Publishing & backing up your site with GitHub

Is git hard? (short answer: no — the way we’ll do it)

In plain English: git keeps a complete history of your files, and GitHub stores that history in the cloud. That gives you two things at once — a permanent backup (so a dead laptop can’t lose your site) and free hosting for the live website. We’ll use GitHub Desktop, a click-based app, so you won’t touch the command line for any of the git steps.

Reassurance: your files are already backed up in Dropbox right now. GitHub adds a second, versioned backup plus the hosting.

One-time setup (~20 minutes)

  1. Create a free account at github.com.
  2. Install GitHub Desktop from desktop.github.com, and sign in.
  3. To build the site you also need Quarto (quarto.org/docs/get-started) and, in R, run once: install.packages("yaml"). (You already use R.)

Step 1 — Put the site under version control (click-based)

  1. Open GitHub Desktop → File → Add local repository.
  2. Choose this folder: C:\Users\micha\Dropbox\website\site
  3. It will say “this isn’t a git repository — create one?” → click Create a repository → leave the defaults → Create repository. (A .gitignore is already in the folder, so build junk is skipped.)
  4. Click Publish repository (top-right). Name it e.g. michaelfjoseph-site. You can keep it Private — GitHub Pages still works — then Publish.

✅ Your whole site is now backed up on GitHub. That’s the “never lose it” part done.

Step 2 — Build the site (turn .qmd files into HTML in docs/)

Two separate things happen here — one you type in R, one you click.

a) The one thing you type in R. Open RStudio. Find the Console pane (bottom-left, where R waits for input). Click into it, type this, press Enter — one time only:

install.packages("yaml")

Let it finish (it prints messages, then a fresh > prompt). That is the only thing you type in R.

b) Build the site — this is Quarto, driven by RStudio’s buttons (Quarto is a separate program, not an R package). 1. Install Quarto if you don’t have it: https://quarto.org/docs/get-started/. (Recent RStudio bundles it — if the Render button appears in step 4, you’re set.) 2. In RStudio: File → New Project… → Existing Directory → browse to C:\Users\micha\Dropbox\website\site → Create Project. RStudio now “sees” the site. 3. In the Files pane (bottom-right), click index.qmd to open it. 4. Click the Render button at the top of the editor — or, to build every page, open the Build tab (top-right pane) and click Render Website. 5. RStudio builds the pages into the docs/ folder and opens a live preview.

No Render button? Quarto isn’t installed yet — do step b1, restart RStudio, retry. Prefer no RStudio? Open a terminal in the site folder and run quarto render.

Step 3 — Turn on the live website (GitHub Pages)

  1. Back in GitHub Desktop you’ll see the newly built files listed. Type a short summary (e.g. “build site”), click Commit to main, then Push origin.
  2. On github.com, open your repo → Settings → Pages.
  3. Under Build and deployment: Source = Deploy from a branch; Branch = main, folder = /docs → Save.
  4. Wait ~1 minute — your site goes live at https://<username>.github.io/<repo>/.

Step 4 — Point michaelfjoseph.com at it (when you’re ready)

Your domain is currently on Wix. When you want to switch it over: 1. Repo Settings → Pages → Custom domain → enter www.michaelfjoseph.com → Save. 2. At your domain registrar, add the DNS records GitHub shows (a CNAME to <username>.github.io, plus the apex A records). 3. After DNS propagates, tick Enforce HTTPS.

Tell me when you reach this step and I’ll give you the exact records to paste.

Your everyday update loop (after setup)

  1. Edit a .qmd file (or add a paper in _data/publications.yml).
  2. Render (RStudio “Render” button, or quarto render).
  3. In GitHub Desktop: Commit → Push. Live in ~1 minute.

Even simpler, later (optional)

Once you’re comfortable, a single command does render + publish in one go:

quarto publish gh-pages

Tip: commit often — every commit is a restore point you can roll back to.