How do I configure GitHub to use non-supported Jekyll site plugins?

Question

I just created a great gallery for my Jekyll blog which builds perfectly on my localhost:4000. However, GitHub pages doesn't support the Jekyll Gallery Generator plug-in I am using: https://github.com/ggreer/jekyll-gallery-generator

I read about the alternative method of hosting Jekyll on a traditional host using FTP (uploading the _site directory) http://jekyllrb.com/docs/deployment-methods/ However, rather than reconfigure my entire site and hosting, It would be great if GitHub Pages could be used somehow even though I'm using a non-supported plugin.

What is a workaround for this?

Answer 1

Depending if you deal with a User/Organization (UO) site or a Project site (P), do :

1. from your working folder git init
2. git remote add origin [email protected]:userName/userName.github.io.git (UO) or git remote add origin [email protected]:userName/repositoryName.git (P)
3. jekyll new . creates your code base
4. in _config.yml, set the baseurl parameter to baseurl: '' (UO) or baseurl: '/repositoryName' (P)
5. in .gitignore add _site, it will be versioned in the other branch
6. jekyll build will create the destination folder and build site.
7. git checkout -b sources (UO) or git checkout master (P)
8. git add -A
9. git commit -m "jekyll base sources" commit your source code
10. git push origin sources (UO) or git push origin master (P) push your sources in the appropriate branch
11. cd _site
12. touch .nojekyll, this file tells gh-pages that there is no need to build
13. git init init the repository
14. git remote add origin [email protected]:userName/userName.github.io.git (UO) or git remote add origin [email protected]:userName/repositoryName.git (P)
15. git checkout master (UO) or git checkout -b gh-pages (P) put this repository on the appropriate branch
16. git add -A
17. git commit -m "jekyll first build" commit your site code
18. git push origin master (UO) or git push origin gh-pages (P)

You now have something like Octopress does. Look at their rake file, there are some nice comments inside.

Answer 2

Better way is to configure Travis to automate deployment of jekyll with non-supported plugins. Follow Travis getting started guide to enable Travis for your repo.

Create script/cibuild with the following content

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e # halt script on error

bundle exec jekyll build
touch ./_site/.nojekyll # this file tells gh-pages that there is no need to build

Create .travis.yml with the following content (modify as required)

language: ruby
rvm:
- 2.3.3

before_script:
 - chmod +x ./script/cibuild # or do this locally and commit

# Assume bundler is being used, therefore
# the `install` step will run `bundle install` by default.
script: ./script/cibuild

# branch whitelist, only for GitHub Pages
branches:
  only:
  - master

env:
  global:
  - NOKOGIRI_USE_SYSTEM_LIBRARIES=true # speeds up installation of html-proofer

sudo: false # route your build to the container-based infrastructure for a faster build

deploy:
  provider: pages
  skip_cleanup: true
  keep-history: true
  local_dir: _site/  # deploy this directory containing final build
  github_token: $GITHUB_API_KEY # Set in travis-ci.org dashboard
  on:
    branch: master

Deployment steps (after every push):

1. Build will be created using our custom script script/cibuild in _site directory
2. _site will be pushed to gh-pages branch.
3. github pages will serve site as it is without building it again (because of .nojekyll file)

Reference: My repository https://github.com/armujahid/armujahid.me/ is using this method for continuous integration using Travis CI