Source file conventions

File name

When you create a new .md file for new content, make sure:

  • File names are as short as possible
  • Try to keep the file name to one word or two words
  • Use a dash to separate words. For example: - add-seats.md and remove-seats.md. - multiplatform-images preferred to multi-platform-images.

Frontmatter

The front-matter of a given page is in a section at the top of the Markdown file that starts and ends with three hyphens. It includes YAML content. The following keys are supported. The title, description, and keywords are required.

Key Required Description
title yes The page title. This is added to the HTML output as a <h1> level header.
description yes A sentence that describes the page contents. This is added to the HTML metadata. It’s not rendered on the page.
keywords yes A comma-separated list of keywords. These are added to the HTML metadata.
redirect_from no A YAML list of pages which should redirect to the current page. At build time, each page listed here is created as an HTML stub containing a 302 redirect to this page.
notoc no Either true or false. If true, no in-page TOC is generated for the HTML output of this page. Defaults to false. Appropriate for some landing pages that have no in-page headings.
toc_min no Ignored if notoc is set to true. The minimum heading level included in the in-page TOC. Defaults to 2, to show <h2> headings as the minimum.
toc_max no Ignored if notoc is set to false. The maximum heading level included in the in-page TOC. Defaults to 3, to show <h3> headings. Set to the same as toc_min to only show toc_min level of headings.
skip_read_time no Set to true to disable the ‘Estimated reading time’ banner for this page.
skip_feedback no Set to true to disable the Feedback widget for this page.
sitemap no Exclude the page from indexing by search engines. When set to false, the page is excluded from sitemap.xml, and a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"/> header is added to the page.

Here’s an example of a valid (but contrived) page metadata. The order of the metadata elements in the front-matter isn’t important.

---
description: Instructions for installing Docker Engine on Ubuntu
keywords: requirements, apt, installation, ubuntu, install, uninstall, upgrade, update
title: Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu
redirect_from:
- /ee/docker-ee/ubuntu/
- /engine/installation/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/
- /engine/installation/linux/docker-ee/ubuntu/
- /engine/installation/linux/ubuntu/
- /engine/installation/linux/ubuntulinux/
- /engine/installation/ubuntulinux/
- /install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/
- /install/linux/docker-ee/ubuntu/
- /install/linux/ubuntu/
- /installation/ubuntulinux/
toc_max: 4
---

Body

The body of the page (with the exception of keywords) starts after the frontmatter

Text length

Splitting long lines (preferably up to 80 characters) can make it easier to provide feedback on small chunks of text.