Choose Your unaltraweb Workflow

Create and edit an unaltraweb site through GitHub or locally with Docker.

Start from unaltraweb-template. Prefer the local Docker workflow for previews, checks and low-cost publishing. Use GitHub-only editing when contributors cannot work locally, then publish with an explicit manual workflow run.

Choose A Path

  • Local Docker: requires Git, Docker and Make. Good for previewing the site, trying profiles, larger edits, validation and publishing to gh-pages.
  • GitHub-only: no local setup. Good for editing pages, posts, bibliography records, project data and small configuration changes; deployment is manual.

GitHub-only Editing

  1. Create a new repository from dosquartsdedocs/unaltraweb-template.
  2. Edit _config.yml in GitHub.
  3. Set url, baseurl, title, languages and unaltraweb.site_profile.
  4. Edit content files in _pages/, _posts/, _projects/, _chapters/, _bibliography/, _data/ and assets/.
  5. Commit to main.
  6. Run the manual deploy workflow when the site should be published.

This path is enough for small content updates such as adding a bibliography entry, editing a page, updating project data or correcting text.

Local Docker Editing

Install Git, Docker and GNU Make, then clone the generated site repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-ORG/YOUR-SITE.git
cd YOUR-SITE
make serve

The template uses ghcr.io/dosquartsdedocs/unaltraweb:main as its default Docker runtime. The reusable layouts, styles, plugins and scripts still come from the unaltraweb gem declared in the site’s Gemfile.

Use these commands during normal local work:

make serve
make build
make publish
make test
make down

When developing unaltraweb and the template together, use this local port convention:

  • unaltraweb: 4000.
  • unaltreselfie: 4001.
  • unaltreprojecte: 4002.
  • unaltremanual: 4003.
  • unaltredocs: 4004.

Preview another profile locally without changing the published profile in _config.yml:

make serve SITE_PROFILE=unaltremanual
make serve SITE_PROFILE=unaltredocs

Windows

The supported Windows path is WSL2 with Docker Desktop and Docker’s WSL integration enabled. Run the same make commands inside the WSL Linux shell.

Native PowerShell without WSL2 is not the primary supported path yet.

Profiles

Select one profile in _config.yml:

unaltraweb:
  site_profile: unaltreselfie

Available profiles are:

  • unaltreselfie: personal academic or professional site.
  • unaltreprojecte: research project site.
  • unaltremanual: manual, course or book-like site.
  • unaltredocs: documentation site.

The template contains examples for all four profiles. This documentation site is called unaltraweb; it is the reference for the platform and uses real examples of supported behavior.

Core Development

When changing unaltraweb and the template side by side, point the template at the local core checkout:

make serve LOCAL_CORE=../unaltraweb
make build LOCAL_CORE=../unaltraweb
make serve-allprofiles LOCAL_CORE=../unaltraweb

This is for core/theme development, not for normal content editing.