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Support

SUPPORT PLAN​

Gitlab Service Desk looks like a perfect Support method. It is tied into the project with a project specific email, has lots of workflow integrations and templates, looks well thought out. Watch the video for more info.

Comes with free and paid plans.

Introducing GitLab Service Desk

Review Gitlab Service desk as an option for initial Support tool.

Service Desk | GitLab

Initial test of Gitlab service desk Aug 21, 2024- GS

  1. Below is the default response the end user sees when they send email to Gitlab Service Desk.

  2. The service desk email is contact-project+mightydev-nooz-pro-12795565-issue-@incoming.gitlab.com

We will setup a form on our site, that forwards requests to this address.

  1. We can configure the default response, make branded email templates, change the name displayed for the Support Bot, etc.

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/service_desk/configure.html

  1. Beta feature under way for custom email address.

  2. We see the issue inside Gitab under the Monitor > Service Desk tab in the left nav

https://gitlab.com/mightydev/nooz-pro/-/issues/service_desk

Where we can review and manage internally with workflow, and send responses

  1. With a little configuration our email support will be ready for day 1.

Gaird

  • --------- Forwarded message ---------From: Nooz Support Bot gitlab-at-mg.gitlab.com Date: Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 12:34 PMSubject: Re: Nooz Permalinks question (#12)To: gaird-at-mightydigital.com

Thank you for your support request! We are tracking your request as ticket #12, and will respond as soon as we can.

DOCUMENTATION TOOLS AND TESTING​

My goal is our documentation to look just like Github Pages docs site, or the Gitlab docs site. Both of them have the same 3 column template look I am going for. If we can find out from somewhere (or heck just ask them), that is the template I want to replicate.

If either of these are using Hugo, here is the Hugo Docs site template that I would be OK with, too. Hugo also has docs themes to choose from.

Review options on Gitlab Pages for hosting a docs site.

They have a bunch of templates, but will test a Jekyll site first. That requires some ramping up and testing with Jekyll.

Github Pages has some options, too. Those are a bit more approachable UI and could be good learning step before Gitlab.

Additional Items below

Jekyll Tests and Findings

Jekyll Theme Shopping

Github Pages Missing Documentation

JEKYLL THEME SHOPPING​

Just the Docs​

Appears to be one of the best, has the most features and contributors

DEMO site here

Source project here

A related one page theme (?) is another project here

Documentation Jekyll Theme​

Runner up to Just the Docs, look and feel a bit stodgy, would need adjusting

DEMO site here

Source project here

Jekyll Docs Theme​

3rd runner up, has the right column anchor links feature I’d like to lift, but nothing else

DEMO site here

Source project here

Cayman​

Has nice look and feel

Needs to have left nav layout features added

Edition Template​

From company called CloudCannon. Has some UI design options

Aviator Template​

Interesting template for API docs, featuring code examples in right column. Also from CloudCannon

JEKYLL TESTS AND FINDINGS​

Findings​

Run Jekyll locally on MacOS​

Ramp up and test running Jekyll locally, which requires some CLI work on Sonoma, which runs an old version of Ruby that needs updating, but my Homebrew needs updating before I can do that. See screenshot below… -sigh-

Things I Gotta Fix Before Running Jekyll Locally​

Depending which article I am reading, there is one way to do a Jekyll local install as a straight up, running the site locally, for upload somewhere as a static site.

Vs. following this article about running Jekyll locally when using Gitlab Pages, which runs a Docker image, uses Gemfiles and such. This may need Dimas to guide.

Next Steps​

Test Jekyll themes on Github pages

Found this developer’s blog that explains some tips for customizing the Cayman theme on Github Page

Test Jekyll theme on Gitlab pages

This Just In…​

Found this docs site for GitHub Developers

It has a very nice theme. I wonder what they use? Let’s view source:

Not sure what I am looking at. Let’s poke around. Firs the stylesheet link to

https://unpkg.com/docsify/lib/themes/vue.css

Not sure what this is, but then I check out

https://unpkg.com/

It is a CDN for NPM stuff, by Cloudflare. Not sure, will check back later.

Then I search up Docsify, and bingo, this is the software used by the GitHub Dev docs site

It is a no HTML page generator, generates pages with JavaScript. Hm, ok, and it works on GitHub pages. Let’s check out how I can test it. I look at the Guide, and down on the Deploy tab I see instructions for running Docsify on various platforms and lo and behold, I see instructions for GitLab pages, too.

Et voilà! That will be our next test.

Github Pages Missing Documentation​

In following the Github Pages docs on how to setup a site with Jekyll, there are errors and omissions in the docs that makes it confusing and difficult.

MISSING INFO ON JEKYLL THEME INSTALL​

On this page: Adding a theme to your GitHub Pages site using Jekyll

Step 3 is missing important information; it states “Navigate to _config.yml

Except that this file does not exist in GitHub pages by default.

This page has to be created by the user.

It may be the article author was using a setup that already had this config file in it.

Next, the instructions state to edit the file to use a Jekyll theme

It continues to assume the user is editing an existing file, and if there is no existing file by default, the user (in this case, me), is left to hunt around for information on this config file setup.

It does not give much reference on proper way to edit this config file, what type of syntax is correct for a new entry, and then goes on to mention two different types of theme file, but explaining neither one sufficiently.