Go to the website: ucrdatacenter.github.io
Information only for Data Center members; students can find all relevant information on the website.
This repository contains the underlying files for the Data Center's website. The website is created using GitHub Pages and Jekyll, and is automatically updated if changes are made to this repository.
To edit the website, you first need to fork this repository, and make changes in your fork. Then you need to submit a pull request in order to merge your commits into this repository. A full tutorial on this process is available on the Data Center Moodle.
Make sure that your forked repository is always up-to-date with the original repository (use the "Sync fork" button on the Github page of your fork).
The main folder contains ucrdatacenter.github.io.Rproj. Clicking on that in your local copy of the repo opens the project in RStudio, which allows you to work with Rmarkdown files that you can directly knit to Markdown/HTML. The current website template can compile Markdown (not RMarkdown) files directly into website pages, so you should always make sure to knit your RMarkdown files into Markdown files (copy the YAML header of an existing page for the correct header specification).
The structure of the folders in the repo follows the intended structure of the website.
The main page of the website is index.md; it is generated by knitting index.Rmd in RStudio. It should link to all ongoing (and past) course pages, and should be updated when course pages are added or archived.
Every ongoing course has a single direct subpage (e.g. https://ucrdatacenter.github.io/SSCECON207). The main .md and corresponding .Rmd files, always named after the course code, are also stored in the main folder. These subpages should contain all main information a student in that course needs, which can include the assignment descriptions, schedule for Data Center work, information about additional help and office hours, and (links to) tutorials, lectures, handouts, example code, etc.
If a single course page would get too large with all materials on a single page, then you should create additional subpages within the course. You can do that by adding a folder in the main repo that uses the course code as its name, and place additional .Rmd and .md files there. Such pages will be accessible via links such as https://ucrdatacenter.github.io/SSCECON207/workshop1).
If you need to link to files that cannot be neatly included in .Rmd files (e.g. data files or example scripts that students need to download), put those files in the relevant folder of the projects repo, and link to the raw file or the download button. You can do that by right clicking on the "Raw" or the "Download" button of the file you want to link to, selecting "Copy link address", and including this link on the website. If students click on such a link, the files should either automatically download, or open a raw version in their browser (in that case, they can right click in the file and select "Save as" to download the file).
All course subpages and additional subpages should use the same template for consistency. You can copy this template by copying the YAML header of an existing course page.
Important: For any page you create, make sure that a page higher up in the hierarchy (where index.html is the highest, followed by course subpages, followed by the subpages of course subpages) explicitly includes the link to the page. Otherwise students will have no means of reaching the page.
Past courses are archived: they are moved to the archive folder and the semester is added to file and folder names. You don't need to archive your course materials, the website admins will take care of that after the course is over.
The repo and the website are both public (visible to anybody on the internet). Do not add any files that are not finished yet, and keep your edits after pushing the first version of a file to a minimum. It goes without saying, but do not add any files containing confidential information (including information only public within the UCR community).
Make sure to always knit any .Rmd files in RStudio, and push the compiled Markdown to Github as well. The website will update automatically if the HTML files on Github change, but this update generally takes a few minutes to take effect.
To ensure smooth collaboration in the repo:
- Fork the repo, and submit your changes to the main repo via pull requests (see the tutorial on Moodle on how to do that).
- Make sure to always work with the latest version on your local drive (make sure that your fork has the latest changes, then use "fetch origin" in GitHub Desktop before you start working).
- Regularly commit and push your changes to GitHub to avoid version clashes.
- Use sensible commit messages.
- Do not upload large files to the repo if possible (keep in mind both GitHub's file size limits and the limits of collaborators' local drives).
- Make sure you're familiar with the GitHub and GitHub Desktop tutorials on Moodle; if you encounter any issues, check those first.
- If you encounter issues you can't fix on your own, reach out to Tina.