How to create your own site

July 2, 2024

This blog will show the steps of how to create your own personal site like this.

Conponets: GitHub Pages, Jekyll, Minimal Mistakes

Set up your GitHub Pages: the official guide cannot be more pellucid.

Set up Jekyll: you can go to Jekyll documents at the button of GitHub Pages website or here.

Follow the steps in Prerequisites and run
```
gem install jekyll bundler
```
Make sure you are in your local project folder (where you just cloned your GitHub repository), if not, run cd your_repository_location.
Run
```
jekyll new --skip-bundle
```
Open the Gemfile that Jekyll created
1. Add “#” to the beginning of the line that starts with gem "jekyll" to comment out this line.
2. Add the github-pages gem by editing the line starting with # gem "github-pages". Change this line to: gem "github-pages", "~> GITHUB-PAGES-VERSION", group: :jekyll_plugins
3. Replace GITHUB-PAGES-VERSION with the latest supported version of the github-pages gem. You can find this version here.
Run
```
bundle install
```
Troubleshooting
- If there is error about “wdm”, try comment this line in Gemfile: gem "wdm", "~> 0.1.1", :platforms => [:mingw, :x64_mingw, :mswin]
- Remember to run bundle install and bundle update everytime after you modify the Gemfile.
Build the site and see it on your local server
```
bundle exec jekyll serve
```

So far Jekyll should be set up, you can custom it in _config.yml. More see the official guide.

Set up Minimal Mistakes (a Jekyll theme)

Go to Minimal Mistakes document and install via Remote theme method.
So far Minimal Mistakes should be set up, you can custom according to the official configuration.
You can also have a look at Minimal Mistakes Github repository. There are samples pages for reference.

Note: everything in _site/ will be rebuilt after you run bundle exec jekyll serve. So remember to store your files outside.

Now it is done!