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Creating a Basic Site
Creating a Basic Site

Learn how to create a site, modify a template base, add new libraries, and connect widgets to existing content.

Carlos Solis avatar
Written by Carlos Solis
Updated over a year ago

Introduction

Welcome to a tutorial in the Modyo training series. This tutorial focuses on Modyo Channels where you'll learn how to create a site, modify a template base, add new libraries, and connect widgets to existing content.

Linking Content to Channels is one of the most important features when it comes to having dynamic, easy-to-manage sites.

Throughout this tutorial, we'll use the fictional brand “Dynamic Bank”, which we'll introduce below.

Dynamic Bank

Dynamic Bank is the name we give in Modyo to everything related to demos and examples of the platform. We wanted to create it so we could offer an experience close to the reality of what it really means to work with Modyo. Once this tutorial is complete, your site should look like this:

Image with the final result for Dynamic Bank

View Figma Design

Prerequisites

To perform the steps in this tutorial you must have completed:

Be familiar with:

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • JS

  • Modyo's platform

Step 1: Create a Cloud Site

To create your site, follow these steps:

  1. From the main menu, select Channels and click Sites.

  2. Click + New Site.

  3. In the New Site window fill in the following fields:

  • Name: Bank

  • Host: bank

  • Realm of Site: None

4. Click Create.

Image with Create a Site wizard.

You created your first site in Modyo!

Step 2: Change CSS variables to give a look and feel to Dynamic Bank

Here we are going to modify the CSS variables, which are in a snippet called css variables that feeds the rest of the stylesheets already configured within the Minimal Theme.

To make the changes to variables css, follow these steps:

  1. In the main menu, click Templates.

  2. In the Views & Snippets menu on the right, click Snippets.

  3. In the Libs section, click variables_css.

  4. Modify the following values:

Colors:

{% assign primary = 'rgba(240, 90, 162, 1)' %} {% assign secondary = 'rgba(98, 125, 229, 1)' %} {% assign light = 'rgba(250, 250, 250, 1)' %} {% assign info = 'rgba(121, 133, 178, 1)' %} {% assign dark = 'rgba(56, 68, 112, 1)' %}

Buttons:

{% assign button_radius = '100px' %} {% assign button_font_weight = '600' %}

To review the change you just made, click the “eye” icon to activate preview mode.

Step 3: Edit container

In Layouts, HTML structures that are added on every Page, you need to remove the container class from the main in order to use 100% of the width of a Page.

  1. Inside Templates, under Views -> Layouts on the right, click home.

  2. Remove class="container" from the template.

  3. Click Publish.

Image with the HTML code for main.

Step 4: Change Site Source

In the minimal we are using the webfontloader library to load the typography asynchronously.

For Dynamic Bank we will use the Jost font. Follow these steps to change the typography:

  1. In the Views list, click Javascript base.

  2. Replace the following line:

families: ['DM Sans:400,700&display=swap'] for families: ['Jost:400,700&display=swap']

Step 5: Change header and footer

One of the most powerful features you have within Templates is to reuse code in different Pages with the Header and Footer templates. This code will load for every page on your site.

To achieve the Dynamic Bank look and feel on your site, replace the header and footer, located within Snippets -> General, with the following code:

header

<header role="banner" id="header"> <div class="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-light py-4" role="navigation" aria-label="Navbar" > <div class="navbar-inner container d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center text-right" > <div class="d-flex flex-column"> <a class="navbar-brand" href="{{ site.url }}" title="Logo {{site.name}}" rel="home" > <img src="{{ site.logo | asset_url | replace: 'R360x50', 'original'}}" alt="Logo {{site.name}}" /> </a> <a class="sr-only sr-only-focusable btn btn-dark p-2" href="#content" >Skip to main content</a > </div> <div class="d-flex justify-content-end align-items-center" id="navbar-menu" > <nav class="d-none d-md-flex align-items-center"> <h2 class="sr-only">Main Menu</h2> {% snippet 'shared/general/menu' %} <a href="#" class="ml-3 btn btn-primary btn-sm">Banco en línea</a> </nav> <button type="button" class="py-2 px-3 bg-transparent border-0 text-dark position-relative d-block d-md-none" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#menu_panel" > <h2 id="mainmenulabel" class="sr-only">Open Menu</h2> <svg width="2em" height="2em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" class="bi bi-list" fill="currentColor" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" > <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 11.5A.5.5 0 0 1 3 11h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H3a.5.5 0 0 1-.5- 5zm0-4A.5.5 0 0 1 3 7h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H3a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5zm0-4A.5.5 0 0 1 3 3h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H3a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5z" /> </svg> </button> </div> </div> <!-- Menu Panel --> <div class="modal right fade" id="menu_panel" tabindex="-1" aria-labelledby="notificationsLabel" aria-modal="true" > <div class="modal-dialog"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header bg-white"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close" > <span aria-hidden="true">&#10005;</span> </button> </div> <div class="modal-body p-4 navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-light align-items-start" > <nav> {% assign responsive = "Responsive" %} {% snippet "shared/general/menu" %} </nav> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </header>

footer

<footer id="footer" class="py-5 bg-dark navbar-expand-md" role="contentinfo"> <div class="navbar-inner container text-center text-md-left"> <div class="row align-items-start"> <div class="col-12 col-md-3 justify-content-center justify-content-md-start" > <img src="https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/764b5b8e-8d5b-4139-9460-2f2545f5d5ee/original/icn_di_white.svg" alt="Icono Blanco Dynamic" /> </div> <div class="col-12 col-md-9 justify-content-end d-none d-md-flex text-white" > {% menu %} </div> </div> <div class="d-flex justify-content-between text-muted mt-4 pt-4 border-top"> <p class="small m-0 text-muted "> © 2008-{{ site.current_year }} Modyo Spa </p> <p class="small m-0"> Made with <svg width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" class="bi bi-heart-fill" fill="#627DE5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" > <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M8 1.314C12.438-3.248 23.534 4.735 8 15-7.534 4.736 3.562-3.248 8 1.314z" /> </svg> in <a href="https://www.modyo.com" class="font-weight-bold">Modyo</a> </p> </div> </div> </footer>

Step 6: Create new CSS for footer

After finishing the changes to the header and footer Snippets, we're going to work on the footer's CSS. To keep things tidy, we will create a new Snippet and then call it in the base stylesheet Template.

To create a new Snippet, follow these steps:

  1. In the Custom Snippets list, click +.

  2. The value of the path is: footer_css

  3. Paste the following code:

footer { border-top: 5px solid {{secondary}}; } footer a { color: {{white}}; transition:.3s; } footer a:hover { color: {{primary}}; transition:.3s; }

4. To add our new snippet to the template's base stylesheet, click on the copy icon next to our snippet as shown in the following image:

Image with the copy button highlighted.

5. Paste into our Style Sheet under Views -> Style Sheets -> base.

The code for our snippet looks like this:

{% snippet "footer_css" %}

Step 6: Upload logo and favicon

To change the logo and favicon, you have to use Site Settings, where we can change or add some site settings, including: Site Name, Description, Language, SEO, PWA, Team, among others.

To change the files, follow these steps:

  1. From the main menu, select Site Settings, click General.

  2. Under site logo, click Upload.

  3. Select your logo and click on Open.

  4. In the Visualization section, under Favicon, click Upload.

  5. Select your favicon and click Open.

  6. Click Save.

Logo

Dynamic Bank Logo

Favicon

Dynamic Bank Favicon

Step 7: Make Bootstrap CSS changes

Once your new logo is uploaded, you need to resize it to fit the Dynamic Bank design. To make the CSS changes, follow these steps:

  1. In the main menu, click Templates.

  2. In the Snippets list, in the Libs group, open the snippet bootstrap_css.

  3. Look for the .navbar-brand img class and change the height from 50px to 30px.

After reviewing in preview mode that your new logo looks good, you need to change how the menu links look.

  1. Modify the styles of the navbar-light, navbar-nav, and nav-link classes with the following code:

.navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link { color: {{dark}}; font-weight: bold; padding: 0rem .5rem !important; margin: 0rem .5rem !important; } .navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link:hover, .navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link:focus { color: {{primary}}; transition:.3s; } .navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link.disabled { color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); } .navbar-light .navbar-nav .show > .nav-link, .navbar-light .navbar-nav .active > .nav-link, .navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link.show, .navbar-light .navbar-nav .nav-link.active { color: {{dark}}; border-bottom: 2px solid {{primary}}; }

Step 8: Create Snippet CSS for Home

To have everything organized, create a CSS snippet, where you'll add all the styles that affect Home.

To create a new Snippet, follow these steps:

  1. In Templates -> Custom Snippets, click +.

  2. The path value is home_css.

Add Snippet page.

For this snippet to take effect in our Home we need to import the snippet into the base CSS view with the following code {% snippet “home_css”%} so that the content of our snippet appears within the general style sheet of the template.

  1. In the Views section, open the base stylesheet.

  2. Paste the following code to import the snippet: {% snippet "home_css"%}

Step 9: Add library dependencies

For some of the Home sections you need to add JS and CSS libraries, for example to add animations in the Hero or testimonial slides.

To add dependencies to external libraries, follow these steps:

  1. In the Templates section, under Snippets, create the following custom snippets:

Snippet names are the value of the Path.

animate_css

CSS Animate Minified

wow_js

Library WOW JS Minified

slick_css

CSS Slick Slider

slick_js

Library Slick Slider Minified


2. In Views -> base stylesheet, add {% snippet “animate_css”%} and {% snippet slick_css%}.

3. In Views -> javascript base, add {% snippet “wow_js”%} and {% snippet “slick_js”%}.

Step 10: Generate the menu

Another feature that exists within Modyo is the Navigation tool, in which you can generate menus for your sites.

To create the menu, follow these steps:

  1. From the main menu of your site, click Navigation.

  2. Click Menu.

  3. Modify the existing menu with the following options:

Name

Associated Layout Page

URL

Home

Home

Products

Custom URL

#

Benefits

Custom URL

#

Offices

Custom URL

#

This is reflected as follows:

Image showing the final result in the Navigation tab.

  1. When finished, click Save and then click Publish.

  2. On the Review and Publish screen, you can see all the files that have been modified. Select all and click Publish.

Step 11: Modify Home Page

Once you have the base template, the menu, and site settings ready, modify Home by following these steps:

  1. In the main menu of your site, click Pages.

  2. Click Home.

Page tab

3. Click the widget.

4. Modify the title of the widget to Hero.

5. Change the HTML to the following:

{% assign entries = spaces['bank'].types['hero'].entries | paginated: 1 %} <div class="mb-5 mb-md-0 pb-5 pb-md-0" id="hero"> <div class="bg-dark mb-5 mb-md-0 pt-5 pb-0 py-md-5"> <div class="pattern_hero"></div> {% for entry in entries %} <div class="d-flex mb-0 my-md-5 hero_img"> <div class="row w-100 justify-content-end no-gutters"> <div class="col-10 col-md-7 wow slideInRight hero_img rounded-left" style="background-image: url({{ entry.fields['Cover'].url }})" ;} ></div> </div> </div> <div class="hero_txt"> <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="bg-info p-5 col-10 col-md-6 rounded text-white wow slideInLeft" > <h1 class="h3 h2-md">{{ entry.meta.title }}</h1> <p class="p h6-md font-weight-light mb-4"> {{ entry.fields.Text }} </p> <a href="{{ entry.fields.Url }}" class="btn btn-{{ entry.fields['Button color'] }}" >{{ entry.fields['Title Link'] }}</a > </div> </div> </div> </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div>

This HTML uses the Liquid SDK to connect Modyo Channels to Modyo Content. The call to Liquid SDK is made by using:

{% assign entries = spaces['bank'].types['hero'].entries | paginated: 1 %}

This line assigns the Space and Type you created previously to Entries.


6. Once our HTML is ready, in the main menu click Templates.

7. In the Snippets section, open the custom snippet home_css and paste the following:

/*** hero ***/ .hero_img { height: 55vh; background-position: center; background-size: cover; } #hero { position: relative; } .hero_txt { position: absolute; width: 100%; top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%); } .pattern_hero { background: url(https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/1e3588d5-1d5b-4ddb-b73d-77d88e1e37b1/original/pattern_circle.png); width: 75%; height: 65%; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 15%; animation: float 6s ease-in-out infinite; } @keyframes float { 0% { box-shadow: 0 0.5rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) !important; transform: translatey(0px); } 50% { box-shadow: 0 0.15rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25) !important; transform: translatey(-20px); } 100% { box-shadow: 0 0.5rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) !important; transform: translatey(0px); } } @keyframes smallFloat { 0% { box-shadow: 0 0.5rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) !important; transform: translatey(0px); } 50% { box-shadow: 0 0.15rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25) !important; transform: translatey(-10px); } 100% { box-shadow: 0 0.5rem 1rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) !important; transform: translatey(0px); } } @media (max-width: {{media_md}}) { .hero_txt { bottom: 0; top: auto; left: 2%; transform: none; } .pattern_hero { width: 90%; } }

This code contains the classes required for the Hero style.

8. Activate preview mode.

9. In the preview mode bar, turn on changes to Page and Templates.

Image showing the preview of everything done so far.

Step 12: News Widgets

To create the Home News Feed, follow these steps:

  1. In the main menu of your site, click Pages.

  2. From Home add an HTML widget called News.

  3. In the HTML tab, paste the following code:

{% assign entries = spaces['bank'].types['news'].entries | paginated: 3 %} <div class="container my-5 py-5"> <div class="row justify-content-center mb-4"> <div class="col-12 col-md-8 text-center"> <h3 class="text-dark"> Keep up to date with all your banking needs </h3> <p class="text-muted"> Read all the news we have for you </p> </div> </div> <div class="row"> {% for entry in entries %} <div class="col-4 d-flex"> <a class="card shadow-sm w-100 bg-white text-decoration-none rounded overflow-hidden" href="{{ entry.fiels.Url }}"> <figure class="m-0"> <img aria-hidden="true" src="{{ entry.fields['Cover'].url }}" alt="{{ entry.meta.title }}" class="w-100" /> </figure> <figcaption class="pt-4 px-4 pb-2"> <h4 class="h6 text-dark">{{ entry.meta.title }}</h4> <p class="text-muted">{{ entry.fields.Excerpt }}</p> </figcaption> <div class="d-flex justify-content-end pb-4 px-4 mt-auto"> <span class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">{{ entry.fields.Link }}</span> </div> </a> </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div>

For these Cards you don't need custom CSS as you'll only use Bootstrap helpers.

4. Click Save.

5. Click Publish and then Publish Now.

Step 13: Benefits Widgets

For the benefits widget follow these steps:

  1. In the main menu of your site, click Pages.

  2. From Home add a new HTML widget called Benefits.

  3. In the HTML tab, paste the following code:

{% assign entries = spaces['bank'].types['benefits'].entries | paginated: 7 %} <div class="py-5 bg-primary" id="benefits"> <div class="container my-5"> <div class="row justify-content-center mb-4"> <div class="col-12 col-md-8 text-center"> <h3 class="text-white"> Become a part of these benefits made just for you </h3> <p class="text-white"> A pleasant banking experience is the most important thing for us. </p> </div> </div> <div class="row"> {% for entry in entries limit:1 %} <div class="col-12 col-md-6 mb-4 pb-2 d-flex"> <a class="card shadow-sm w-100 bg-white text-decoration-none rounded overflow-hidden" href="{{ entry.meta.url }}"> <figure class="m-0"> <span class="badge_category bg-white text-primary d-inline-block text-uppercase px-3 py-1 rounded-sm small" >{{ entry.meta.category}}</span > <img aria-hidden="true" src="{{ entry.fields['Cover'].url }}" alt="{{ entry.meta.title }}" class="w-100" /> </figure> <figcaption class="pt-4 px-4 pb-2"> <h4 class="h6 text-dark">{{ entry.meta.title }}</h4> <p class="text-muted">{{ entry.fields.Excerpt }}</p> </figcaption> </a> </div> {% endfor %} {% for entry in entries offset:1 %} <div class="col-12 col-md-6 col-lg-3 mb-4 pb-2 d-flex"> <a class="card shadow-sm w-100 bg-white text-decoration-none rounded overflow-hidden" href="{{ entry.meta.url }}"> <figure class="m-0"> <span class="badge_category bg-white text-primary d-inline-block text-uppercase px-3 py-1 rounded-sm small" >{{ entry.meta.category}}</span > <img aria-hidden="true" src="{{ entry.fields['Cover'].url }}" alt="{{ entry.meta.title }}" class="w-100" /> </figure> <figcaption class="pt-4 px-4 pb-2"> <h4 class="h6 text-dark">{{ entry.meta.title }}</h4> <p class="text-muted">{{ entry.fields.Excerpt }}</p> </figcaption> </a> </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div> </div>

4. Click Templates.

5. Open the Snippets tab and open the custom snippet home_css.

6. Copy the following code to add the classes needed for benefits:

/** benefits **/ #benefits .card figure { height: 115px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; } #benefits .card figure img { position: absolute; top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%); } #benefits .card figure .badge_category { position: absolute; bottom: 1rem; left: 1.5rem; z-index: 1; }

Remember that you can use preview mode to see how Home is changing.

Step 14: Dynamic App Widgets

The Dynamic app widget is a custom HTML widget, this means that it is not connected to Content and you can't use Liquid assign.

  1. In the main menu of your site, click Widgets.

  2. Click + New Widget and name it Dynamic App.

  3. Paste the following code into the HTML tab:

<div class="bg-white" id="app_home"> <div class="container py-5 position-relative"> <div class="row justify-content-center align-items-center"> <div class="pattern_app"></div> <div class="col-12 col-md-4"> <h4 class="h2 mb-3"> Dynamic App, <span class="font-weight-normal">lleva tu banca a todas partes</span> </h4> <img src="https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/36e7b591-d60d-4312-b1ad-cd984533206a/original/download_app.png" /> </div> <div class="col-12 col-md-5"> <img src="https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/1b60b2a2-0748-4340-b3c5-a4a63695eb52/original/app.png" /> </div> </div> </div> </div>

4. In the main menu, click Templates.

5. En el apartado de Snippets, abre el snippet personalizado home_css y agrega las clases necesarias para Dynamic App:

/** APP **/ .pattern_app { background: url(https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/1e3588d5-1d5b-4ddb-b73d-77d88e1e37b1/original/pattern_circle.png); width: 35%; height: 85%; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0%; }

Step 15: Testimonial Widgets

The testimonials widget is a bit more complex as it uses JS to generate the animation.

Widgets tab

The Widget Builder is where you can create micro frontends for your sites.

  1. In the main menu of your site, click Widgets.

  2. Click + New Widget and name it Testimonials.

  3. Paste the following code into the JS tab:

JS

$('.single-item').slick({ dots: true, arrows: false, infinite: true, speed: 300, slidesToShow: 1, adaptiveHeight: false, })

CSS

#testimonial { position: relative; } #testimonial:after { content: ''; display: block; position: absolute; background-image: url(https://cloud.modyocdn.com/uploads/1e3588d5-1d5b-4ddb-b73d-77d88e1e37b1/original/pattern_circle.png); background-position: top left; width: 30%; height: 55%; top: 10%; left: 0; z-index: 1; } #testimonial .container { z-index: 2; } @media (max-width: 768px) { #testimonial:after { width: 50%; height: 30%; top: 20%; } }

HTML

{% assign entries = spaces['bank'].types['testimonial'].entries %} <div class="bg-light px-3 py-5" id="testimonial"> <div class="py-5"> <div class="container d-block d-md-none"> <h3 class="h3 mb-4 text-dark">Our clients say...</h3> </div> <div class="container p-relative single-item"> {% for entry in entries %} <div> <div class="row justify-content-center"> <figure class="col-7 col-md-3 mb-4 m-md-0"> <img class="w-100" src="{{ entry.fields.Image.url }}" alt="{{ entry.fields.Author }}" /> </figure> <div class="figcaption col-11 col-md-6"> <figcaption class="p-0 p-md-5"> <h3 class="d-none d-md-block h3 mb-4 text-dark"> Our clients say... </h3> <p class="text-muted">{{ entry.fields.Testimony }}</p> <p class="text-muted font-weight-bold">{{ entry.fields.Author }}</p> </figcaption> </div> </div> </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div> </div>

4. Save your changes so you can review it in preview mode.

5. Click Publish and select Publish Now. When you publish the widget, it will be available in the library of custom widgets, which you can access from Pages.

To see it in Home you have to add it as a Custom widget and search for it within the list (in this example we only have one).

Add a custom widget page.

Congratulations! Now we have all the necessary widgets in Home

This is how the Home page will look like.

Step 16: Review and Publish

After you finish all the Home widgets and CSS, review the work you did in this Tutorial using preview mode.

To publish your page, follow these steps:

  1. From the main menu of your site, click Summary.

  2. Click the Publish button and a panel will open with the changes you've made.

  3. Add all the files and click Publish.

The review and publish page with all your pending changes.

4. Select Publish Now and click Publish.

Conclusion

Congratulations!

You have completed the Dynamic Bank Home Creation course in Modyo.

Now you know how to use:

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