Weekly Dev Chat Website

A static website for the Weekly Dev Chat community - a weekly virtual developer chat that meets every Tuesday at 12pm Mountain Time.

Live Site: weeklydevchat.com

About

This is a static site built with MkDocs Material and hosted on GitHub Pages. The site features:

• Weekly blog posts for Tuesday chat topics
• Host information and community guidelines
• Sponsor information
• Automatic deployment via GitHub Actions

Technology Stack

• Static Site Generator: MkDocs
• Theme: Material for MkDocs
• Language: Python 3.x
• Hosting: GitHub Pages
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions
• Container Support: Docker Compose

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x (recommended: use a virtual environment)
• OR Docker and Docker Compose

Local Development (Native)

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install mkdocs-material

2. Start the development server:

   mkdocs serve

3. Open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:8000

Local Development (Docker)

1. Start the development server:

   docker compose up app

2. Open your browser to http://localhost:8000

The site will automatically reload when you make changes to the content.

Creating Blog Posts

Using Helper Scripts

We provide scripts to automatically create properly formatted blog posts for the next Tuesday:

Bash (Linux/macOS):

./create_post.sh

PowerShell (Windows):

.\create_post.ps1

These scripts will:

• Calculate the date of the next Tuesday (or use today if it's Tuesday)
• Create the directory structure: docs/posts/YYYY/MM/DD/
• Generate an index.md file with proper frontmatter

Manual Blog Post Creation

1. Create a directory following the date pattern: docs/posts/YYYY/MM/DD/

2. Create an index.md file with the following frontmatter:

   ---
   title: "Your Blog Post Title"
   date: YYYY-MM-DD
   authors:
    - chris
   ---

3. Add your content following this template:

   TOPIC_INTRODUCTION_HERE
   
   Everyone and anyone are welcome to [join](https://weeklydevchat.com/join/) as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others. Zoom link will be posted at 12pm MDT.
   
   ![alt text](YYYY-MM-DD_image_filename.webp)

4. Add any images to the same directory as the post

Project Structure

.
├── mkdocs.yml                 # Main configuration file
├── requirements.txt           # Python dependencies
├── docker-compose.yml         # Docker development environment
├── create_post.sh             # Bash script to create blog posts
├── create_post.ps1            # PowerShell script to create blog posts
├── .github/
│   ├── dependabot.yml         # Dependabot configuration
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml             # GitHub Actions deployment
└── docs/                      # All site content
    ├── .authors.yml           # Author metadata
    ├── index.md               # Homepage
    ├── join.md                # How to join
    ├── hosts/                 # Current hosts
    ├── past-hosts/            # Past hosts
    ├── sponsors/              # Sponsors
    ├── posts/                 # Blog posts (YYYY/MM/DD/)
    ├── assets/                # Images, logos
    └── stylesheets/
        └── extra.css          # Custom CSS

Common Commands

# Development
mkdocs serve                    # Start development server
mkdocs serve -a 0.0.0.0:8000   # Start server accessible on network

# Build
mkdocs build                    # Build static site to site/ directory
mkdocs build --clean            # Clean build

# Help
mkdocs -h                       # Show help

# Docker
docker compose up app           # Start development server
docker compose down             # Stop containers

Deployment

Automatic Deployment

Pushes to the main branch automatically trigger deployment via GitHub Actions:

1. The workflow builds the site using mkdocs gh-deploy
2. The static HTML is pushed to the gh-pages branch
3. GitHub Pages serves the site from gh-pages

See .github/workflows/ci.yml for details.

Manual Deployment

While not typically needed, you can manually deploy:

mkdocs gh-deploy --force

Dependency Management

The project uses Dependabot to automatically keep dependencies up to date. Dependabot is configured to check weekly for:

• Python package updates (mkdocs-material)
• GitHub Actions updates

When updates are available, Dependabot creates pull requests automatically. Review and merge these PRs after verifying the CI workflow passes.

Resources

• MkDocs Documentation
• Material for MkDocs
• Material Blog Plugin
• GitHub Pages Documentation

Community

Join our virtual chat every Tuesday at 12pm Mountain Time! Visit weeklydevchat.com/join for details. We also occasionally do in real-life events.