Requirements

• A Grav site running Grav version 1.7.0 or higher
• Admin Panel plugin - Note: May be installed automatically when you install Grav (for example, if you use Reclaim Hosting)
• Shortcode Core plugin
• Grav theme: Digital Scholarship
• Grav plugin: Leaflet Tour

Site Setup

Hosting

Every site has to live somewhere. If you're not familiar with the ins and outs of webservers and hosting, your best option will be to use a hosting service that already includes Grav as a built-in option. Reclaim Hosting is an excellent choice for this, but it is certainly not your only option.

Note for University of Oklahoma: Students, faculty, and staff can request a free account using OU Create.

Refer to Web Servers and Hosting on the Grav docs for other hosting options and instructions.

Installing Grav

If your hosting service already includes Grav, the installation process will most likely be relatively straightforward. Otherwise, you can refer to the Grav installation documentation for instructions.

Here are the steps for installing Grav on Reclaim Hosting/OU Create:

1. From your dashboard, find the option to install Grav
   1. Grav may be listed under Applications
   2. Otherwise, go to All Apps and find Grav there
   3. Select Grav and click install this application
2. Choose the domain where you want your Grav website to live (ideally, pick the option that includes "https" but not "www")
3. Choose a simple name for the directory that will differentiate your site from any other sites you create. Avoid special characters and spaces (dashes are fine, though)
4. Make sure to pick the username and administrator password - the installer might automatically fill these fields, so at the very least make sure you know what the username and password are
5. If you have the option to select a skeleton package, go for Grav Core + Admin (if you do not have the option to include Admin at this time, you will have to manually install the plugin)

Once you are satisfied with your settings, click Install. You can find the site from your dashboard by clicking My Apps (listed in the Applications section).

If you are not sure how to install Grav on your chosen hosting platform, check the platform's documentation or reach out to them for instructions.

Setting Up and Using Grav

1. Install the Admin Panel plugin - if the plugin was not included in your Grav install, refer to the Admin plugin readme for instructions on how to install it using the command line/terminal or manually
2. Go to your site's admin panel and login (the URL will be your site address with /admin at the end)
3. Check for updates - install any updates and dependencies, then check for updates again to make sure you are 100% up to date

Go to the Grav documentation for detailed information on managing your site via the admin panel.

Configuring Email

The admin plugin requires the Email plugin, among a few other dependencies. However, you need to do a little bit of setup before your site will actually be capable of sending emails. This is well worth doing, if only because it will give you a way to reset your password if you forget.

Here are some basic instructions assuming you use Reclaim Hosting/OU Create/cpanel. Check the Email plugin readme for more information.

1. Verify your email address if you aren't sure what it is (it should be your cpanel account name @ domain):
   1. Go to your cpanel dashboard.
   2. Find and click Email Accounts.
   3. Click Check Email for your account.
   4. Open your inbox. The email address should be displayed prominently.
2. On your grav site's admin panel, go to the email plugin configuration:
   1. Mail Engine: Sendmail
   2. From address: The email address verified above
   3. To address: Any email you have access to
   4. Sendmail configuration: Leave as default (should be /usr/sbin/sendmail -bs)
   5. Save the configuration settings.
3. Test that it works:
   1. Log out
   2. On the login page, click Forgot.
   3. Enter your username and click Send Reset Instructions.

This should at least enable you to reset your password if you forget it in the future.

Creating Content

The Grav documentation includes an extensive section on creating content.

• Learn markdown
  • Basic Markdown Cheatsheet
  • Grav Markdown Syntax - basically the same thing, but might add a couple additional options
• Markdown editors (a few recommendations)
  • Obsidian - probably my favorite option because it presents your content, as well (e.g. if you have a heading, then instead of just showing you the markdown syntax it will actually show it as a heading with larger text and everything)
  • VS Code - a bit more complicated because it can be used for way more than just markdown, but it does have the option to view the markdown code side-by-side with a preview
  • Sublime Text - another good editor with syntax highlighting
• Create accessible content

Useful Plugins

A couple of plugins you may want to install/use:

• Git Sync plugin - allows you to sync your pages folder (and other folders if desired) with a git repository so you can see what changes have been made, revert changes, and so forth
• Shortcode Core plugin - required if using Leaflet Tour; provides many additional customization options when editing page content

Theme and Plugin Installation

1. From your site's admin panel, go to Themes (on the left sidebar)
2. Click Add (button at the top right)
3. Look up the Digital Scholarship theme and install it
4. Enable the theme
5. Go to Plugins (on the left sidebar) and click Add
6. Look up the Leaflet Tour plugin and install it
7. Enable the plugin

Then make sure to check for updates regularly on your site so you always have the most recent version of Grav, themes, and plugins.