MegaMek Website

These files contain a Jekyll set-up for a the new MegaMek website hosted at GitHub pages. Github pages supports Jekyll set ups and the site will automatically re-build any time a new commit is pushed to this repository.

The other reasons for using Jekyll is that we can separate frequently updated content from the HTML formatting and design, without having to rely on a database system. This repository is designed so that all content information is pulled from simple Markdown and YAML files that can be easily edited without fiddling around with a bunch of HTML code.

Adding Content

Program Versions

The latest program version information is kept in YAML file current_releases.yml in the _data folder. The version information and download links that show on the website depend on this file. For the download links to work properly, each release should just include the number of the release without a "v."

Page Content

Page content is stored in markdown files in the wiki directory, and in the root directory. Here is a list of the files that currently exist and what content they change:

• In root directory:
  • community.md: Information about the MegaMek community. Shows on its own page.
  • play.md: Information about how to play MegaMek and MekHQ. Shows on its own page.
  • downloads.html: Download information
  • faq.html: FAQ Information
  • installation.html: How to install and update information
  • servers.md: Current games that are being announced for anyone to join.
• The wiki directory contains additional markdown files for supplementary content that is not directly used in the main navbar but that can be linked to and is available at wiki/name_of_file.html when the site is compiled.

More information about using markdown to write pages can be found here. Its super easy.

Posting

New posts can be created as Markdown files in the _posts directory. File names should always start with "YEAR_MONTH_DAY" to ensure that they are properly sorted. Follow the layout of existing posts for the header information. The most recent six posts will show on the front page and the rest will be available in an archive.

FAQ

FAQ information is kept in YAML files in the _data/faq directory. Each file includes question and answer fields for each item. Currently there are three different categories of technical, unit, and miscellaneous. If these categories are changed/expanded, the faq.html file will require editing to accommodate the new categories.

New Pages

To create new pages, add a markdown file to the root or wiki directory with the same front matter that is currently in the play.md file. Layout should remain "info_page" and the title should be unique. A splash image from the assets/images directory is optional.

To add this page to the top navbar, you need to edit the menu-pages.csv file in the _data directory. The name provided must match the title given in the front matter and the address should point to a file of the same name but with an html rather than md suffix.

New Screenshots

Before addition, screenshots should be cropped to have an aspect ratio of 2:1 (width to height). this can be done easily with pixlr, GIMP, or PhotoShop by maintaining an aspect ratio of 1200 x 600 when cropping.

New screenshots should be added directly to assets/images/screenshots. To get them to show up in the carousel, you will have to add a line to _data/screenshots.csv indicating the full file name, the program being displayed (i.e. MegaMek, MekHQ, or MegaMekLab), and a caption.

New Images

To use images in a post or page, first add the image to the assets/images directory. Then you can reference the image in your markdown document with:

![My new image description](/assets/images/mynewimage.jpg){:class="img-fluid"}

The class call ensures that the image will resize by device. This will scale images the full width of the container if they are too large. To get a smaller width use {:class="img-fluid w-75"} or {:class="img-fluid w-50"} to shrink the image to 75% or 50% of the full width, respectively.

You can also put other documents into the assets directory and reference them in a similar way. For example, for a PDF:

[get the PDF](/assets/mydoc.pdf)

Development

To test out changes to a local repository, you need to install Docker. Then from the command line within the repository run:

docker build -t jekyll .

to build a local Docker image containing all the tools needed to compile and host the site. Once the image is built, just use:

docker run -it --rm -v ${PWD}:${PWD} -w ${PWD} -p "4000:4000" jekyll

to start the local site host.

The website should then be viewable at localhost:4000.

PR and Commit Policies

For minor spelling/grammatical corrections or basic updates to content (e.g. updating links), devs with access may push directly to the master branch. For substantial content revisions, new content, or website design changes, a pull request should be made and approved by another dev.