RWT tropical leaf logo Research Project Website Theme

Create your first website

Use a separate repository for your research site. If your team already has a working site or a prepared starter repository, use that and begin with Write your first page. The theme repository also contains demonstration content; using it as your project would require replacing that content.

Prepare the project repository

  1. Sign in to GitHub and create a repository for your website under the account or organisation that will maintain it. For the simplest setup, use a public repository and initialise it with a README.
  2. In the repository’s browser interface, create _config.yml in the root folder. Copy the configuration below and replace the project title, description, username, and repository name.
  3. Create index.md using the homepage example below.
  4. Create _data/navigation.yml using the menu example below. Commit each file with a brief description.

The root folder means the top level of the repository. File and folder names beginning with _ are significant to Jekyll; keep the spelling shown.

# _config.yml
title: "Our research project"
description: "Research into healthier coastal ecosystems."
url: "https://USERNAME.github.io"
baseurl: "/REPOSITORY-NAME"
remote_theme: jcu-eresearch/jcu-research-website-theme
plugins:
  - jekyll-remote-theme
markdown: kramdown
kramdown:
  input: GFM

The remote_theme setting loads the shared theme. Your repository stores your content and settings, so you do not need to copy the theme’s layouts or styles. See GitHub’s remote-theme instructions for details.

---
layout: page
title: Our research project
permalink: /
---

Welcome to our project website.

## Our aim

We investigate how coastal ecosystems respond to environmental change.

A simple standard-page homepage is enough to start. You can replace it with a landing-page layout later.

# _data/navigation.yml
- title: Home
  url: /

Publish and check

In the repository settings, open Pages. Choose Deploy from a branch, select the branch containing your files (usually main), choose the root folder, and save. If your organisation manages publishing differently, follow its process. GitHub’s publishing-source guide explains both branch and workflow options.

Check the deployment in the repository’s Actions tab. After it succeeds, open the website address shown in Pages settings. Confirm that the homepage and menu appear. If they do not, use Preview and troubleshoot.

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