So Simple Jekyll Theme

So Simple is a simple Jekyll theme for your words and pictures. Built to provide:

A variety of layouts with clean and readable typography.
Microformats markup to make post content machine-readable and discoverable.
Disqus Comments and Google Analytics support.
SEO best practices via Jekyll SEO Tag.
Options to customize the theme and make it your own.

✨ See what's new in the CHANGELOG. 📘 v2 documentation.

Sample Pages

Description
A post with a large hero image.	Preview	Source
A post with a variety of common HTML elements showing how the theme styles them.	Preview	Source
Post displaying highlighted code.	Preview	Source
A post displaying images with a variety of alignments.	Preview	Source
All posts grouped by year.	Preview	Source
All posts grouped by category.	Preview	Source
All posts grouped by tag.	Preview	Source
Category page.	Preview	Source
Listing of documents in grid view.	Preview	Source

Additional sample posts can be view on the demo site. Source files for these (and the entire demo site) can be found in /docs folder.

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

Add this line to your Jekyll site's Gemfile (or create one):
```
gem "jekyll-theme-so-simple"
```
Add this line to your Jekyll site's _config.yml file:
```
theme: jekyll-theme-so-simple
```
Then run Bundler to install the theme gem and dependencies:
```
bundle install
```

GitHub Pages Method

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

Replace gem "jekyll" with:

gem "github-pages", group: :jekyll_plugins

Run bundle update and verify that all gems install properly.
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 pushing empty commits to GitHub (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 this works, check GitHub's documentation.

Remove the Unnecessary

If you forked or downloaded the so-simple-theme repo you can safely remove the following files and folders:

.github
docs
example
.editorconfig
.gitattributes
banner.js
CHANGELOG.md
Gemfile
jekyll-theme-so-simple.gemspec
package.json
Rakefile
README.md
README-OLD.md
screenshot.png

Upgrading

If you're using the Ruby Gem or remote theme versions of So Simple, 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:

<!--
    So Simple Jekyll Theme 3.0.0
    Copyright 2013-2018 Michael Rose - mademistakes.com | @mmistakes
    Free for personal and commercial use under the MIT license
    https://github.com/mmistakes/so-simple-theme/blob/master/LICENSE
-->

This will be 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-so-simple if you're not.

Remote Theme

Verify you have the latest version assigned in _config.yml

remote_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:

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 manually 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/so-simple-theme.git.

To add it you can do the following:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/mmistakes/so-simple-theme.git

Pull Down Updates

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

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 review the theme's commit history to see what has changed.

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

Name
`_layouts`	Replace all. Apply edits if you customized any layouts.
`_includes`	Replace all. Apply edits if you customized any includes.
`assets`	Replace all. Apply edits if you customized stylesheets or scripts.
`_sass`	Replace all. Apply edits if you customized Sass partials.
`_data/navigation.yml`	Safe to keep. Verify that there were no major structural changes or additions.
`_data/text.yml`	Safe to keep. Verify that there were no major structural changes or additions.
`_config.yml`	Safe 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.min.js, or *.html files may be cached.

Structure

Layouts, includes, Sass partials, and data files are all placed in their default locations. Stylesheets and scripts can be found in assets, and a few development related files in the project's root directory.

Please note: If you installed So Simple via the Ruby Gem or remote theme methods, theme files found in /_layouts, /_includes, /_sass, and /assets will be missing from your project. This is normal as they are bundled with the jekyll-theme-so-simple gem.

├── _data               # data files
|  ├── navigation.yml   # navigation bar links
|  └── text.yml         # theme text
├── _includes           # theme includes
├── _layouts            # theme layouts (see below for usage)
├── _sass               # Sass partials
├── assets
|  ├── css
|  |  └── main.scss
|  └── js
|     └── main.min.js
├── _config.yml         # sample configuration
└── index.md            # sample home page (recent 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 on the home page.

Starting from `jekyll new`

Using the jekyll new command will get you up and running the quickest.

Edit your Gemfile and _config.yml files following the installation guide above and configuration guide below, then create _data/text.yml as instructed earlier.

Configuring

Configuration of site-wide elements (locale, title, description, url, logo, author, etc.) happens in your project's _config.yml. See the example configuration in this repo for additional reference.

Name	Description	Example
`locale`	Primary language for the site.	`"en-us"`
`title`	Site's title.	`"My Awesome Site"`
`description`	A short description.	`"This is my site, it is awesome."`
`baseurl`	Used to test the website under the same base url it will be deployed to.	`/my-base-path`
`url`	The full URL to your site.	`"https://your-site.com"`
`logo`	Path to a site-wide logo used in masthead.	`/images/your-logo.png`

Site Skin

Three skins (default, light, and dark) are available to change the color palette of the theme.

`default.css`	`light.css`	`dark.css`

skin: "/assets/css/skins/default.css"
skin: "/assets/css/skins/light.css"
skin: "/assets/css/skins/dark.css"

To use a custom skin other than the ones provided:

Copy and rename /assets/css/skins/default.scss to your local repo.
Override and customize Sass variables as you see fit.
Update the skin path in _config.yml to reference this new skin .css file.

Site Locale

site.locale is used to declare the primary language for each web page within the site.

Example: locale: "en-US" sets the lang attribute for the site to the United States flavor of English, while en-GB would be for the United Kingdom style of English. Country codes are optional and the shorter variation locale: "en" is also acceptable. To find your language and country codes check this reference table.

Properly setting the locale is important for associating localized text found in the text data file.

Note: The theme defaults to text in English (en, en-US, en-GB). If you change locale in _config.yml to something else be sure to add the corresponding locale key and translated text to _data/text.yml.

Site URL

The base hostname and protocol for your site. If you're hosting with GitHub Pages this will be something like url: "https://github.io.mmistakes" or url: "https://your-site.com" if you have a custom domain name.

GitHub Pages now forces https:// for new sites, so be mindful of that when setting your URL to avoid mixed-content warnings.

Note: Jekyll overrides the value of url with http://localhost:4000 when running jekyll serve locally in development. If you want to avoid this behavior set JEKYLL_ENV=production to force the environment to production.

Site Base URL

This option causes all kinds of confusion in the Jekyll community. If you're not hosting your site as a GitHub Project Page or in a subfolder (e.g., /blog), then don't mess with it.

In the case of the So Simple demo site it's hosted on GitHub at https://mmistakes.github.io/so-simple-theme. To correctly set this base path I'd use url: "https://mmistakes.github.io" and baseurl: "/so-simple-theme".

For more information on how to properly use site.url and site.baseurl as intended by the Jekyll maintainers, check Parker Moore's post on the subject.

Note: When using baseurl remember to include it as part of your link and asset paths in your content. Values of url: and baseurl: "/blog" would make your local site visible at http://localhost:4000/blog and not http://localhost:4000. You can either prepend all your asset and internal link paths with {{ site.baseurl }} or use Jekyll's relative_url.

To use the example values above the following image path of {{ '/images/my-image.jpg' | relative_url }} would output correctly as http://localhost:4000/blog/images/my-image.jpg.

Without the relative_url filter that asset path would be missing /blog and you'd have a broken image on your page.

Date Format

You can change the default date format by specifying date_format in _config.yml. It accepts any of the standard Liquid date formats.

For example the default value of "%B %-d, %Y" could be changed like so:

date_format: "%Y-%m-%d"

Reading Time

Enable estimated reading time snippets site-wide with read_time: true. 200 has been set as the default words per minute value — which can be changed via words_per_minute in your _config.yml file.

read_time: true
words_per_minute: 200

Mathematics

Enable MathJax (a JavaScript display engine for mathematics) site-wide with

mathjax:
  enable: true

The combo option lets you to choose a MathJax component combination--the default is "tex-svg." And, the tags option lets you control equation numbering--choices are "ams" (default), "all", and "none."

Sample configuration:

mathjax:
  enable: true             # MathJax equations, e.g. true, false (default)
  combo: "tex-svg"         # "tex-svg" (default), "tex-mml-chtml", etc.
  tags: "ams"              # "none", "ams" (default), "all"

Google Fonts

Easily use Google Fonts throughout your site by replacing the font name and weights accordingly. Suggested font pairings are as follows:

google_fonts:
  - name: "Source Sans Pro"
    weights: "400,400i,700,700i"
  - name: "Lora"
    weights: "400,400i,700,700i"

Note: If other font families are used, be sure to add, then override the following SCSS variables in /assets/css/main.scss with the font-family values Google provides.

$serif-font-family: "Lora", serif;
$sans-serif-font-family: "Source Sans Pro", sans-serif;
$monospace-font-family: Menlo, Consolas, Monaco, "Courier New", Courier,
  monospace;

$base-font-family: $sans-serif-font-family;
$headline-font-family: $sans-serif-font-family;
$title-font-family: $serif-font-family;
$description-font-family: $serif-font-family;
$meta-font-family: $serif-font-family;

See stylesheet documentation below for more information on overriding the theme's default variables.

Pagination

Break up the main listing of posts on the home page across multiple pages by enabling pagination.

Include the jekyll-paginate plugin in your Gemfile.

group :jekyll_plugins do
  gem "jekyll-paginate"
end

Add jekyll-paginate to the plugins array (previously gems) in your _config.yml file and the following pagination settings:
```
paginate: 10  # amount of posts to show per page
paginate_path: /page:num/
```
Create index.html (or rename index.md) in the root of your project and add the following front matter:
```
layout: home
paginate: true
```

Search

To index the full content of your documents for use in a search page, set search_full_content to true in _config.yml:

search_full_content: true

Note: Large amounts of posts will increase the size of the search index, impacting page load performance. Setting search_full_content to false (the default) restricts indexing to the first 50 words of body content.

Taxonomy Pages

By default, category and tags added to a post are not linked to taxonomy archive pages. To enable this behavior and link to pages with posts grouped by category or tag, add the following:

category_archive_path: "/categories/#"
tag_archive_path: "/tags/#"

These paths should mimic the permalinks used for your categories and tags archive pages. The # at the end is necessary to target the correct taxonomy section on the pages.

For example if you were to create categories.md with the following front matter:

title: Categories Archive
layout: categories
permalink: /foo/

You'd need to change category_archive_path to "/foo/# for category links to function properly.

Note: You can create dedicated category and tag pages manually with layout: category and layout: tag. Or use plugins like jekyll-archives or jekyll-paginate-v2 to generate them automatically.

Comments (via Disqus)

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 only appear in production when built with the following environment value: JEKYLL_ENV=production to avoid polluting your Disqus account with localhost content.

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 Disqus comments above, the Google Analytics tracking script will only appear in production when using the following environment value: JEKYLL_ENV=production.

Other

For more configuration options be sure to consult the documentation for: jekyll-seo-tag, jekyll-feed, jekyll-paginate, and jekyll-sitemap.

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:

Name	Type	Description
`image`	String	Path to a large image associated with the post. Also used for OpenGraph, Twitter Cards, and site feed thumbnail if enabled. Suggested image sizes.
`image.path`	String	Same as above. Used when a `thumbnail` or `caption` needs to be assigned to the `image` object as well.
`image.caption`	String	Describes the image or provides credit. Markdown is allowed.
`author`	Object or string	Specify a post's author `name`, `picture`, `twitter`, `links`, etc.
`comments`	Boolean	Disable comments with `comments: false`.
`share`	Boolean	Add social share links to a post with `share: true`.

Post image example:

image:
  path: /images/post-image-lg.jpg
  thumbnail: /images/post-image-th.jpg
  caption: "Photo credit [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)"

Note: image.feature front matter has been deprecated, to fully support jekyll-seo-tag. If you are not using thumbnail or caption the post image can be assigned more concisely as image: /images/your-post-image.jpg.

Post author example:

# post specific author data if different from what is set in _config.yml
author:
  name: John Doe
  picture: /images/john-doe.jpg
  twitter: johndoe

Note: Author information can centralized in _data/authors.yml by doing following in the document's front matter:

author: johndoe

With the corresponding author key in _data/authors.yml:

johndoe:
  name: John Doe
  picture: /images/john-doe.jpg
  twitter: johndoe

Note: author.picture recommended size is 150 x 150 pixels.

Author Links

To define what links appear in the author sidebar use the authors.links key in either _config.yml or /_data/authors.yml.

Name	Description
`title`	Describes the link. Not visible, used for accessibility purposes.
`url`	URL the link points to.
`icon`	Corresponds with a Font Awesome icon e.g., `fab fa-twitter-square`.

Example:

author:
  links:
    - title: Twitter
      url: https://twitter.com/username
      icon: fab fa-twitter-square
    - title: Instagram
      url: https://instagram.com/username
      icon: fab fa-instagram
    - title: GitHub
      url: https://github.com/username
      icon: fab fa-github-square

Note: To disable author links completely use use:

author:
  links: false

`layout: page`

Visually this layout looks and acts similar layout: post, with the following differences.

Author sidebar and page meta (published date, categories, and tags) are ommitted.
Page is less wide due to omitted sidebar.
Disqus comments are omitted.
Next/Previous post navigation links omitted.

The page layout forms the base for several other layouts like home, posts, categories, tags, collection, category, tag, and search.

`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
entries_layout: # list (default), grid

When pagination is not enabled the page defaults to showing the latest 10 posts. To change the amount of posts shown, assign a limit value by adding the following to the page's front matter.

posts_limit: 5

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:

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:

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. If you are simply looking for a list that shows recipe titles (no excerpts), add show_excerpts: false.

`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:

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:

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:

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:

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

`layout: search`

This layout displays a search form and displays related pages based on the query.

Page content index: title, excerpt, content (when enabled), categories, tags, and url.

If you would like to exclude specific pages/posts from the search index set the search flag to false in their front matter.

search: false

To index the full content of your documents set search_full_content to true in _config.yml:

search_full_content: true

Note: Large amounts of posts will increase the size of the search index, impacting page load performance. Setting search_full_content to false (the default) restricts indexing to the first 50 words of body content.

Images

Suggested image sizes in pixels are as follows:

Image	Description	Size
`site.logo`	Site-wide logo used in masthead.	`200 x 200`
`page.image.path`	Large 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.image`	Short-hand for `page.image.path` when used alone (without `thumbnail`, `caption`, or other variables).	Same as `page.image.path`
`page.image.thumbnail`	Small document image used in grid view.	`400 x 200`
`author.picture`	Author picture in post sidebar.	`150 x 150`

Theme Text

To change text found throughout the theme, copy the following /_data/text.yml file and customize as necessary.

When adding new texts be sure the keys match these language/country codes, that may be used for site.locale.

Navigation

To define what pages are linked in the top navigation:

Create a /_data/navigation.yml file.

Add pages in the order you'd like them to appear:

- title: Posts
  url: /posts/
- title: Categories
  url: /categories/
- title: External Page
  url: https://whatever-site.com/page.html
- title: Search
  url: /search/

Note: Long titles or many links may cause the navigation bar to break into multiple lines, especially on smaller screens. Keep this in mind as you develop your site's primary navigation.

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: /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: /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: /images/megaman.png

drlight:
  name: Dr. Light
  twitter: drlighttwitter
  picture: /images/drlight.png

Currently author.picture is only used in layout: post. Recommended size is 150 x 150 pixels.

Footer

The footer links and copyright text can both be customized.

Footer Links

Footer links are set in _config.yml under the footer_links key.

Name	Description
`title`	Describes the link. Not visible, used for accessibility purposes.
`url`	URL the link points to.
`icon`	Corresponds with a Font Awesome 5 icon e.g., `fab fa-twitter-square`.

Examples:

footer_links:
  - title: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/username
    icon: fab fa-twitter-square
  - title: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/mmistakes
    icon: fab fa-github-square
  - title: Feed
    url: atom.xml
    icon: fas fa-rss-square

Note: To disable footer links completely use footer_links: false.

Copyright Text

By default the copyright inserts the current year, site.title, and the words "Powered by Jekyll & So Simple." To change this add copyright to your _config.yml like so (Markdown is allowed):

copyright: "This site is made with <3 by *me, myself, and I*."

Helpers

You can think of these Jekyll helpers as shortcodes. Since GitHub Pages doesn't allow most plugins --- custom tags are out. Instead the theme leverages includes to do something similar.

Responsive Embed

Embed a video from YouTube/Vimeo or any other iframe content that responsively sizes to fit the width of its parent.

Parameter	Required	Description
`url`	Yes	Video or iframe's URL e.g., `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PVofD2A9t8`
`ratio`	Optional	Ratio of the video or iframe content. `21:9`, `16:9`, `4:3`, `1:1`. If a ratio is not assigned `16:9` is used.

Example:

{% include responsive-embed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PVofD2A9t8" ratio="16:9" %}

Migration Guide

So Simple 3 is a major rewrite of the entire theme. The most notable changes are summarized below, followed by more specific changes.

It is safe to say you'll probably want to ditch all _layouts, _includes, _sass, .css, and .js files from v2 and use either the Ruby gem or remote theme installation options.

Global Changes

"Fork method" has been deprecated in favor of installing/upgrading the theme via a gem or remote theme.
All _layouts, _includes, _sass, and JavaScript have been rebuilt.
Properly uses site.url and site.baseurl leveraging the relative_url and absolute_url filters.
Replaced custom /_includes/open-graph.html with jekyll-seo-tag.
Full control over links and icons used in author sidebar and footer.
Tag, articles, and blog starter pages have been replaced with new layouts (tags and posts) for easier use.
Removed 404.md page.
Replaced custom atom.xml feed file with jekyll-feed.
Removed default favicon.ico and favicon.png files.
Replaced simple JSON search with Lunr.
Replaced Magnific Popup with Lity.
Removed FitVids.JS.

Browser Support

CSS written with modern browsers in mind. Where possible fallbacks for float based layouts have been used so things don't look too broken in browsers that don't support display: grid and flexbox.

Configuration Changes

Locale Changes

Format has changed from en_US (with an underscore) to en-US with a hyphen.

Owner Changes

site.owner is now site.author to better support jekyll-seo-tag and jekyll-feed.

v2	v3
`site.owner.name`	`site.author.name`
`site.owner.avatar`	`site.author.picture`
`site.owner.email`	`site.author.email`
`site.owner.twitter`	`site.twitter`
`site.owner.google.analytics`	deprecated, replaced with jekyll-seo-tag
`site.owner.bing-verify`	deprecated, replaced with jekyll-seo-tag

Google Analytics Changes

site.owner.google.analytics is now site.google_analytics. See documentation for more information.

Disqus Comments Changes

site.owner.disqus-shortname is now site.disqus.shortname. See documentation more information.

To disable comments on a particular post add comments: false to its front matter.

Search Changes

search_omit has been renamed to search. To exclude a post or page from search add search: false to its front matter instead.

Image Changes

When assigning image paths for things like the site.logo, page.image.path, author.picture, etc. they now require a full relative or absolute path.

In So Simple v2 images were all placed in /images/ and assigned in front matter with just the filename. For images to properly load, you now need to prepend all paths with /images/... if you are storing images there e.g., /images/your-image.jpg.

To better support Jekyll plugin's like jekyll-seo-tag, jekyll-feed, and jekyll-sitemap most of the image keys have been renamed. Adjust the front matter in all of your posts' and pages' accordingly.

v2	v3
`image.feature`	`image.path`
`image.thumb`	`image.thumbnail`
`image.credit`	`image.caption` (Markdown allowed)
`image.creditlink`	deprecated use `image.caption` instead

A post with the following v2 front matter:

image:
  feature: feature-image-filename.jpg
  thumb: thumb-image-filename.jpg
  credit: Michael Rose
  creditlink: https://mademistakes.com

Would be converted into the following v3 front matter:

image:
  path: /images/feature-image-filename.jpg
  thumbnail: /images/thumb-image-filename.jpg
  caption: "[Michael Rose](https://mademistakes)"

Development Changes

Replaced Grunt tasks with npm scripts.

Step-by-Step

Rough steps to migrate a stock So Simple v2 fork (with no alterations) to the latest.

Remove _includes/, _layouts/, _sass/, jshintrc, Gruntfile.js, and search.json.
Edit Gemfile for either the Ruby gem or GitHub Pages installation methods and follow those instructions.

Add the following Google Fonts to _config.yml:

google_fonts:
  - name: "Source Sans Pro"
    weights: "400,400i,700,700i"
  - name: "Lora"
    weights: "400,400i,700,700i"

Edit _config.yml paying close attention to those keys that have been renamed or have new relative path requirements. locale, logo, and owner are good places to start.
Rename all instances of image.feature, image.thumb, and image.credit in posts/pages adhering to the image changes above.
Remove the body content in index.html and change layout: page to layout: home. Configure pagination if necessary.
Remove the body content in /search/index.md and change layout: page to layout: search.
Remove the body content in /tags/index.md and change layout: page to layout: tags.
Remove the body content in /articles/index.md and change layout: page to layout: category and add taxonomy: articles.
Remove the body content in /body/index.md and change layout: page to layout: category and add taxonomy: blog.
Rename modified front matter in posts/pages to last_modified_at for improved parity with plugins that support it.
Add tag_archive_path: "/tags/#" to _config.yml to activate tag links in post meta sidebar.
Rename avatar to picture in _data/authors.yml (and in any posts/pages front matter), and edit the paths adhering to the image path changes above.

Customization

When installing as a Ruby gem or remote theme the core theme files (_layouts, _includes, _sass, assets, etc.) will be absent from your project.

The default structure, style, and scripts of this theme can be overridden and customized in the following two ways:

Overriding Includes and Layouts

Theme files can be overridden by placing a file with the same name into your project's _includes or _layouts directory. For instance:

To add another social sharing button to _includes/social-share.html, create an _includes directory in your project, copy _includes/social-share.html from So Simple's gem folder to <your_project>/_includes and edit that file.

ProTip: to locate the theme's files on your computer run bundle show jekyll-theme-so-simple. This returns the location of the gem-based theme files.

The theme comes with two files to help inject custom markup and content into predefined locations.

	Description
`_includes/head-custom.html`	Inserted inside the `<head>` element for adding metadata, favicons, etc.
`_includes/footer-custom.html`	Inserted inside the `<footer>` element before site scripts and copyright information.

Customizing Sass (SCSS)

To override the default Sass (located in theme's _sass directory), do one of the following:

Copy directly from the So Simple gem
- Go to your local So Simple gem installation directory (run bundle show jekyll-theme-so-simple to get the path to it).
- Copy the contents of /assets/css/main.scss from there to <your_project>.
- Customize what you want inside <your_project>/assets/css/main.scss.
Copy from this repo.
- Copy the contents of assets/css/main.scss to <your_project>.
- Customize what you want inside <your_project/assets/css/main.scss.

Note: To customize the actual 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 imports these files it's all or nothing. Overriding a single Sass partial (or two) won't work like _includes and _layouts.

To make basic tweaks to theme's style, Sass variables can be overridden by adding to <your_project>/assets/css/main.scss. For instance, to change the accent color used throughout the theme add the following before all @import lines:

$accent-color: tomato;

Customizing JavaScript

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

Copy directly from the So Simple gem
- Go to your local So Simple gem installation directory (run bundle show jekyll-theme-so-simple to get the path to it).
- Copy the contents of /assets/js/main.js from there to <your_project>.
- Customize what you want inside <your_project>/assets/js/main.js.
Copy from this repo.
- Copy the contents of /assets/js/main.js to <your_project>.
- Customize what you want inside <your_project>/assets/js/main.js.

The theme's /assets/js/main.min.js file is built from jQuery plugins and other scripts found in /assets/js/.

├── assets
|  ├── js
|  |  ├── lunr                             # Lunr search plugin
|  |  |   ├── lunr.xx.js                   # Lunr language plugins
|  |  |   ├── ...
|  |  |   ├── lunr.min.js
|  |  |   └── lunr.stemmer.support.min.js
|  |  ├── plugins
|  |  |   ├── jquery.smooth-scroll.min.js  # make same-page links scroll smoothly
|  |  |   ├── lity.min.js                  # responsive lightbox
|  |  |   └── table-of-contents.js         # table of contents toggle
|  |  ├── main.js                          # jQuery plugin settings and other scripts
|  |  ├── main.min.js                      # concatenated and minified scripts
|  |  ├── search-data.json                 # search index used by Lunr

To modify or add your own scripts, include them in assets/js/main.js and then rebuild using npm run build:js. See below for more details.

If you add additional scripts to /assets/js/plugins/ and would like them concatenated with the others, be sure to update the uglify script in package.json. Same goes for scripts that you remove.

You can also add scripts to the <head> or closing </body> elements by adding paths to the following arrays in _config.yml.

Example:

head_scripts:
  - https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js
  - /assets/js/your-custom-head-script.js
footer_scripts:
  - /assets/js/your-custom-footer-script.js

Note: If you assign paths to footer_scripts the theme's /assets/js/main.min.js file will be deactivated. This script includes plugins and other scripts that will cease to function unless you specifically add them to the footer_scripts array.

Font Awesome Icons

The theme utilizes the Font Awesome SVG with JS version for iconography. Prominent locations these icons appear are in the author sidebar and footer links.

Development

To set up your environment to develop this theme:

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

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

cd into the root folder of the repo (e.g. jekyll-theme-so-simple).
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.

JavaScript Build Script

In an effort to reduce dependencies a set of npm scripts are used to build main.min.js instead of task runners like Gulp or Grunt. If those tools are more your style then by all means use them instead 😉.

To get started:

Install Node.js.
cd to the root of your project.
Install all of the dependencies by running npm install.

Note: If you upgraded from a previous version of the theme be sure you copied over package.json prior to running npm install. You may also need to remove your node_modules directory as well.

If all goes well, executing npm run build:js will compress/concatenate main.js and all plugin scripts into /assets/js/main.min.js.

Contributing

Found a typo in the documentation? Requesting a feature or bug fix? Search through the open and closed issues before submitting an issue to avoid duplication.

Pull requests are also appreciated. If this is your first time, it may be helpful to read up on the GitHub Flow.

If your contribution adds or changes the theme's behavior, make sure to update the documentation and/or sample content. Documentation lives in README.md while sample posts, pages, and collections are in the docs and example folders.

Pull Requests

When submitting a pull request:

Clone the repo.
Create a branch off of master and give it a meaningful name (e.g. my-awesome-new-feature).
Open a pull request on GitHub and describe what problem it solves.

Credits

Creator

Michael Rose

Icons + Demo Images:

Other:

License

The MIT License (MIT)

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.

So Simple incorporates photographs from Unsplash.

So Simple incorporates photographs from WeGraphics

So Simple incorporates Breakpoint. Breakpoint is distributed under the terms of the MIT/GPL Licenses.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 793 Commits
.github		.github
_data		_data
_includes		_includes
_layouts		_layouts
_sass		_sass
assets		assets
docs		docs
example		example
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
Gemfile		Gemfile
LICENSE		LICENSE
README-OLD.md		README-OLD.md
README.md		README.md
Rakefile		Rakefile
_config.yml		_config.yml
banner.js		banner.js
index.md		index.md
jekyll-theme-so-simple.gemspec		jekyll-theme-so-simple.gemspec
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
screenshot.png		screenshot.png
screenshots.jpg		screenshots.jpg

License

mmistakes/so-simple-theme

Folders and files

Latest commit

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Repository files navigation

So Simple Jekyll Theme

Sample Pages

Installation

Ruby Gem Method

GitHub Pages Method

Remove the Unnecessary

Upgrading

Ruby Gem

Remote Theme

Use Git

Pull Down Updates

Update Files Manually

Structure

Starting Fresh

Starting from jekyll new

Configuring

Site Skin

Site Locale

Site URL

Site Base URL

Date Format

Reading Time

Mathematics

Google Fonts

Pagination

Search

Taxonomy Pages

Comments (via Disqus)

Google Analytics

Other

Layouts

layout: default

layout: post

Author Links

layout: page

layout: home

layout: posts

layout: categories

layout: tags

layout: collection

layout: category

layout: tag

layout: search

Images

Theme Text

Navigation

Author

Footer

Footer Links

Copyright Text

Helpers

Responsive Embed

Table of Contents

Migration Guide

Global Changes

Browser Support

Configuration Changes

Locale Changes

Owner Changes

Google Analytics Changes

Disqus Comments Changes

Search Changes

Image Changes

Development Changes

Step-by-Step

Customization

Overriding Includes and Layouts

Customizing Sass (SCSS)

Customizing JavaScript

Font Awesome Icons

Development

JavaScript Build Script

Contributing

Pull Requests

Starting from `jekyll new`

`layout: default`

`layout: post`

`layout: page`

`layout: home`

`layout: posts`

`layout: categories`

`layout: tags`

`layout: collection`

`layout: category`

`layout: tag`

`layout: search`

Packages