---
title: Getting started overview
tags: [getting_started]
sidebar: mydoc_sidebar
type: homepage
---

## Overview 

These instructions will help you get started quickly with the theme. The other topics in this help provide additional information and detail about working with other aspects of this theme and Jekyll.

## Build this theme

If you're used to running Jekyll sites, you can type the normal jekyll command, `jekyll serve`, to run this site. However, if you're a new Jekyll user or if you run into issues, see the following two topics:

* {{site.data.urls.mydoc_install_jekyll_on_mac.link}}
* {{site.data.urls.mydoc_install_jekyll_on_windows.link}}

## Configure the sidebar

There are several products in this theme. Each product uses a different sidebar. This is the essence of what makes this theme unique -- different sidebars for different product documentation. The idea is that when users are reading documentation for a specific product, the sidebar navigation should be specific to that product. (You can read more of my thoughts on why multiple sidebars are important in this [blog post](http://idratherbewriting.com/2016/03/23/release-of-documentation-theme-for-jekyll-50/).)

The top navigation remains the same, because it allows users to navigate across products. But the sidebar navigation adapts to the product.

Because each product uses a different sidebar, you'll need to set up your sidebars. There's a file inside \_includes/custom called "sidebarconfigs.html". This file controls which sidebar gets associated with which product. Open up this file to see its contents.

The sidebarconfigs.html file uses simple `if elsif` logic to set a variable that the sidebar.html file uses to read the sidebar data file. The code in sidebarconfigs.html looks like this:

{% raw %}
```liquid
{% if page.sidebar == "home_sidebar" %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.home_sidebar.entries %}

{% elsif page.sidebar == "product1_sidebar" %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.product1_sidebar.entries %}

{% elsif page.sidebar == "product2_sidebar" %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.product2_sidebar.entries %}

{% elsif page.sidebar == "mydoc_sidebar" %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.mydoc_sidebar.entries %}

{% elsif page.sidebar == "tags_sidebar" %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.tags_sidebar.entries %}

{% else %}
{% assign sidebar = site.data.sidebars.home_sidebar.entries %}
{% endif %}
```
{% endraw %}

In each page's frontmatter, you must specify the sidebar you want that page to use. Here's an example of the page frontmatter showing the sidebar property:

```yaml
---
title: Alerts
tags: [formatting]
keywords: notes, tips, cautions, warnings, admonitions
last_updated: March 20, 2016
summary: "You can insert notes, tips, warnings, and important alerts in your content. These notes are stored as shortcodes made available through the linksrefs.hmtl include."
sidebar: mydoc_sidebar
permalink: /mydoc_alerts/
---
```

The `sidebar: mydoc_sidebar` refers to the \_data/sidebars/mydoc_sidebar.yml file.

If no sidebar assignment is found in the page frontmatter, the default sidebar (specified by the `else` statement) will be shown: `site.data.sidebars.home_sidebar.entries`.

Note that your sidebar can only have 2 levels. Given that each product has its own sidebar, this depth should be sufficient. Deeper nesting goes against usability recommendations.

For more detail on the sidebar, see {{site.data.urls.mydoc_sidebar_navigation.link}}.

## Sidebar syntax

The sidebar data file uses a specific YAML syntax that you must follow. Follow the sample pattern shown. For example:

```yaml
entries:
- title: sidebar
  product: Jekyll Doc Theme
  version: 5.0
  folders:
  - title: Overview 
    output: web, pdf
    folderitems:
    - title: Some page
      url: /some-doc-page/
      output: web, pdf
    - title: Another page
      url: /another-doc-page/
      output: web, pdf
      
  - title: Configuration
    output: web
    folderitems:
    - title: How to configure the system
      url: /configure-system/
      output: web, pdf
      subfolders:
      - title: Config process
        output: web, pdf
        subfolderitems:
        - title: Creating the config file
          url: /config-file-how-to/
          output: web, pdf
```

Each folder or subfolder must contain a title and output property. Each folderitem or subfolderitem must contain a title, url, and output property.

The two outputs available are web and pdf. (Even if you aren't publishing PDF, you still need to specify `output: web`).

The YAML syntax depends on exact spacing, so make sure you follow the pattern shown in the sample sidebars. See my [YAML tutorial](mydoc_yaml_tutorial) for more details about how YAML works.

To accommodate the title page and table of contents in PDF outputs, each product sidebar must list these pages before any other:

```yaml
  - title:
    output: pdf
    type: frontmatter
    folderitems:
    - title:
      url: /titlepage/
      output: pdf
      type: frontmatter
    - title:
      url: /tocpage/
      output: pdf
      type: frontmatter
```

Leave the output as `output: pdf` for these frontmatter pages so that they don't appear in the web output.

For more detail on the sidebar, see {{site.data.urls.mydoc_sidebar_navigation.link}} and {{site.data.urls.mydoc_yaml_tutorial.link}}.

## Page frontmatter

When you write pages, include this same frontmatter in each page:

```yaml
---
title: "Some title"
tags: [sample1, sample2]
keywords: keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
last_updated: Month day, year
summary: "optional summary here"
sidebar: sidebar name
permalink: /yoururl/
---
```

(If you're using [Webstorm]({{site.data.urls.mydoc_webstorm_text_editor.url}}), you can set up a template to auto-populate this code when you create a new file.)

For titles, surrounding the title in quotes is optional, but if you have a colon in the title, you must surround the title with quotation marks.

Keywords get populated into the metadata of the page for SEO.

Tags must be defined in your \_data/tags.yml list. You also need a corresponding tag file inside the tags folder that follows the same pattern as the other tag files shown in the tags folder. (Jekyll wont auto-create these tag files.)
```

If you don't want the mini-TOC to show on a page (such as for the homepage or landing pages), add `toc: false` in the frontmatter.

For more detail, see {{site.data.urls.mydoc_pages.link}}.


## Where to store your documentation topics

Store your files for each product inside subfolders following the pattern shown in the theme. For example, product1, product2, etc. You can store your topics inside sub-subfolders or sub-sub-folders to your heart's content. When Jekyll builds your site, it will pull the topics into the root directory and use the permalink for the URL.

Note that product1, product2, and mydoc are all just sample content to demonstrate how to add multiple products into the theme. You can freely delete that content.

For more information, see {{site.data.urls.mydoc_pages.link}} and {{site.data.urls.mydoc_posts.link}}.

## Configure the top navigation

The top navigation bar's menu items are set through the _data/topnav.yml file. Use the top navigation bar to provide links for navigating from one product to another, or to navigate to external resources.

For external URLs, use `external_url` in the item property, as shown in the example topnav.yml file. For internal links, use `url` as usual.

Note that the topnav has two sections: topnav and topnav_dropdowns. The topnav section contains single links, while the topnav_dropdowns section contains dropdown menus. The two sections are independent of each other.


## Generating PDF

If you want to generate PDF, you'll need a license for [Prince XML](http://www.princexml.com/). You will also need to [install Prince](http://www.princexml.com/doc/installing/).  You can generate PDFs by product (but not for every product on the site combined together into one massive PDF). Prince will work even without a license, but it will imprint a small Prince image on the first page.

Open up the css/printstyles.css file and customize the email address (`youremail@domain.com`) that is listed there. This email address appears in the bottom left footer of the PDF output. You'll also need to create a PDF configuration file following the examples shown in the pdfconfigs folder, and also customize some build scripts following the same pattern shown in the root: pdf-product1.sh

See the section on {{site.data.urls.mydoc_generating_pdfs.link}} for more details about setting the theme up for this output.

## Blogs / News

For blog posts, create your markdown files in the \_posts folder following the sample formats. Post file names always begin with the date (YYYY-MM-DD-title).

The news/news.html file displays the posts, and the news_archive.html file shows a yearly history of posts. In documentation, you might use the news to highlight product features outside of your documentation, or to provide release notes and other updates.

See {{site.data.urls.mydoc_posts}} for more information.

## Markdown

This theme uses Kramdown markdown. Kramdown is similar to Github-flavored Markdown, except that when you have text that intercepts list items, the spacing of the intercepting text must align with the spacing of the first character after the space of a numbered list item. See the topics under "Formatting" in the sidebar for more information.

## Other instructions

For other details in working with the theme, see the various sections in the sidebar.



