8.5 KiB
template |
---|
overrides/main.html |
Customization
Project documentation is as diverse as the projects themselves and Material for MkDocs is a good starting point for making it look great. However, as you write your documentation, you may reach a point where some small adjustments are necessary to preserve your brand's style.
Adding assets
MkDocs provides several ways to customize a theme. In order to make a few
tweaks to an existing theme, you can just add your stylesheets and JavaScript
files to the docs
directory.
Additional stylesheets
If you want to tweak some colors or change the spacing of certain elements,
you can do this in a separate stylesheet. The easiest way is by creating a
new stylesheet file in the docs
directory:
mkdir docs/stylesheets
touch docs/stylesheets/extra.css
Then, add the following line to mkdocs.yml
:
extra_css:
- stylesheets/extra.css
Spin up the live preview server and start typing your changes in your additional stylesheet file – you should see them almost instantly after saving.
Additional JavaScript
The same is true for additional JavaScript. If you want to integrate another
syntax highlighter or add some custom logic to your theme, create a new
JavaScript file in the docs
directory:
mkdir docs/javascripts
touch docs/javascripts/extra.js
Then, add the following line to mkdocs.yml
:
extra_javascript:
- javascripts/extra.js
Further assistance can be found in the MkDocs documentation.
Extending the theme
If you want to alter the HTML source (e.g. add or remove some part), you can extend the theme. MkDocs supports theme extension, an easy way to override parts of a theme without forking and changing the main theme.
Setup and theme structure
Reference the Material theme as usual in mkdocs.yml
, and create a new folder
for overrides
which you reference using custom_dir
:
theme:
name: material
custom_dir: overrides
!!! warning "Theme extension prerequisites"
As the `custom_dir` variable is used for the theme extension process,
Material for MkDocs needs to be installed via `pip` and referenced with the
`name` parameter in `mkdocs.yml`. It will not work when cloning from `git`.
The structure in the overrides
directory must mirror the directory structure
of the original theme, as any file in the overrides
directory will replace the
file with the same name which is part of the original theme. Besides, further
assets may also be put in the overrides
directory.
The directory layout of the theme is as follows:
.
├─ assets/
│ ├─ images/ # Images and icons
│ ├─ javascripts/ # JavaScript
│ └─ stylesheets/ # Stylesheets
├─ partials/
│ ├─ integrations/ # 3rd-party integrations
│ ├─ language/ # Localized languages
│ ├─ footer.html # Footer bar
│ ├─ header.html # Header bar
│ ├─ hero.html # Hero teaser
│ ├─ language.html # Localized labels
│ ├─ logo.html # Logo in header and sidebar
│ ├─ nav.html # Main navigation
│ ├─ nav-item.html # Main navigation item
│ ├─ palette.html # Color palette
│ ├─ search.html # Search box
│ ├─ social.html # Social links
│ ├─ source.html # Repository information
│ ├─ source-date.html # Last updated date
│ ├─ source-link.html # Link to source file
│ ├─ tabs.html # Tabs navigation
│ ├─ tabs-item.html # Tabs navigation item
│ ├─ toc.html # Table of contents
│ └─ toc-item.html # Table of contents item
├─ 404.html # 404 error page
├─ base.html # Base template
└─ main.html # Default page
Overriding partials
In order to override the footer, we can replace the footer.html
partial with
our own partial. To do this, create the file partials/footer.html
in the
overrides
directory. MkDocs will now use the new partial when rendering the
theme. This can be done with any file.
Overriding blocks
Besides overriding partials, it's also possible to override (and extend) so
called blocks, which are defined inside the templates and wrap specific
features. To override a block, create a main.html
inside the overrides
directory and define the block, e.g.:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block htmltitle %}
<title>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</title>
{% endblock %}
Material for MkDocs provides the following template blocks:
Block name | Wrapped contents |
---|---|
analytics |
Wraps the Google Analytics integration |
announce |
Wraps the Announcement bar |
config |
Wraps the JavaScript application config |
content |
Wraps the main content |
disqus |
Wraps the disqus integration |
extrahead |
Empty block to define additional meta tags |
fonts |
Wraps the webfont definitions |
footer |
Wraps the footer with navigation and copyright |
header |
Wraps the fixed header bar |
hero |
Wraps the hero teaser (if available) |
htmltitle |
Wraps the <title> tag |
libs |
Wraps the JavaScript libraries (header) |
scripts |
Wraps the JavaScript application (footer) |
source |
Wraps the linked source files |
site_meta |
Wraps the meta tags in the document head |
site_nav |
Wraps the site navigation and table of contents |
styles |
Wraps the stylesheets (also extra sources) |
tabs |
Wraps the tabs navigation (if available) |
For more on this topic refer to the MkDocs documentation.
Theme development
Material for MkDocs uses Webpack as a build tool to leverage modern web technologies like TypeScript and SASS. If you want to make more fundamental changes, it may be necessary to make the adjustments directly in the source of the theme and recompile it.
Environment setup
In order to start development on Material for MkDocs, a Node.js version of at least 12 is required. First, clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material
Next, all dependencies need to be installed, which is done with:
cd mkdocs-material
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install mkdocs-minify-plugin
npm install
Development mode
Start the Webpack watchdog with:
npm start
Then, in a second session, start the MkDocs server with:
mkdocs serve
Point your browser to localhost:8000 and you should see this documentation in front of you.
!!! warning "Automatically generated files"
Never make any changes in the `material` directory, as the contents of this
directory are automatically generated from the `src` directory and will be
overridden when the theme is built.
Build process
When you're finished making your changes, you can build the theme by invoking:
npm run build
This triggers the production-level compilation and minification of all
stylesheets and JavaScript sources. When the command exits, the final files are
located in the material
directory. Add the theme_dir
variable pointing to
the aforementioned directory in the original mkdocs.yml
.
Now you can run mkdocs build
and you should see your documentation with your
changes to the original theme.