all a gem based theme is (more or less) is the layout files, includes and css files stored in a gem with the idea of making it super simple for someone to swap out by just changing the gem. Though you’d still have to make sure every page was using the correct layout files.
All you probably need are the layout files, includes, css/sass and maybe the config file. I guess javascript too though maybe that one didn’t use any JS?
It is actually a great way to learn how it all works. Then it is all yours and you can move on.
you don’t have to have a gemfile - you only need it if you are using a gem for something. I normally don’t have one.
The gem file in that theme I think is only there cause of it being a gem theme and it looks like he was doing a different way to build the site that used Rake and the rake file. Those are not normal.
The only gem I see being needed maybe is:
gem ‘jekyll-feed’
and that is only needed if you want an RSS feed which I am not so sure is very popular any more. If you don’t need that you could remove the gemfile and the section in the config with stuff for that. You could also remove the rake file and starving-artist.gemspec.
Thanks to you I finally managed to get it up and running and now I am learning the structure. The only thing I don’t find very straightforward is the index file. Normally I could take any page and turn it into my index by simply renaming it. With the starving artist theme the author configured his illustration page to open not in the index but just as a link but I’m hoping to make it so the index home page displays the illustrations. I see there is an illustration.yml with all the links and I see that there is no index.html because I removed it. The index just had instructions about the theme and when I removed it, hey presto there was the site. So now I am wondering which file constitutes the layout for the index so I can copy and paste the illustration links into it but I have a feeling this will break the site. Below is structure info I’m following but perhaps the default.html is what I need to look at ?
Reading :
Provided that the file has a front matter section, it will be transformed by Jekyll. The same will happen for any .html, .markdown, .md, or .textile file in your site’s root directory or directories not listed above.
each file can specify which layout to use - for example it is not uncommon to have a layout for the home page and then a layout for posts.
So in the front matter for the index page it should say what layout to use, or it could be set using defaults in the config file.
Once you know what layout you can find it in the Layouts folder - and from there it may even call another layout and or a bunch of includes. It can get a little weird the way some people create their layouts.
In jekyll the home/index page is the one index page that exists in the root of the source. Make sure there is only one - sometimes people end up with an index.md and an index.html and they just overwrite each other.
There are some great tutorials on youtube that go over lots of this - even if they are years out of date the core stuff is likely the same more or less.
You may want to start a blank jekyll site with no theme - jekyll new my-cool-site --blank and see what it has - I can’t remember if it starts you off with a basic layout or not. Best way to learn is to build something from scratch to just see how the basics work - front matter, layouts and includes.
Hmmm well I am very stuck on something so basic before getting to the above. The background color for the logo banner is dark purple and I just picked a light color - any color to see if I could quickly swap it before choosing which exact color but no it will not change. Now I have gone into the depths of the SASS folders nevermind main.css and the only one I can find is the - however try as I might this very simple objective eludes me. Probably need a rest from it all for a bit. You are welcome to look and tell me if you can find the bg color listed anywhere for the logo banner - it should be somewhere in the css under the div class for the banner. I’ve swapped images to my work for illustrations but no covers …charliebunt.github.io
Certainly the nav menu has adopted a light green test color. I tested this site on my phone and absolutely I must try and reconfigure it because most ppl would view it on their phones I’d say. Looks terrible on a phone with the menu expanded at top. I think I have my work cut out for me.
Also when I Jekyll build , Jekyll didn’t like the conflict I had with a main.css and a main.scss but I think the main.scss was just calling the authors theme css so I ditched it and replaced it with the main.css I saw generated from the build online. I hope that is alright to do.
The downloaded theme had only an S as file calling the Jekyll starving artist css theme code - just the one import line so yes I copied the css from my browser tgst was linked from again the force code I viewed in the index of css/main.css even though no such file exists in the dloaded theme.
search the repo for it with VS code (or whatever editor you are using) and you should find it somewhere - I just saw it in the browser. Could also search for the color maybe?
Well I am going to delete the repos and start from scratch because when I push the jekyll build it keeps displaying old files even when I clear caches. I will work it all out eventually. Thanks so much Ron.
Hi again. Managed to get this theme working for my portfolio locally but now that I have uploaded it to GitHub I have three images in my illustration folder not showing up “fencer.jpg”, “witch.jpg” and “betrayal.jpg” and I cannot work out why they show locally but not online? They are in the exact same folder. And the other images in the exact same folder and coded the same way in the illustration.yml are showing so why not these three? Makes no sense to me at all.
The only other thing that I’m trying to figure out is how to make it so the site opens with the illustration page showing instead of a description.
