自定义主题
A guide to creating and distributing custom themes.
Note
If you are looking for third party themes, they are listed in the MkDocs community wiki. If you want to share a theme you create, you should list it on the Wiki.
When creating a new theme, you can either follow the steps in this guide to
create one from scratch or you can download the mkdocs-basic-theme
as a
basic, yet complete, theme with all the boilerplate required. You can find
this base theme on GitHub.
It contains detailed comments in the code to describe the different features
and their usage.
Creating a custom theme
The bare minimum required for a custom theme is a main.html
Jinja2 template
file which is placed in a directory that is not a child of the docs_dir.
Within mkdocs.yml
, set the theme.custom_dir option to the path of the
directory containing main.html
. The path should be relative to the
configuration file. For example, given this example project layout:
mkdocs.yml
docs/
index.md
about.md
custom_theme/
main.html
...
... you would include the following settings in mkdocs.yml
to use the custom theme
directory:
theme:
name: null
custom_dir: "custom_theme/"
Note
Generally, when building your own custom theme, the theme.name
configuration setting would be set to null
. However, if the
theme.custom_dir configuration value is used in combination with an
existing theme, the theme.custom_dir can be used to replace only specific
parts of a built-in theme. For example, with the above layout and if you set
name: "mkdocs"
then the main.html
file in the theme.custom_dir would
replace the file of the same name in the mkdocs
theme but otherwise the
mkdocs
theme would remain unchanged. This is useful if you want to make
small adjustments to an existing theme.
For more specific information, see styling your docs.
Basic theme
The simplest main.html
file is the following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>{% if page.title %}{{ page.title }} - {% endif %}{{ config.site_name }}</title>
</head>
<body>
{{ page.content }}
</body>
</html>
The body content from each page specified in mkdocs.yml
is inserted using the
{{ page.content }}
tag. Style-sheets and scripts can be brought into this
theme as with a normal HTML file. Navbars and tables of contents can also be
generated and included automatically, through the nav
and toc
objects,
respectively. If you wish to write your own theme, it is recommended to start
with one of the built-in themes and modify it accordingly.
Note
As MkDocs uses Jinja as its template engine, you have access to all the
power of Jinja, including template inheritance. You may notice that the
themes included with MkDocs make extensive use of template inheritance and
blocks, allowing users to easily override small bits and pieces of the
templates from the theme custom_dir. Therefore, the built-in themes are
implemented in a base.html
file, which main.html
extends. Although not
required, third party template authors are encouraged to follow a similar
pattern and may want to define the same blocks as are used in the built-in
themes for consistency.
Template Variables
Each template in a theme is built with a template context. These are the variables that are available to themes. The context varies depending on the template that is being built. At the moment templates are either built with the global context or with a page specific context. The global context is used for HTML pages that don't represent an individual Markdown document, for example a 404.html page or search.html.
Global Context
The following variables are available globally on any template.
config
The config
variable is an instance of MkDocs' config object generated from the
mkdocs.yml
config file. While you can use any config option, some commonly
used options include:
- config.site_name
- config.site_url
- config.site_author
- config.site_description
- config.extra_javascript
- config.extra_css
- config.repo_url
- config.repo_name
- config.copyright
- config.google_analytics
nav
The nav
variable is used to create the navigation for the documentation. The
nav
object is an iterable of navigation objects as
defined by the nav configuration setting.
In addition to the iterable of navigation objects, the
nav
object contains the following attributes:
nav.homepage
The page object for the homepage of the site.
nav.pages
A flat list of all page objects contained in the navigation. This list is not necessarily a complete list of all site pages as it does not contain pages which are not included in the navigation. This list does match the list and order of pages used for all "next page" and "previous page" links. For a list of all pages, use the pages template variable.
Nav Example
Following is a basic usage example which outputs the first and second level navigation as a nested list.
{% if nav|length>1 %}
<ul>
{% for nav_item in nav %}
{% if nav_item.children %}
<li>{{ nav_item.title }}
<ul>
{% for nav_item in nav_item.children %}
<li class="{% if nav_item.active%}current{% endif %}">
<a href="{{ nav_item.url|url }}">{{ nav_item.title }}</a>
</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
</li>
{% else %}
<li class="{% if nav_item.active%}current{% endif %}">
<a href="{{ nav_item.url|url }}">{{ nav_item.title }}</a>
</li>
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endif %}
base_url
The base_url
provides a relative path to the root of the MkDocs project. While
this can be used directly by prepending it to a local relative URL, it is best
to use the url template filter, which is smarter about how it applies
base_url
.
mkdocs_version
Contains the current MkDocs version.
build_date_utc
A Python datetime object that represents the date and time the documentation was built in UTC. This is useful for showing how recently the documentation was updated.
pages
A list of page objects including all pages in the project. The list is a flat list with all pages sorted alphanumerically by directory and file name. Note that index pages sort to the top within a directory. This list can contain pages not included in the global navigation and may not match the order of pages within that navigation.
page
In templates which are not rendered from a Markdown source file, the page
variable is None
. In templates which are rendered from a Markdown source file,
the page
variable contains a page
object. The same page
objects are used
as page
navigation objects in the global
navigation and in the pages template variable.
All page
objects contain the following attributes:
page.title
Contains the Title for the current page.
page.content
The rendered Markdown as HTML, this is the contents of the documentation.
page.toc
An iterable object representing the Table of contents for a page. Each item in
the toc
is an AnchorLink
which contains the following attributes:
AnchorLink.title
: The text of the item.AnchorLink.url
: The hash fragment of a URL pointing to the item.AnchorLink.level
: The zero-based level of the item.AnchorLink.children
: An iterable of any child items.
The following example would display the top two levels of the Table of Contents for a page.
<ul>
{% for toc_item in page.toc %}
<li><a href="{{ toc_item.url }}">{{ toc_item.title }}</a></li>
{% for toc_item in toc_item.children %}
<li><a href="{{ toc_item.url }}">{{ toc_item.title }}</a></li>
{% endfor %}
{% endfor %}
</ul>
page.meta
A mapping of the metadata included at the top of the markdown page. In this
example we define a source
property above the page title.
source: generics.py
mixins.py
# Page title
Content...
A template can access this metadata for the page with the meta.source
variable. This could then be used to link to source files related to the
documentation page.
{% for filename in page.meta.source %}
<a class="github" href="https://github.com/.../{{ filename }}">
<span class="label label-info">{{ filename }}</span>
</a>
{% endfor %}
page.url
The URL of the page relative to the MkDocs site_dir
. It is expected that this
be used with the url filter to ensure the URL is relative to the current
page.
<a href="{{ page.url|url }}">{{ page.title }}</a>
page.abs_url
The absolute URL of the page from the server root as determined by the value
assigned to the site_url configuration setting. The value includes any
subdirectory included in the site_url
, but not the domain. base_url should
not be used with this variable.
For example, if site_url: https://example.com/
, then the value of
page.abs_url
for the page foo.md
would be /foo/
. However, if
site_url: https://example.com/bar/
, then the value of page.abs_url
for the
page foo.md
would be /bar/foo/
.
page.canonical_url
The full, canonical URL to the current page as determined by the value assigned
to the site_url configuration setting. The value includes the domain and any
subdirectory included in the site_url
. base_url should not be used with this
variable.
page.edit_url
The full URL to the source page in the source repository. Typically used to provide a link to edit the source page. base_url should not be used with this variable.
page.is_homepage
Evaluates to True
for the homepage of the site and False
for all other
pages. This can be used in conjunction with other attributes of the page
object to alter the behavior. For example, to display a different title
on the homepage:
{% if not page.is_homepage %}{{ page.title }} - {% endif %}{{ site_name }}
page.previous_page
The page object for the previous page or None
. The value will be None
if the
current page is the first item in the site navigation or if the current page is
not included in the navigation at all. When the value is a page object, the
usage is the same as for page
.
page.next_page
The page object for the next page or None
. The value will be None
if the
current page is the last item in the site navigation or if the current page is
not included in the navigation at all. When the value is a page object, the
usage is the same as for page
.
page.parent
The immediate parent of the page in the site navigation. None
if the
page is at the top level.
page.children
Pages do not contain children and the attribute is always None
.
page.active
When True
, indicates that this page is the currently viewed page. Defaults
to False
.
page.is_section
Indicates that the navigation object is a "section" object. Always False
for
page objects.
page.is_page
Indicates that the navigation object is a "page" object. Always True
for
page objects.
page.is_link
Indicates that the navigation object is a "link" object. Always False
for
page objects.
Navigation Objects
Navigation objects contained in the nav template variable may be one of section objects, page objects, and link objects. While section objects may contain nested navigation objects, pages and links do not.
Page objects are the full page object as used for the current page with all of the same attributes available. Section and Link objects contain a subset of those attributes as defined below:
Section
A section
navigation object defines a named section in the navigation and
contains a list of child navigation objects. Note that sections do not contain
URLs and are not links of any kind. However, by default, MkDocs sorts index
pages to the top and the first child might be used as the URL for a section if a
theme choses to do so.
The following attributes are available on section
objects:
section.title
The title of the section.
section.parent
The immediate parent of the section or None
if the section is at the top
level.
section.children
An iterable of all child navigation objects. Children may include nested sections, pages and links.
section.active
When True
, indicates that a child page of this section is the current page and
can be used to highlight the section as the currently viewed section. Defaults
to False
.
section.is_section
Indicates that the navigation object is a "section" object. Always True
for
section objects.
section.is_page
Indicates that the navigation object is a "page" object. Always False
for
section objects.
section.is_link
Indicates that the navigation object is a "link" object. Always False
for
section objects.
Link
A link
navigation object contains a link which does not point to an internal
MkDocs page. The following attributes are available on link
objects:
link.title
The title of the link. This would generally be used as the label of the link.
link.url
The URL that the link points to. The URL should always be an absolute URLs and
should not need to have base_url
prepened.
link.parent
The immediate parent of the link. None
if the link is at the top level.
link.children
Links do not contain children and the attribute is always None
.
link.active
External links cannot be "active" and the attribute is always False
.
link.is_section
Indicates that the navigation object is a "section" object. Always False
for
link objects.
link.is_page
Indicates that the navigation object is a "page" object. Always False
for
link objects.
link.is_link
Indicates that the navigation object is a "link" object. Always True
for
link objects.
Extra Context
Additional variables can be passed to the template with the
extra
configuration option. This is a
set of key value pairs that can make custom templates far more flexible.
For example, this could be used to include the project version of all pages
and a list of links related to the project. This can be achieved with the
following extra
configuration:
extra:
version: 0.13.0
links:
- https://github.com/mkdocs
- https://docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/builds.html#mkdocs
- https://www.mkdocs.org/
And then displayed with this HTML in the custom theme.
{{ config.extra.version }}
{% if config.extra.links %}
<ul>
{% for link in config.extra.links %}
<li>{{ link }}</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endif %}
Template Filters
In addition to Jinja's default filters, the following custom filters are available to use in MkDocs templates:
url
Normalizes a URL. Absolute URLs are passed through unaltered. If the URL is relative and the template context includes a page object, then the URL is returned relative to the page object. Otherwise, the URL is returned with base_url prepended.
<a href="{{ page.url|url }}">{{ page.title }}</a>
tojson
Safety convert a Python object to a value in a JavaScript script.
<script>
var mkdocs_page_name = {{ page.title|tojson|safe }};
</script>
Search and themes
As of MkDocs version 0.17 client side search support has been added to MkDocs
via the search
plugin. A theme needs to provide a few things for the plugin to
work with the theme.
While the search
plugin is activated by default, users can disable the plugin
and themes should account for this. It is recommended that theme templates wrap
search specific markup with a check for the plugin:
{% if 'search' in config['plugins'] %}
search stuff here...
{% endif %}
At its most basic functionality, the search plugin will simply provide an index file which is no more than a JSON file containing the content of all pages. The theme would need to implement its own search functionality client-side. However, with a few settings and the necessary templates, the plugin can provide a complete functioning client-side search tool based on lunr.js.
The following HTML needs to be added to the theme so that the provided JavaScript is able to properly load the search scripts and make relative links to the search results from the current page.
<script>var base_url = '{{ base_url }}';</script>
With properly configured settings, the following HTML in a template will add a full search implementation to your theme.
<h1 id="search">Search Results</h1>
<form action="search.html">
<input name="q" id="mkdocs-search-query" type="text" >
</form>
<div id="mkdocs-search-results">
Sorry, page not found.
</div>
The JavaScript in the plugin works by looking for the specific ID's used in the
above HTML. The form input for the user to type the search query must be
identified with id="mkdocs-search-query"
and the div where the results will be
placed must be identified with id="mkdocs-search-results"
.
The plugin supports the following options being set in the theme's
configuration file, mkdocs_theme.yml
:
include_search_page
Determines whether the search plugin expects the theme to provide a dedicated
search page via a template located at search/search.html
.
When include_search_page
is set to true
, the search template will be built
and available at search/search.html
. This method is used by the readthedocs
theme.
When include_search_page
is set to false
or not defined, it is expected that
the theme provide some other mechanisms for displaying search results. For
example, the mkdocs
theme displays results on any page via a modal.
search_index_only
Determines whether the search plugin should only generate a search index or a complete search solution.
When search_index_only
is set to false
, then the search plugin modifies the
Jinja environment by adding its own templates
directory (with a lower
precedence than the theme) and adds its scripts to the extra_javascript
config
setting.
When search_index_only
is set to true
or not defined, the search plugin
makes no modifications to the Jinja environment. A complete solution using the
provided index file is the responsibility of the theme.
The search index is written to a JSON file at search/search_index.json
in the
site_dir. The JSON object contained within the file may contain up to three
objects.
{
config: {...},
data: [...],
index: {...}
}
If present, the config
object contains the key/value pairs of config options
defined for the plugin in the user's mkdocs.yml
config file under
plugings.search
. The config
object was new in MkDocs version 1.0.
The data
object contains a list of document objects. Each document object is
made up of a location
(URL), a title
, and text
which can be used to create
a search index and/or display search results.
If present, the index
object contains a pre-built index which offers
performance improvements for larger sites. Note that the pre-built index is only
created if the user explicitly enables the prebuild_index config option.
Themes should expect the index to not be present, but can choose to use the
index when it is available. The index
object was new in MkDocs version 1.0.
Packaging Themes
MkDocs makes use of Python packaging to distribute themes. This comes with a few requirements.
To see an example of a package containing one theme, see the MkDocs Bootstrap theme and to see a package that contains many themes, see the MkDocs Bootswatch theme.
Note
It is not strictly necessary to package a theme, as the entire theme
can be contained in the custom_dir
. If you have created a "one-off theme,"
that should be sufficient. However, if you intend to distribute your theme
for others to use, packaging the theme has some advantages. By packaging
your theme, your users can more easily install it and they can then take
advantage of the custom_dir to make tweaks to your theme to better suit
their needs.
Package Layout
The following layout is recommended for themes. Two files at the top level
directory called MANIFEST.in
and setup.py
beside the theme directory which
contains an empty __init__.py
file, a theme configuration file
(mkdocs-theme.yml
), and your template and media files.
.
|-- MANIFEST.in
|-- theme_name
| |-- __init__.py
| |-- mkdocs-theme.yml
| |-- main.html
| |-- styles.css
`-- setup.py
The MANIFEST.in
file should contain the following contents but with
theme_name updated and any extra file extensions added to the include.
recursive-include theme_name *.ico *.js *.css *.png *.html *.eot *.svg *.ttf *.woff
recursive-exclude * __pycache__
recursive-exclude * *.py[co]
The setup.py
should include the following text with the modifications
described below.
from setuptools import setup, find_packages
VERSION = '0.0.1'
setup(
name="mkdocs-themename",
version=VERSION,
url='',
license='',
description='',
author='',
author_email='',
packages=find_packages(),
include_package_data=True,
entry_points={
'mkdocs.themes': [
'themename = theme_name',
]
},
zip_safe=False
)
Fill in the URL, license, description, author and author email address.
The name should follow the convention mkdocs-themename
(like mkdocs- bootstrap
and mkdocs-bootswatch
), starting with MkDocs, using hyphens to
separate words and including the name of your theme.
Most of the rest of the file can be left unedited. The last section we need to change is the entry_points. This is how MkDocs finds the theme(s) you are including in the package. The name on the left is the one that users will use in their mkdocs.yml and the one on the right is the directory containing your theme files.
The directory you created at the start of this section with the main.html file
should contain all of the other theme files. The minimum requirement is that
it includes a main.html
for the theme. It must also include a
__init__.py
file which should be empty, this file tells Python that the
directory is a package.
Theme Configuration
A packaged theme is required to include a configuration file named
mkdocs_theme.yml
which is placed in the root of your template files. The file
should contain default configuration options for the theme. However, if the
theme offers no configuration options, the file is still required and can be
left blank.
The theme author is free to define any arbitrary options deemed necessary and
those options will be made available in the templates to control behavior.
For example, a theme might want to make a sidebar optional and include the
following in the mkdocs_theme.yml
file:
show_sidebar: true
Then in a template, that config option could be referenced:
{% if config.theme.show_sidebar %}
<div id="sidebar">...</div>
{% endif %}
And the user could override the default in their project's mkdocs.yml
config
file:
theme:
name: themename
show_sidebar: false
In addition to arbitrary options defined by the theme, MkDocs defines a few special options which alters its behavior:
static_templates
This option mirrors the theme config option of the same name and allows some defaults to be set by the theme. Note that while the user can add templates to this list, the user cannot remove templates included in the theme's config.
extends
Defines a parent theme that this theme inherits from. The value should be the string name of the parent theme. Normal Jinja inheritance rules apply.
Plugins may also define some options which allow the theme to inform a plugin about which set of plugin options it expects. See the documentation for any plugins you may wish to support in your theme.
Distributing Themes
With the above changes, your theme should now be ready to install. This can be
done with pip, using pip install .
if you are still in the same directory as
the setup.py.
Most Python packages, including MkDocs, are distributed on PyPI. To do this, you should run the following command.
python setup.py register
If you don't have an account setup, you should be prompted to create one.
For a much more detailed guide, see the official Python packaging documentation for Packaging and Distributing Projects.