hexo-theme-icarus/source/_posts/en/Configuring-Theme.md

title: Icarus User Guide - Configuring the Theme
date: 2020-03-01
thumbnail: /gallery/thumbnails/vector_landscape_2.svg
categories:
- Configuration
tags:
- Getting Started
- Icarus User Guide
language: en
toc: true
---

Icarus' default theme configuration file is `themes/icarus/_config.yml`.
It defines the global layout and style settings of the theme and controls external features such as plugins and widgets.
This article details the general configurations of the theme.
It also explains what configuration files are used and how Icarus generate and validate these configurations.

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## General Theme Configurations

### Configuration version

This version code is related to and but not always the same as the theme version code.
Icarus uses it to determine whether to upgrade the default theme configuration file.
You should not change it by yourself.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
version: 3.0.0
{% endcodeblock %}

### Theme variant

Choose a skin for Icarus.
`"default"` and `"cyberpunk"` are supported values currently.
You can take a look at the Cyberpunk variant {% post_link demo/Cyberpunk "here" %}.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
variant: default
{% endcodeblock %}

### Logo

Set the logo of your site.
It will display on the navigation bar and the footer.
The value of the `logo` can either be the path or URL to your logo image:

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
logo: /img/logo.svg
{% endcodeblock %}

Or if you want the text instead, you can set it like the following:

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
logo:
    text: My Beautiful Site
{% endcodeblock %}

### Favicon

You can specify the path or URL to your site's favicon in the `head` section.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
head:
    favicon: /img/favicon.svg
{% endcodeblock %}

### Open Graph

You can set up Open Graph in the `head` section.
You should leave most of the settings blank in the configuration file.
Only set those settings in the front-matter of your post if you need them.
Please refer to [Hexo documentation](https://hexo.io/docs/helpers.html#open-graph) for details on each setting.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml >folded %}
head:
    open_graph:
        # Page title (og:title) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        title: 
        # Page type (og:type) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        type: blog
        # Page URL (og:url) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        url: 
        # Page cover (og:image) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        image: 
        # Site name (og:site_name) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        site_name: 
        # Page author (article:author) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        author: 
        # Page description (og:description) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        description: 
        # Twitter card type (twitter:card)
        twitter_card: 
        # Twitter ID (twitter:creator)
        twitter_id: 
        # Twitter Site (twitter:site)
        twitter_site: 
        # Google+ profile link (deprecated)
        google_plus: 
        # Facebook admin ID
        fb_admins: 
        # Facebook App ID
        fb_app_id: 
{% endcodeblock %}

### Google Structured Data

You can set up Google Structured Data in the `head` section.
You should leave most of the settings blank in the configuration file.
Only set those settings in the front-matter of your post if you need them.
Please refer to [Search for Developers](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data) 
for details on each setting.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml >folded %}
head:
    structured_data:
        # Page title (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        title: 
        # Page description (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        description: 
        # Page URL (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        url: 
        # Page author (article:author) (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        author: 
        # Page images (optional)
        # You should leave this blank for most of the time
        image: 
{% endcodeblock %}

### Page Metadata

You can add custom `<meta>` tags to the generated HTML from the `meta` setting in the `head` section.
Each meta tag should appear as an item of the `meta` array.
The value of the `meta` setting should be in the `<field_name>=<field_value>` format 
with `field_name` and `field_value` represent the field and value of the `<meta>` tag respectively.
Separate the `<field_name>=<field_value>` pairs with `;` if the `<meta>` tag has multiple fields and values.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
head:
    meta:
        - 'name=theme-color;content=#123456'
        - 'name=generator;content="Hexo 4.2.0"'
{% endcodeblock %}

### RSS

You can add a link to your RSS feed at the `rss` setting in the `head` section.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
head:
    rss: /path/to/atom.xml
{% endcodeblock %}

### Navigation Bar

The `navbar` section defines the menu items and links in the navigation bar.
You may put any menu item in the navigation bar by adding `<link_name>: <link_url>` to the `menu` setting.
To put links on the right side of the navigation bar, add `<link_name>: <link_url>` to the `links` setting.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
navbar:
    # Naviagtion menu items
    menu:
        Home: /
        Archives: /archives
        Categories: /categories
        Tags: /tags
        About: /about
    # Links to be shown on the right of the navigation bar
    links:
        GitHub: 'https://github.com'
        Download on GitHub:
            icon: fab fa-github
            url: 'https://github.com/ppoffice/hexo-theme-icarus'
{% endcodeblock %}

You can display a FontAwesome icon instead of text-only link with the following format:

{% codeblock "Link format" lang:yaml %}
<link_name>:
    icon: <fontawesome_icon_class_name>
    url: <link_url>
{% endcodeblock %}

### Footer

The `footer` section defines the links on the right side of the page footer.
The link format is exactly the same as `links` in the `navbar` section.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
footer:
    links:
        Creative Commons:
            icon: fab fa-creative-commons
            url: 'https://creativecommons.org/'
        Attribution 4.0 International:
            icon: fab fa-creative-commons-by
            url: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
        Download on GitHub:
            icon: fab fa-github
            url: 'https://github.com/ppoffice/hexo-theme-icarus'
{% endcodeblock %}

### Code Highlight

If you have enabled code highlighting in Hexo, you can customize the code blocks with `highlight` settings 
in the `article` section.
Choose a theme from all themes listed under 
[highlight.js/src/styles](https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/tree/9.18.1/src/styles).
Then, copy the file name (without the `.css` extension) to the `theme` setting.

To hide the "copy" button of every code block, set `clipboard` to `false`.
If you wish to fold or unfold all code blocks, set the `fold` setting to `"folded"` or `"unfolded"`.
You can also disable the folding feature by leaving the `fold` setting empty.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
article:
    highlight:
        # Code highlight themes
        # https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/tree/master/src/styles
        theme: atom-one-light
        # Show copy code button
        clipboard: true
        # Default folding status of the code blocks. Can be "", "folded", "unfolded"
        fold: unfolded
{% endcodeblock %}

Additionally, you can fold an individual code block in the Markdown file using the following syntax:

```
{% codeblock "optional file name" lang:code_language_name >folded %}
...code block content...
{% endcodeblock %}
```

### Thumbnail

You can add a thumbnail image to your post in two steps:

1. Make sure the thumbnail is enabled in the theme configurations:

    {% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
    article:
        thumbnail: true
    {% endcodeblock %}

2. Provide a path or URL to the thumbnail image file in the front-matter of your post:

    {% codeblock post.md lang:yaml %}
    title: Getting Started with Icarus
    thumbnail: /gallery/thumbnails/desert.jpg
    ---
    Post content...
    {% endcodeblock %}

    If you choose to use the image path in the front-matter, you need to ensure the path is absolute
    or relative to the source directory of your site.
    For example, to use `<your blog>/source/gallery/image.jpg` as a thumbnail path, you need to put
    `thumbnail: /gallery/image.jpg` in the front-matter.

### Read Time

You can show a word counter and the estimated reading time of your article above the article title by 
setting `readtime` to `true` in the `article` section.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
article:
    readtime: true
{% endcodeblock %}

### Sidebar

To make a sidebar fixed when you scroll the page, set the `sticky` setting of that sidebar to `true` in
the `sidebar` section.

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
sidebar:
    left:
        sticky: false
    right:
        sticky: true
{% endcodeblock %}


### Other configurations

You can refer to the [Icarus User Guide](/hexo-theme-icarus/tags/Icarus-User-Guide/) to learn more about 
third-party plugins, widgets, and CDN provider configurations.


## Configuration Files and Priority

Apart from the default theme configuration file at `themes/icarus/_config.yml`, Icarus also looks at the following
locations for alternative configurations:

- `themes/icarus/_config.post.yml` and `themes/icarus/_config.page.yml`
- Post/page's [front-matter](https://hexo.io/docs/front-matter.html)
- Site `_config.yml` in the root directory

`_config.post.yml` and `_config.page.yml` follow the same format and configuration definitions as the default theme 
configuration file.
You can put configurations that apply to all posts in `_config.post.yml`, and these configurations will override 
`themes/icarus/_config.yml`.
For example, you can adopt a two-column layout in all posts by moving all widgets to one side of the page while 
keeping a three-column layout in other pages:

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.yml lang:yaml %}
widgets:
    -
        type: recent_posts
        position: left
    -
        type: categories
        position: right
    -
        type: tags
        position: right
{% endcodeblock %}

{% codeblock themes/icarus/_config.post.yml lang:yaml %}
widgets:
    -
        type: recent_posts
        position: left
    -
        type: categories
        position: left
    -
        type: tags
        position: left
{% endcodeblock %}

Similarly, `_config.page.yml` applies to all Hexo pages and overrides the default theme configurations.

If you wish to override configurations only for a certain post/page, you can put these configurations in the 
front-matter of that post/page.
For example, you can change the code block highlight theme of a single post by setting it in that post's
front-matter like the following:

{% codeblock source/_post/some-post.md lang:yaml %}
title: My first post
date: '2015-01-01 00:00:01'
article:
    highlight:
        theme: atom-one-dark
---
# Some Post
{% endcodeblock %}

The above setting will always override the `article.highlight` in `_config.post.yml` and `_config.yml`
for that post.
This layered configuration system is handy for differentiating page customizations and optimizations 
for different audiences.
For example, you can enable faster CDNs or a localized comment service based on the country and language 
of your page viewers.
However, it should be noted that inherit post or page attributes defined by Hexo will not override the 
theme configurations from the front-matter.
Examples are:

- `title`
- `date`
- `updated`
- `comments` (not `comment`)
- `layout`
- `source`
- `photos`
- `excerpt`

Lastly, any other configuration files listed above will override the site configuration file `_config.yml` 
for the settings used by the Icarus.
For instance, `title` in the `themes/icarus/_config.yml` will override `title` in the `_config.yml`, but
`new_post_name` will not since it is not used by Icarus.

In conclusion, the scopes of the configuration locations and their priorities are:

- A certain post or page

    - front-matter overrides all configurations below.
    - `themes/icarus/_config.post.yml` and `themes/icarus/_config.page.yml` override all configurations below.
    - `themes/icarus/_config.yml` overrides all configurations below.
    - `_config.yml`

- All posts or pages

    - `themes/icarus/_config.post.yml` or `themes/icarus/_config.page.yml` override all configurations below.
    - `themes/icarus/_config.yml` overrides all configurations below.
    - `_config.yml`

- All posts, pages, and index pages

    - `themes/icarus/_config.yml` overrides all configurations below.
    - `_config.yml`


## Configuration Generation and Validation

All Icarus theme configurations are written in the [YAML language](https://yaml.org/).
The default configuration file `themes/icarus/_config.yml` is generated automatically from a set of 
[JSON schemas](https://json-schema.org/) when Hexo processes the theme.
That's why you don't see an example file (`_config.yml.example`) under the theme directory.
Most of the JSON schemas are in the `themes/icarus/include/schema` directory, while the others are
in the [ppoffice/hexo-component-inferno](https://github.com/ppoffice/hexo-component-inferno) repository.
You can attach the `--icarus-dont-generate-config` flag to your `hexo` commands to prevent automatic configuration
generation.

The theme also validates your configurations against these schemas every time you execute a `hexo` command.
If anything goes wrong during the validation, Icarus will print out the exact location of the misconfiguration
and it's error type.
For example, the following messages tell us that the value of the `logo` setting should be either a string or an 
object, instead of an integer.
You may skip the validation by appending the `--icarus-dont-check-config` flag to your `hexo` commands, but it is 
not recommended to do so.

{% codeblock "hexo log" %}
INFO  === Checking package dependencies ===
INFO  === Checking the configuration file ===
WARN  Configuration file failed one or more checks.
WARN  Icarus may still run, but you will encounter unexcepted results.
WARN  Here is some information for you to correct the configuration file.
WARN  [
  {
    keyword: 'type',
    dataPath: '.logo',
    schemaPath: '#/properties/logo/type',
    params: { type: 'string,object' },
    message: 'should be string,object'
  }
]
{% endcodeblock %}

Additionally, Icarus will execute migration scripts to upgrade the default theme configuration file to the newest 
version if it is not.
These scripts are in the `themes/icarus/include/migration` directory.
You may disable the upgrade by appending the `--icarus-dont-upgrade-config` flag to your `hexo` commands.
Finally, Icarus will also check the Node.js package dependencies and remind you to install them if you haven't.


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