Docsify Open Course Starter Kit

This is a starter kit to quickly create a Markdown-based open course site with the site generator Docsify. Global navigation elements can be hidden for seamlessly embedding pages (i.e., into an LMS). Includes an optional "Edit this Page" link.

📸 Docsify Open Course Screenshots

Figure 1. Docsify Open Course Starter Kit. Explore a demo at hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-course-starter-kit/

🚀 GitHub Pages Quickstart

Pre-flight Checklist

GitHub account

Installation and Deployment

Tap Use this template on the source repository (upper-right green button)
Choose the name for your new repository to contain the copied site files and then tap Create repository from template
Go to Settings of your newly created repository, tap the Pages tab (on the left-hand side), choose main branch, then docs folder and finally tap the Save button (see more details in the Docsify documentation)
And you're done! (view your new site using the provided URL on the Pages tab - it can take up to 10 minutes for your site to be initially available)

Do you use GitLab? You can also use Docsify with GitLab Pages!

✏️ Editing Your Docsify Site Pages on GitHub

Go to the Docsify Markdown (.md) page in the docs folder of your repository you want to edit
Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap the Commit changes button to save your changes

Learn more about creating pages in Docsify.

🔗 Activating the “Edit this Page” Link on Your Docsify Site

At the top-level of your GitHub Repository copy the URL
Tap on the docs folder
Tap on the index.html file
Tap the Pencil Icon (top left-hand toolbar area) to start the editor
Find the line var gitLinkRepoURL = ''; and enter the URL of your own GitHub Repository in between the two quotes and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap the Commit changes button to save your changes

💻 Locally Editing Your Docsify Site Pages

Editing Your Docsify Site Pages on Your Desktop

Tap Code on your repository (upper-right green button)
Choose Open Desktop and follow the prompts, installing GitHub Desktop if not already present
You will now be able to edit your Docsify site (in the docs folder) using the desktop editor of your choice (e.g. Atom)
Use GitHub Desktop to push any changes to your repository.

Learn more about using GitHub Desktop.

You can also clone (i.e download) a copy of your repository to your computer and run Docsify locally to preview your site. See the below video for details.

🖼 Embedding your Docsify Page Content into Other Systems

Figure 2. Docsify Open Course Page Embedded into the Canvas LMS. Explore an example Canvas LMS course using Docsify Open Course pages for content at https://canvas.sfu.ca/courses/44038/

The optional ‘embedded’ (all lowercase) URL parameter hides a site’s sidebar and optional navbar for seamlessly embedding Docsify page content within another platform such as Canvas LMS, Moodle, Microsoft Teams etc.

To only display Docsify page content, add the following to a Docsify page URL:

?embedded=true

For example, https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-course-starter-kit/#/resources would display a standard Docsify page while https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-course-starter-kit/#/resources?embedded=true would only display page content (i.e., no sidebar or optional navbar is shown).

To optionally hide the 'Edit this Page' link, use the following:

?embedded=true&hidegitlink=true

For example, https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-course-starter-kit/#/resources would display a standard Docsify page while https://hibbitts-design.github.io/demo-docsify-open-course-starter-kit/#/resources?embedded=true&hidegitlink=true would only display page content (i.e., no sidebar or optional navbar is shown) and also hide the 'Edit this Page' link.

🌐 Using an LMS to Host a Docsify Open Course Site

As Docsify Open Course Starter Kit does not require a web server, it can actually be hosted on many LMSs that support file libraries such as Canvas and Moodle.

For example, here is a Docsify Open Course Site hosted within a Canvas course and here is a Docsify Open Course Site hosted within a Moodle course. Single Docsify Open Course site pages can also be embedded while hosted on the same system.

Hosting a Docsify Open Course Site on your LMS

Tap Download on your repository page
Upload to your LMS file storage area, and unzip the upload file
Based on your LMS, determine the external URL required to load the index.html file within the Docsify Docs folder. In Canvas, an example URL would look similar to https://canvas.sfu.ca/courses/44038/files/15884796/download.