In this article I will guide you step by step in the creation of a new blog using the Jekyll CMS on Mac OS X.
It took weeks of reflection before creating my blog on WordPress. I was not sure if I wanted to explore a new CMS or further explore WordPress. I chose to continue on WordPress, but Jekyll was second in my CMS to try!
You should know that there is a big difference between these two creative tools. WordPress is a tool for creating blogs and dynamic websites, while Jekyll is static. A static site is a site that is fully rendered from the client side, while a dynamic site contains a server-side (PHP, ASP, etc.). A static website is much faster to create, costs less, and the pages load faster than a dynamic site. Dynamic websites will be easier to update, to add content and can be a real site.
I started this step-by-step guide in Jekyll having nothing installed on my new Macbook Pro.
Before playing with Jenkyll we have to install its prerequisites:
- Ruby
- RubyGems
- NodeJS
- Python 2.7
- to use syntax highlighter
Install the prerequisites :
- Install Ruby. As documented on the official documentation of Ruby, there are several ways to install. I used HomeBrew. To do so, follow the instructions on the home page. Do not forget to do this command for Homebrew:
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
Now, you can install Ruby :
brew install ruby
Optional: You can install RubyGem. I chose to do so with git. (Usually, rubygem is installed with ruby)
git clone https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems.git cd rubygems/ ruby setup.rb
- Install NodeJS. You can verify the installation went smoothly by doing :
> node > console.log('hello node!'); hello node undefined
- You now need Python. I chose Python3. To verify if the installation was successful :
python3 > print('hello python') hello python
- Now we really install what we wanted!
gem install jekyll
Create your blog
- Execute the command to create your website, then go to the newly created directory.
jekyll new girlknowstech cd girlknowstech
- Run this command to see the result!
jekyll serve
Your Jekyll blog now works! 🙂
If you have a comment about this process, please let me know. I’m still experimenting with Jekyll.