Material for MkDocs

Installation

First, make a folder for all the MkDocs files and cd into it.

Next, create a Python virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate    // this activates the virtual environment

Now, install the Material for MkDocs package using pip:

pip install mkdocs-material

Creating the site

Initialize the project:

mkdocs new .

Configuration

In the mkdocs.yml file, add these lines to enable the Material theme:

site_url: <your site url>
theme:
  name: material

Suggested: install YAML extension in VS Code - Install YAML extension by Red Hat - In VS Code settings, jump to the settings.json file, and paste the following:

{
  "yaml.schemas": {
    "https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/schema.json": "mkdocs.yml"
  },
  "yaml.customTags": [ 
    "!ENV scalar",
    "!ENV sequence",
    "!relative scalar",
    "tag:yaml.org,2002:python/name:material.extensions.emoji.to_svg",
    "tag:yaml.org,2002:python/name:material.extensions.emoji.twemoji",
    "tag:yaml.org,2002:python/name:pymdownx.superfences.fence_code_format",
    "tag:yaml.org,2002:python/object/apply:pymdownx.slugs.slugify mapping"
  ]
}

Previewing

Run this command to preview the site:

mkdocs serve

More features

Check out this YouTube tutorial and the Material documentation

Publishing the site (using GitHub Actions)

At the root of your repository, create a new GitHub Actions workflow, e.g. .github/workflows/ci.yml, and copy and paste the following contents:

name: ci 
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master 
      - main
permissions:
  contents: write
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Configure Git Credentials
        run: |
          git config user.name github-actions[bot]
          git config user.email 41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: 3.x
      - run: echo "cache_id=$(date --utc '+%V')" >> $GITHUB_ENV 
      - uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          key: mkdocs-material-${{ env.cache_id }}
          path: ~/.cache 
          restore-keys: |
            mkdocs-material-
      - run: pip install mkdocs-material 
      - run: mkdocs gh-deploy --force

Initialize a Git repository, and make a .gitignore file and paste the following content:

# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class

# C extensions
*.so

# Distribution / packaging
.Python
build/
develop-eggs/
dist/
downloads/
eggs/
.eggs/
lib/
lib64/
parts/
sdist/
var/
wheels/
pip-wheel-metadata/
share/python-wheels/
*.egg-info/
.installed.cfg
*.egg
MANIFEST

# PyInstaller
#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
*.manifest
*.spec

# Installer logs
pip-log.txt
pip-delete-this-directory.txt

# Unit test / coverage reports
htmlcov/
.tox/
.nox/
.coverage
.coverage.*
.cache
nosetests.xml
coverage.xml
*.cover
*.py,cover
.hypothesis/
.pytest_cache/

# Translations
*.mo
*.pot

# Django stuff:
*.log
local_settings.py
db.sqlite3
db.sqlite3-journal

# Flask stuff:
instance/
.webassets-cache

# Scrapy stuff:
.scrapy

# Sphinx documentation
docs/_build/

# PyBuilder
target/

# Jupyter Notebook
.ipynb_checkpoints

# IPython
profile_default/
ipython_config.py

# pyenv
.python-version

# pipenv
#   According to pypa/pipenv#598, it is recommended to include Pipfile.lock in version control.
#   However, in case of collaboration, if having platform-specific dependencies or dependencies
#   having no cross-platform support, pipenv may install dependencies that don't work, or not
#   install all needed dependencies.
#Pipfile.lock

# PEP 582; used by e.g. github.com/David-OConnor/pyflow
__pypackages__/

# Celery stuff
celerybeat-schedule
celerybeat.pid

# SageMath parsed files
*.sage.py

# Environments
.env
.venv
env/
venv/
ENV/
env.bak/
venv.bak/

# Spyder project settings
.spyderproject
.spyproject

# Rope project settings
.ropeproject

# mkdocs documentation
/site

# mypy
.mypy_cache/
.dmypy.json
dmypy.json

# Pyre type checker
.pyre/

Create a repository on GitHub for the site and in settings - pages, set the publishing source branch to gh-pages.

Now in the local repo,

git commit -m ...
git remote add origin ...
git push origin main

The page will soon be available at <username>.github.io/<repository>.

Acknowledgement

This is a personal note written with information from:

Official Material for MkDocs page
James Willett's YouTube tutorial