The Blueprint of a Jekyll Site Demystifying the Directory Structure

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Imagine a Jekyll project as a blueprint for a building. Each file and folder has a specific purpose, from the foundation to the individual rooms. For beginners, this blueprint might look complex at first, but once you understand what each part does, it becomes a powerful and intuitive system for creating websites. This article will act as your guide, demystifying the Jekyll directory structure. We'll walk through the purpose of each component, from the core configuration files to the folders that hold your content and design. By grasping this blueprint, you'll be able to build a well-organized and scalable website on GitHub Pages, avoiding common mistakes and ensuring your project is easy to manage from day one.

Table of Contents

Unveiling the Blueprint

The beauty of Jekyll's design lies in its predictability. The system is built on a set of conventions that allow it to automate much of the website generation process. By placing a file in the _posts directory, you're telling Jekyll, "This is a blog post." By putting a file in the _layouts directory, you're saying, "This is a template for my website's design." This clear separation of concerns makes Jekyll a highly efficient tool. It lets you focus on writing content and designing your site without worrying about the underlying technical details. Let's start with the most critical parts of the blueprint: the foundational elements.

The Foundational Elements

_config.yml and Gemfile

At the very root of your project, two files serve as the foundation of your site. The first is **_config.yml**. This file is your website’s central control panel. It holds global settings that apply to your entire site, such as the title, description, and base URL. It's also where you can configure important features like the URL structure for your blog posts and which plugins Jekyll should use. All of these settings are critical for how Jekyll builds your site. A well-organized _config.yml file is the cornerstone of a manageable project.

The second file is the **Gemfile**. This file manages your project's dependencies, listing the Ruby gems, including Jekyll itself, that your site needs to run. The accompanying **Gemfile.lock** file locks the exact versions of these gems. This is an essential safety feature, as it ensures that your site will build consistently on any machine, from your local computer to the GitHub Pages servers. You should never edit the Gemfile.lock file manually; it is automatically generated and managed by Bundler, a Ruby tool.

Your Site's Content Posts and Pages

Jekyll organizes your content into two main types. For chronological articles and blog posts, you place your Markdown files inside the **_posts** directory. These files must follow a strict naming convention, like YYYY-MM-DD-your-post-title.md, so Jekyll can automatically sort them by date and create clean URLs. This system keeps your blog content neatly organized and easily accessible. For static, non-chronological content like an "About" page or a "Contact" page, you simply place the Markdown or HTML files directly in the root directory. Jekyll will process these files and create a corresponding page on your site with a URL that matches the file path.

This separation of posts and pages is a key concept that simplifies content management. You know exactly where to put a new blog post and where to put a new static page. This clear organization prevents clutter and makes it easy to find what you're looking for, even in a large project.

The Design and Logic Framework

_layouts The Template for Your Site

To define the look and feel of your website, Jekyll uses templates stored in the **_layouts** folder. A layout is a full HTML file that serves as a blueprint for a page. For example, you might have a default.html layout that includes the header and footer for your entire site. Then, you can have a post.html layout that uses the default layout but adds a special section for blog posts. By specifying which layout a page or post should use in its YAML front matter, you can apply a consistent design across your site without writing the same HTML over and over again. This is a powerful feature for maintaining a professional and unified look.

_includes The Toolkit for Reusability

The **_includes** folder is where you put small, reusable chunks of HTML. Think of things like a navigation bar, a social media icon block, or a contact form. Instead of copying and pasting this code into every layout, you can save it as a file in the _includes directory and then insert it into your layouts with a simple Liquid tag like {% include navigation.html %}. This modular approach keeps your code clean and efficient. If you ever need to change your navigation bar, you only have to edit the file in _includes, and the change will be reflected everywhere it's used.

.
├── _layouts/
│   ├── default.html
│   └── post.html
├── _includes/
│   ├── header.html
│   └── footer.html
└── ...

_sass for Advanced Styling

For more advanced styling, the **_sass** folder is where you store your Sass (Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets) files. Jekyll has built-in support for Sass, so it will automatically process these files and compile them into a single CSS file. This allows you to use features like variables, nested rules, and mixins, making your stylesheets more modular and easier to manage. The final compiled CSS file is then placed in a directory like /assets/css/, ready to be used by your layouts.

Understanding the Build Process

Once you've arranged your files and folders, you'll run the Jekyll build command. This command takes all your source files and compiles them into a final, ready-to-deploy website inside the **_site** directory. The _site folder is the final output, containing pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is the folder that you publish to GitHub Pages. It is crucial to remember that you should never edit files inside this folder directly. The _site folder is a temporary output that is completely erased and rebuilt every time you run the build command. To prevent accidentally committing this output folder to your Git repository, it's a best practice to add _site/ to your .gitignore file.

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