GitLab Pages

You don't have to use GitHub to serve Foam pages. You can also use GitLab.

Gitlab pages can be kept private for private repo, so that your notes are still private.

Setup a project

Generate the directory from GitHub

Generate a solution using the Foam template.

Change the remote to GitLab, or copy all the files into a new GitLab repo

Publishing pages with Gatsby

Setup the Gatsby config

Add a .gatsby-config.js file where:

• $REPO_NAME correspond to the name of your gtlab repo.
• $USER_NAME correspond to your gitlab username.

const path = require("path");
const pathPrefix = `/$REPO_NAME`;

// Change me
const siteMetadata = {
  title: "A title",
  shortName: "A short name",
  description: "",
  imageUrl: "/graph-visualization.jpg",
  siteUrl: "https://$USER_NAME.gitlab.io",
};
module.exports = {
  siteMetadata,
  pathPrefix,
  flags: {
    DEV_SSR: true,
  },
  plugins: [
    `gatsby-plugin-sharp`,
    {
      resolve: "gatsby-theme-primer-wiki",
      options: {
        defaultColorMode: "night",
        icon: "./path_to/logo.png",
        sidebarComponents: ["tag", "category"],
        nav: [
          {
            title: "Github",
            url: "https://github.com/$USER_NAME/",
          },
          {
            title: "Gitlab",
            url: "https://gitlab.com/$USER_NAME/",
          },
        ],
        editUrl:
          "https://gitlab.com/$USER_NAME/$REPO_NAME/tree/main/",
      },
    },
    {
      resolve: "gatsby-source-filesystem",
      options: {
        name: "content",
        path: `${__dirname}`,
        ignore: [`**/\.*/**/*`],
      },
    },

    {
      resolve: "gatsby-plugin-manifest",
      options: {
        name: siteMetadata.title,
        short_name: siteMetadata.shortName,
        start_url: pathPrefix,
        background_color: `#f7f0eb`,
        display: `standalone`,
        icon: path.resolve(__dirname, "./path_to/logo.png"),
      },
    },
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-plugin-sitemap`,
    },
    {
      resolve: "gatsby-plugin-robots-txt",
      options: {
        host: siteMetadata.siteUrl,
        sitemap: `${siteMetadata.siteUrl}/sitemap/sitemap-index.xml`,
        policy: [{ userAgent: "*", allow: "/" }],
      },
    },
  ],
};

And a package.json file containing:

{
    "private": true,
    "name": "wiki",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "license": "MIT",
    "scripts": {
        "develop": "gatsby develop -H 0.0.0.0",
        "start": "gatsby develop -H 0.0.0.0",
        "build": "gatsby build",
        "clean": "gatsby clean",
        "serve": "gatsby serve",
        "test": "echo test"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "@primer/react": "^34.1.0",
        "@primer/css": "^17.5.0",
        "foam-cli": "^0.11.0",
        "gatsby": "^3.12.0",
        "gatsby-plugin-manifest": "^3.12.0",
        "gatsby-plugin-robots-txt": "^1.6.9",
        "gatsby-plugin-sitemap": "^5.4.0",
        "gatsby-source-filesystem": "^3.12.0",
        "gatsby-theme-primer-wiki": "^1.14.5",
        "react": "^17.0.2",
        "react-dom": "^17.0.2"
    }
}

The theme will be based on gatsby-theme-primer-wiki.

To test the theme locally first run yarn install and then use gatsby develop to serve the website.
See gatsby documentation for more details.

Set-up the CI for deployment

Create a .gitlab-ci.yml file containing:

# To contribute improvements to CI/CD templates, please follow the Development guide at:
# https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/cicd/templates.html
# This specific template is located at:
# https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Pages/Gatsby.gitlab-ci.yml

image: node:latest

stages:
  - deploy

pages:
  stage: deploy
  # This folder is cached between builds
  # https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/index.html#cache
  cache:
    paths:
      - node_modules/
      # Enables git-lab CI caching. Both .cache and public must be cached, otherwise builds will fail.
      - .cache/
      - public/
  script:
    - yarn install
    - ./node_modules/.bin/gatsby build --prefix-paths
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - public
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

This pipeline will now serve your website on every push to the main branch of your project.

Publish with Jekyll

Add a _config.yaml

Add another file to the root directory (the one with readme.md in it) called _config.yaml (no extension)

title: My Awesome Foam Project
baseurl: "" # the subpath of your site, e.g. /blog
url: "/" # the base hostname & protocol for your site
theme: jekyll-theme-minimal
plugins:
  - jekyll-optional-front-matter
optional_front_matter:
  remove_originals: true
defaults:
  -
    scope:
      path: "" # we need to add this to properly render layouts
    values:
      layout: "default"

You can choose a theme if you want from places like Jekyll Themes

Add a Gemlock file

Add another file to the root directory (the one with readme.md in it) called Gemfile (no extension)

source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "jekyll"
gem "jekyll-theme-minimal"
gem "jekyll-optional-front-matter"

Commit the file and push it to gitlab.

Setup CI/CD

1. From the project home in GitLab click Set up CI/CD
2. Choose Jekyll as your template from the template dropdown
3. Click commit
4. Now when you go to CI / CD > Pipelines, you should see the code running

Troubleshooting

• Could not locate Gemfile - You didn't follow the steps above to Add a Gemlock file
• Conversion error: Jekyll::Converters::Scss encountered an error while converting You need to reference a theme.
• Pages are running in CI/CD, but I only ever see test, and never deploy - Perhaps you've renamed the main branch (from master) - check the settings in .gitlab-ci.yml and ensure the deploy command is running to the branch you expect it to.
• I deployed, but my .msd files don't seem to be being converted into .html files - You need a gem that GitHub installs by default - check gem "jekyll-optional-front-matter" appears in the Gemfile