So you want a Jekyll blog?

This book is a byproduct of creating my personal website and blog in Jekyll. Some of the issues I had to deal with made it very specific:

• I am using GitHub pages to host my website and thus I can't use most of the Jekyll extensions, or rather I have to push a static website to my GitHub repo

• I needed to have at least two language versions, as I am Polish and some of my loved ones don't speak English - also, some recruiters in Poland don't really like to use it either

• I wanted to have all my website stuff in one place, which means using it for:

  • a professional website with CV and portfolio
  • a sort-of-professional blog
  • blogs dedicated to specific circumstances, like travelling 6850 kilometers from Warsaw to NYC

• I wanted to create my own little plugins and extensions, including:

  • a GitHub-like calendar for my posts, which required a plugin to generate a subpage for every day and category

I started it as a "side-project" which quickly turned to "time consuming little monster" that I had to take control of. Improving my workflow and deployment was the priority, so instead of putting it of "for a better moment" I dedicated a week of my work to clear things up and conquer the tool.

This book is a guide I've created on the side, should anyone struggle with similar problems.

Disclaimers:

• I have some general programming experience, so some of my explanations can be not detailed enough for beginners - please let me know if there is something I can improve

• I have been using Ruby for some time before starting this project, so things that are "obvious" for me can be not so obvious - again, please do point out anything that is too general

• my website is a specific setup which can meet the needs of some people but is not necessarily the best fit for others

What I want to cover in this book:

• general information on how the web, servers and all this seemingly magical stuff works

• what is Jekyll and what could be other options for setting up a blog/website

• how to setup a very simple Jekyll website - the structure, the little quirks you have to keep in mind, the general workflow

• how to tweak the website - multiple blogs, adding plugins, managing multiple languages, RSS feeds etc.

• where to go from there

• why a side project can became a hungry-hungry hippo devouring your time and soul