Developing Themes

  1. Learn Siteleaf
  2. Developing Themes

Siteleaf CLI

We recommend using GitHub Sync for local development, but you can use the Siteleaf command line interface (CLI) if that’s your preferred workflow.

The Siteleaf CLI ships as an open source Ruby gem. To fork and contribute see: https://github.com/siteleaf/siteleaf-gem

Local development using the Siteleaf CLI

1) Create a file called Gemfile in your site’s root folder and add the Siteleaf gem and Jekyll to your bundle:

source 'http://rubygems.org'

gem 'jekyll'

group :development do
  gem 'siteleaf', '~>2'
end

For help with Bundler or Gemfiles, please see: http://bundler.io/gemfile.html

2) Install the bundle:

$ gem install bundler
$ bundle install

3) Authorize your Siteleaf account:

$ bundle exec siteleaf auth

4) Create or connect to a Siteleaf site:

To create a new Siteleaf site:

$ bundle exec siteleaf new yoursite.com

This will create a new theme folder called yoursite.com in the directory where you ran this command. It will also create the site for you in your Siteleaf account. If you prefer not to create a new directory, run bundle exec siteleaf new yoursite.com . instead.

To use an existing Siteleaf site:

$ bundle exec siteleaf config yoursite.com

You can then pull the Jekyll configuration, content, and current theme:

$ bundle exec siteleaf pull

5) Start the Jekyll server:

$ bundle exec jekyll serve

Now visit localhost:4000 to see your site!

5) Push your content and theme to Siteleaf:

$ bundle exec siteleaf push

Important: When using push/pull in v2, both theme and content files are included. Always make sure to do a pull first to avoid overwriting your Siteleaf content on push. Your local directory must have a _config.yml in order to push.

Backing up your site

Creating a full backup of your site is simple. Just copy your Gemfile to an empty directory and do a pull:

cp Gemfile /path/to/backup/
cd /path/to/backup/
bundle install
bundle exec siteleaf config yoursite.com
bundle exec siteleaf pull

This will include your entire site, including theme files, assets, content, and site metadata.

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