---
id: version-1.9.x-site-preparation
title: Site Preparation
original_id: site-preparation
---

After [installing Docusaurus](getting-started-installation.md), you now have a skeleton to work from for your specific website. The following discusses the rest of the Docusaurus structure in order for you to prepare your site.

## Directory Structure

As shown after you [installed Docusaurus](getting-started-installation.md), the initialization script created a directory structure similar to:

```bash
root-directory
├── .gitignore
├── docs
│   ├── doc1.md
│   ├── doc2.md
│   ├── doc3.md
│   ├── exampledoc4.md
│   └── exampledoc5.md
└── website
    ├── blog
    │   ├── 2016-03-11-blog-post.md
    │   ├── 2017-04-10-blog-post-two.md
    │   ├── 2017-09-25-testing-rss.md
    │   ├── 2017-09-26-adding-rss.md
    │   └── 2017-10-24-new-version-1.0.0.md
    ├── core
    │   └── Footer.js
    ├── package.json
    ├── pages
    ├── sidebars.json
    ├── siteConfig.js
    └── static
```

### Directory Descriptions

- **Documentation Source Files**: The `docs` directory contains example documentation files written in Markdown.
- **Blog**: The `website/blog` directory contains examples of blog posts written in markdown.
- **Pages**: The `website/pages` directory contains example top-level pages for the site.
- **Static files and images**: The `website/static` directory contains static assets used by the example site.

### Key Files

- **Footer**: The `website/core/Footer.js` file is a React component that acts as the footer for the site generated by Docusaurus and should be customized by the user.
- **Configuration file**: The `website/siteConfig.js` file is the main configuration file used by Docusaurus.
- **Sidebars**: The `sidebars.json` file contains the structure and ordering of the documentation files.
- **.gitignore**: The `.gitignore` file lists the necessary ignore files for the generated site so that they do not get added to the git repo.

## Preparation Notes

You will need to keep the `website/siteConfig.js` and `website/core/Footer.js` files, but may edit them as you wish. The value of the `customDocsPath` key in `website/siteConfig.js` can be modified if you wish to use a different directory name or path. The `website` directory can also be renamed to anything you want it to be.

However, you should keep the `website/pages` and `website/static` directories. You may change the content inside them as you wish. At the bare minimum you should have an `en/index.js` or `en/index.html` file inside `website/pages` and an image to use as your header icon inside `website/static`.

If your directory does not yet have a `.gitignore`, we generate it with the necessary ignored files listed. As a general rule, you should ignore all `node_modules`, build files, system files (`.DS_Store`), logs, etc. [Here](https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/Node.gitignore) is a more comprehensive list of what is normally ignored for Node.js projects.
