Issue with blog category index for a dedicated blog

[jacobprezant]

Hello!
I'm having an issue with setting a category index. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out exactly what, and I'd appreciate some help. I've seen the below documentation:

I have a post with the category Reading List. Reading List is an allowed category in my mkdocs.yml, and the URL generated is http://localhost:8000/category/reading-list/. It's a dedicated blog, so I've set blog_dir: ., however when I try to add a the category index for Reading List nothing shows. This is my setup:

Currently, it's showing Reading list in the sidebar with index.md as a file within (I assume interpreting it as a folder).

I've tried playing with the naming of the folder; none work.

Any help would be appreciated. Happy to provide more info.

[kamilkrzyskow]

Hi @jacobprezant,
the screenshot of the file structure in the docs and the screenshot of your file structure don't match.

https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-a-blog/#custom-index-pages

The order is as follows:

• Blog directory root
• Folder called category matching the URL format
• Markdown file named after a category name, matching the URL format

You're using the blog at the the docs root blog_dir: ., therefore you can skip the blog root.
Your URL is this http://localhost:8000/category/reading-list/
So add category inside of your docs directory
And add reading-list.md file inside of the docs/category.

If that doesn't work make sure you have the correct version of mkdocs-material above 9.6.0
Command: pip show mkdocs-material

Also there could be a bug where this setup doesn't work with blog_dir: ..
Then please create a Bug report with a reproduction https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/guides/creating-a-reproduction/

[jacobprezant]

Hi @kamilkrzyskow. Thanks for your help. I've tried what you describe and it gets rid of the category in the sidebar, however the contents reading-list.md simply don't show anywhere. I'll submit a bug report with reproduction.

[jacobprezant]

I'm unable to reproduce; seems to be something else wrong with my setup. Thanks for your help.

[kamilkrzyskow]

Maybe it's the theme version, and you have multiple python installations, and mkdocs serve uses the older version.

You could add a hook with:

import material

def on_config(config):
    print(material.__file__)
    print(material.__version__)

to see the source file path that gets invoked.

mkdocs-material/material/__init__.py

Line 21 in d0c4bd6

__version__ = "9.6.15"

Or check the HTML source code after mkdocs build, and look for generator, the version should be there as well.

You could try running pip install mkdocs-material --force-reinstall as well.