How to Add a New Category

This document provides instructions on how to add a new category to the TechLink Hub website.

Prerequisites

• You have a local copy of the website's source code.
• You have Node.js installed.

Instructions

1. Create a New Category Directory:

   • Navigate to the catalogue directory.
   • Create a new directory for your category. The directory name should be a URL-friendly "slug" (e.g., my-new-category).

2. Create an index.md File:

   • Inside the new category directory, create a file named index.md.
   • Open the index.md file and add the following frontmatter at the top:

   ---
   title: "My New Category"
   layout: page
   sidebar: true
   categorySlug: "my-new-category"
   description: "A brief description of the new category."
   ---
   
   <CategoryLinkList />

   • title: The display name of the category.
   • categorySlug: The URL-friendly slug of the category (must match the directory name).
   • description: A short, one-sentence description of the category.

3. Update the Website Configuration:

   • Open the .vitepress/config.mjs file.
   • Add a new entry to the getCategorySidebarItems function for your new category:

   const getCategorySidebarItems = () => {
     return [
         // ... existing categories
         { text: 'My New Category', link: '/catalogue/my-new-category/' },
       ]
   };

4. Update the Data File:

   • Open a terminal in the root directory of the project.
   • Run the following command to update the website's data file:

   node generate_data.mjs

5. Verify the Changes:

   • Start the local development server and open your browser to check that the new category appears in the sidebar and that the category page is displayed correctly.