BCWebMaps-Options

BCWebMaps-Options is a Jekyll-based documentation template from the Government of British Columbia that catalogs web mapping technological solutions and experiences across BC's GIS ecosystem. The live site is hosted on GitHub Pages at bcgov.github.io/bcwebmaps-options and is built with Jekyll and Ruby.

What is BCWebMaps-Options?

BCWebMaps-Options is a documentation website and Jekyll theme maintained by BCGov that presents a catalog of web mapping technologies and experiences. It takes Markdown content and generates a static documentation site via Jekyll, covering topics such as ArcGIS Online (AGO), Geocortex, SMK (Spatial Map Kit), IMF2, and Leaflet. The repository includes links to a design theme page and a maintenance and development guide, and carries a Stable lifecycle badge from the BCGov repomountie repository.

Key Features

• Jekyll theme: Built specifically as a Jekyll theme using Ruby, designed for hosting on GitHub Pages with no extra infrastructure.
• Documentation structure: Organizes content by mapping technology, with the full documentation available at bcgov.github.io/bcwebmaps-options.
• Design theme guide: Includes a customizable design theme documented at /theme/, allowing teams to adjust the look and feel of their documentation.
• Contribution workflow: Provides explicit contributing guidelines using the forking workflow, pull request review with Approve or Request Changes status, squash and merge, and GitHub Actions checks.
• Maintenance guide: Offers a separate maintenance and development guide at /maintenanceanddevelopment to help contributors extend the site.
• Stable lifecycle: The repository is marked as Stable via the repomountie lifecycle badge, indicating it is ready for production use.

Who is it for?

• BC Government GIS teams: They can use this template to document their web mapping technology choices and share experiences across projects.
• Web mapping developers: They can learn about the documented solutions (ArcGIS Online, Geocortex, SMK, IMF2, Leaflet) and contribute improvements via pull requests.
• Technical writers and documentation maintainers: They can use the Jekyll-based structure to publish and maintain project documentation on GitHub Pages using Markdown.

What can you do with it?

• GIS architects: Compare and evaluate web mapping platforms by reading the solution experiences documented on the site.
• Developers: Extend the Jekyll theme and add new pages with Markdown, following the contribution guidelines and using squash merging.
• Project teams: Reuse the template to spin up their own documentation site for mapping technology evaluations, hosted free on GitHub Pages.

How does it work?

The repository uses a standard GitHub Pages Jekyll workflow: content is written in Markdown, committed to the repository, and automatically built by Jekyll into a static site. Contributors fork the repository, create feature branches, submit pull requests, and once approved, changes are squash-merged with GitHub Actions ensuring the build succeeds.