jekyll-conference

This is a Jekyll template based on Bootstrap 4 which can be used to make a simple website for a one-day conference or workshop containing:

• program / schedule
• talk descriptions
• speaker descriptions
• room descriptions

All components such as talks, speakers or rooms are represented as collection of files. The schedule is given is defined via a simple structure stored in a yaml file. There is no need for databases and once generated the website consists only of static files. The use of JavaScript is optional and is used only for the navigation bar dropdown menus and the program table's sticky header/first column.

Setup

1. Install Bundler, a Ruby package manager.
2. Verify you have Git LFS installed (used to store documents).
3. Clone this repository and browse into it: cd jekyll-conference/
4. Run bundler to install all dependencies such as Jekyll: bundle install
5. Build the site with Jekyll: bundle exec jekyll build. The generated content in the _site/ directory (will be overwritten at each new build)
6. Instead of building you can also serve it locally with automated regeneration (does not contain changes on the site's configuration) with: bundle exec jekyll serve

Configuration

As a general rule all files ending with .md are supposed to be modified. Reference between the files is done via their name property. The repository in its current state serves as an example.

The site's configuration is given by the _config.yaml file. There one can edit the following arguments:

• the site's title,
• a short, general description of the site's content in description (optional) and a longer one in long_description (optional),
• the site's url and baseurl,
• navigation defines the navigational bar's content and is an array containing the ordered links. Each link consists of
  • the text to show (name),
  • a relative (relative_url) or absolute link address (absolute_url) or another list of links whereby the current link will be transformed to a dropdown menu (menu), and
  • optionally if it is disabled (disabled).
• main_links defines links shown on the main landing page in form of buttons. Each link consists of
  • the text to show (name),
  • a relative (relative_url) or absolute link address (absolute_url), and
  • optionally if it is disabled (disabled: true).
• info_bars defines optional dismissible boxes below the navigation bar. Consists of
  • a title (optional),
  • a color, given as a (Bootstrap) class name,
  • the option to show the box only on the main page (main_only: true) or the other pages (pages_only: true), and
  • a text to be shown.
• the conference main_categories which is used to sort talks, each main category consists of a name and a color given as a (Bootstrap) class name
• time_steps sets the grid space for the program table in minutes, and
• show_firstname indicates if the speakers' first names are generally shown or abbreviated.
• show_alltimes indicates if the timestamps for all rows in the program grid should be shown.

Content

Schedule

The one-day schedule of the conference is defined in the [data/program.yml] file. It consists of an array of rooms each consisting of a

• room name (must correspond to one of the room identifier), and
• an array of talks which also can be empty [].

The order of the room in the file defines the order of the rooms on the website (program and room listings).

Each talk in the array consists of

• a name (must correspond to one of the talk identifier),
• a starting time time_start given as H:M (strftime formated), and
• an end time time_end.

The array should (manually) be ordered by time. Currently talks can only take place on the same day and multi-day conferences are not supported.

Talks

Each talk is represented by file in the _talks/ directory. It must begin with valid YAML Front Matter containing

• the talk's name (used as identifier),
• one or more existing speakers name(s), and
• optionally one or more categories of which one should be a main category as defined in the site's configuration
• optionally a list of links whereby each link element must contain a name and either an absolute link href or a file name (of a file stored under /documents/)
• optionally hide: true if the talk and its description should not be shown

Speakers

Each speaker is represented by file in the _speakers/ directory. It must begin with valid YAML Front Matter containing

• the speaker's name (used as identifier), as well as its
• first_name,
• last_name, and
• optionally a list of links whereby each link element must contain a name and either an absolute link href or a file name (of a file stored under /documents/)
• optionally hide: true if the speaker and its description should not be shown.

Rooms

Each room is represented by file in the _location/ directory (no ending s). It must begin with valid YAML Front Matter containing

• the room's name, and
• optionally hide: true if the speaker and its description should not be shown.

Furthermore, one can edit location/index.md to add additional information about the venue's location.

Additional Pages

Additional static pages can easily be added as page_name/index.html. In the repository a about and contact page are given as example.

Design

The design is based on the Bootstrap 4. Custom Bootstrap variables such as designed with Bootstrap Magic for individual themes can be added in the main SASS stylesheet.

Upon site building Jekyll takes care of prefixing and building Bootstrap from source including some minor modifications into a single stylesheet. While the Bootstrap stylsheet is build from source, the (static) Bootstrap JavaScript files are included in this repository and have their proper licensing terms.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. You can view LICENSE.md for more details.

This project re-distributes other open-source tools and libraries. You can view REDISTRIBUTED.md for third party licenses.