Gaius Configuration

The primary configuration file is gaius.json which should be placed directly in the Site Container Directory.

Here is the default gaius.json file that comes with the Gaius Starter Site:

{
    "Logging": {
        "LogLevel": {
            "Default": "Information",
            "Microsoft": "Warning",
            "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Warning"
        }
    },
    "AllowedHosts": "*",
    "GaiusEngine": {
        "SourceDirectoryName": "_source",
        "GenerationDirectoryName": "_generated",
        "ThemesDirectoryName": "_themes",
        "PostsDirectoryName": "_posts",
        "DraftsDirectoryName": "_drafts",
        "PostUrlPrefix": "",
        "TagListDirectoryName": "_taglist",
        "TagUrlPrefix": "tag",
        "ThemeName": "default",
        "Pagination": 5,
        "GenerationUrlRootPrefix": "/gaius-starter",
        "AlwaysKeep": [
            ".git"
        ]
    }
}

You can modify this file to affect the way the Gaius Engine will generate your site. All configuration properties that affect the Gaius Engine appear underneath the GaiusEngine object. Below is list of all the configuration properties and how they affect the Gaius Engine:

Configuration Property	Description	Default Value
`SourceDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Source Directory	`_source`
`GenerationDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Generation Directory	`_generated`
`ThemesDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Themes Directory	`_themes`
`PostsDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Posts Directory	`_posts`
`DraftsDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Draft Posts Directory	`_drafts`
`PostUrlPrefix`	URL segment prefix for all posts. Orginarily URLs to posts are: `{host}/YYYY/MM/DD/{name}/`. If you specifiy a value, URLs to posts would be: `{host}/{prefix}/YYYY/MM/DD/{name}/`	`""`
`TagListDirectoryName`	Directory name for the Tag List Directory	`_taglist`
`TagUrlPrefix`	URL segment prefix for all dynamic tag list pages. URLs to posts are: `{host}/{prefix}/{tag name}/`. Note: value cannot be `"" or null`	`tag`
`ThemeName`	The theme that should be used	`default`
`Pagination`	How many items per listing page	`5`
`GenerationUrlRootPrefix`	A prefix that should be applied to all URLs. *Note: only applied when not* building the site using Test-Mode**	`""`
`AlwaysKeep`	An array of directory / file names that should never be deleted from the Generation Directory when building your site	`[ ".git" ]`

When Should I Use `GenerationUrlRootPrefix`?

By default Github Pages Project Sites to will appear under the URL https://{github organization or user}.github.io/{project name}/. For example the Github Pages site for the Gaius Starter Site is https://gaius-dev.github.io/gaius-starter/. This is because gaius-starter is a project underneath the gaius-dev Github organization.

The primary Github Pages site for the gaius-dev organization would be https://gaius-dev.github.io/ and would not require a GenerationUrlRootPrefix value. It doesn't hurt to explicitly include it anyway.

So the rule is:

If you are depolying to a Github Pages project site you must include a GenerationUrlRootPrefix value.
If you are deploying to a primary user or organization site (e.g. https://gaius-dev.github.io/ or https://rstrube.github.io) you can leave this value empty.

Why Keep `.git` in the Generation Directory?

In some advanced scenarios you might want to maintain a separate git repository in Generation Directory that is associated with a dedicated branch with your upstream remote. Under most ordinary circumstances this isn't neccessary as the Github Actions Workflow will automatically handle bulding your site and commiting the generated site assets to the gh-pages branch.

The default value is here to help users that wish to implement more complex git workflows when building and pushing their generated site assets.