10 KiB
| template |
|---|
| overrides/main.html |
Customization
Project documentation is as diverse as the projects themselves and Material for MkDocs is a great starting point for making it look beautiful. However, as you write your documentation, you may reach a point where 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
small tweaks to Material for MkDocs, you can just CSS and JavaScript files to
the docs directory.
Additional CSS
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:
.
├─ docs/
│ └─ stylesheets/
│ └─ extra.css
└─ mkdocs.yml
Then, add the following lines to mkdocs.yml:
extra_css:
- stylesheets/extra.css
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:
.
├─ docs/
│ └─ javascripts/
│ └─ extra.js
└─ mkdocs.yml
Then, add the following lines to mkdocs.yml:
extra_javascript:
- javascripts/extra.js
Extending the theme
If you want to alter the HTML source (e.g. add or remove some parts), you can extend the theme. MkDocs supports theme extension, an easy way to override parts of Material for MkDocs without forking from git. This ensures that you can update to the latest version more easily.
Setup and theme structure
Enable Material for MkDocs as usual in mkdocs.yml, and create a new folder
for overrides which you then reference using the custom_dir
setting:
theme:
name: material
custom_dir: overrides
!!! warning "Theme extension prerequisites"
As the [`custom_dir`][custom_dir] setting is used for the theme extension
process, Material for MkDocs needs to be installed via `pip` and referenced
with the [`name`][name] setting 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:
.
├─ .icons/ # Bundled icon sets
├─ assets/
│ ├─ images/ # Images and icons
│ ├─ javascripts/ # JavaScript files
│ └─ stylesheets/ # Stylesheets
├─ partials/
│ ├─ integrations/ # Third-party integrations
│ │ ├─ analytics/ # Analytics integrations
│ │ └─ analytics.html # Analytics setup
│ ├─ languages/ # Translation languages
│ ├─ footer.html # Footer bar
│ ├─ header.html # Header bar
│ ├─ language.html # Translation setup
│ ├─ logo.html # Logo in header and sidebar
│ ├─ nav.html # Main navigation
│ ├─ nav-item.html # Main navigation item
│ ├─ page.html # Page
│ ├─ page-footer.html # Page footer
│ ├─ page-header.html # Page header
│ ├─ palette.html # Color palette
│ ├─ search.html # Search box
│ ├─ social.html # Social links
│ ├─ source.html # Repository information
│ ├─ source-file.html # Source file information
│ ├─ 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 a partial, we can replace it with a file of the same name
and location in the overrides directory. For example, to replace the original
footer.html partial, create a new footer.html partial in the overrides
directory:
.
├─ overrides/
│ └─ partials/
│ └─ footer.html
└─ mkdocs.yml
MkDocs will now use the new partial when rendering the theme. This can be done with any file.
Overriding blocks recommended
Besides overriding partials, it's also possible to override (and extend)
template blocks, which are defined inside the templates and wrap specific
features. In order to set up block overrides, create a main.html file inside
the overrides directory:
.
├─ overrides/
│ └─ main.html
└─ mkdocs.yml
Then, e.g. to override the site title, add the following lines to main.html:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block htmltitle %}
<title>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</title>
{% endblock %}
The following template blocks are provided by the theme:
| Block name | Purpose |
|---|---|
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 add custom meta tags |
fonts |
Wraps the font 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) |
outdated |
Wraps the version warning |
scripts |
Wraps the JavaScript application (footer) |
site_meta |
Wraps the meta tags in the document head |
site_nav |
Wraps the site navigation and table of contents |
styles |
Wraps the style sheets (also extra sources) |
tabs |
Wraps the tabs navigation (if available) |
Additional variables
Besides template blocks, Material for MkDocs provides extra variables for parts
that cannot be overridden with template blocks (due to technical limitations of
the template engine). If you want to add further information after the Made
with Material for MkDocs hint in the footer, add the following line to
main.html:
{% extends "base.html" %}
{% set extracopyright %}
<!-- Add additional copyright information here -->
{% endset %}
The following template variables are provided by the theme:
| Block name | Purpose |
|---|---|
extracopyright |
Adds custom copyright information |
Theme development
Material for MkDocs is built on top of TypeScript, RxJS and SASS, and uses a lean, custom build process to put everything together.1 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 14 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
pip install mkdocs-redirects
npm install
Development mode
Start the watcher with:
npm start
Then, in a second terminal window, start the MkDocs live preview server with:
mkdocs serve --watch-theme
Point your browser to localhost:8000 and you should see this very 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
overwritten when the theme is built.
Building the theme
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 style
sheets and JavaScript files. After the command exits, the compiled files are
located in the material directory. When running mkdocs build, you should
now see your changes to the original theme.
-
Prior to :octicons-tag-24: 7.0.0 the build was based on Webpack, resulting in occasional broken builds due to incompatibilities with loaders and plugins. Therefore, we decided to swap Webpack for a leaner solution which is now based on RxJS as the application itself. This allowed for the pruning of more than 500 dependencies (~30% less). ↩︎