (origin) of the local cloned copy so that it points to https://github.com/username/username.github.io.git
• Delete non-master branches
• Make edits to the source files as desired (see below)
• Push changes to remote origin on GitHub
• GitHub automatically builds a website from the source in repo username.github.io, giving it the address http://username.github.io/

Personalise content

Edit these files to personalise site content:

• _config.yml
• _data/navigation.yml define links on side menu
• _posts/ remove example posts and start writing new content
• about/index.md About page
• README.md the README visible on the GitHub source page

Run locally

Build the site locally and check any updates before pushing the changes to the public face on GitHub.

First time:

• sudo gem install bundler
• sudo gem install jekyll
• In folder with the website repo: bundle install

Every time:

• bundle exec jekyll build
• bundle exec jekyll serve
• Paste local server address into browser
• Simply refresh the browser to incorporate edits on the go

Unfortunately, links in the local development version still point to the published online site without the edits. To get the links pointing between local in-development pages, comment out the url field in the _config.yml file. Don’t keep and commit that though!

Enable DISQUS comments system

• Get Disqus account, click ‘Add Disqus To Site’, fill out details
• Will create site https://disqus_shortname.disqus.com/admin/moderate/
• Edit disqus_shortname field in _config.yml

Google verification and analytics

Log in to Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) and verify ownership by Alternate methods > HTML tag, and paste the content string into the google_verify field in _config.yml. Provide the sitemap (address is just http://username.github.io/sitemap).

Log in to Google Analytics and get a tracking ID for the website. Paste into the google_analytics field in _config.yml. Link Google Analytics with the Webmaster Tools for the site.