Set up an environment for wiki editing

Now that you have a local repository, you can create a local live server. When you make changes to the file in the local repository, the live server will let you visualize those changes immediately.

We need to set up an environment for the live server. There are two ways do so:

Install a Python environment and the dependencies
(simplier for Windows and not so friendly for Macs)
In a Docker container
(recommended for Mac, also for Windows users who aim to get the most robust environement)

Python

Installation

Install Python
or
Install Anaconda
On Mac, open a command line terminal
On Windows, open the Python terminal, or, the Anaconda Prompt
In the terminal, run the command:
```
pip install mkdocs-material
```
Wait for the process to complete

Serve

In the terminal, navigate into the team-wiki folder where your local repository is, e.g..:
```
cd.. Documents/GitHub/team-wiki
```
Run the command ls (Mac) or dir (Windows), you should see a list of files and a folder, including:
- the docs folder where .md files are stored, the wiki contents are in the .md files
- mkdocs.yml, a configuration file
Run:
```
mkdocs serve
```
You should see a message saying that changes are being detected

Docker

Docker container. This ensure that you will always get the same environment for running certain application, regardless of the operating system / existing software that you have already installed on your computer.

Installation

Install Docker Desktop Windows users will need to follow enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) beforehand See the Docker documentation for doing so.
Open a command line terminal
For Windows users, open a PowerShell / Linux terminal
In the terminal, run the command:
```
docker pull squidfunk/mkdocs-material
```
Wait for the process to complete

Start a container

In the terminal, navigate into the team-wiki folder where your local repository is, e.g..:
```
cd.. Documents/GitHub/team-wiki
```
Run the command ls, you should see a list of files and a folder, including:
- the docs folder where .md files are stored, the wiki contents are in the .md files
- mkdocs.yml, a configuration file
Run the following command in the terminal to set up a local live server:
```
docker run --rm -it -p 8000:8000 -v ${PWD}:/docs squidfunk/mkdocs-material
```
You should see a message saying that changes are being detected:
Do not close the terminal and return to your desktop

Caution

If you close the terminal by accident, the following steps will not work.
In that case, open a new terminal and start from Step 1 again.

Preview

Whether you are using a Docker container or a Python environment, the rest of the steps are the same.

Open your browser of choice (e.g. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.),
connect to the live server by typing localhost:8000 in the address bar and hit Enter
You should now see the wiki site being rendered locally
In the browser, click on "Background" in the lefthand side navigation menu
Or, go to localhost:8000/background/
You will see a most empty page
Use any integrated development environment (IDE) or plain text editor of your choice, e.g. VS Code, Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (MacOS), open the file docs/bakground.md in your local repository folder You should see an empty file

Copy and paste the following texts into docs/bakground.md, then save the file and close it

# Project Background

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla et euismod
nulla. Curabitur feugiat, tortor non consequat finibus, justo purus auctor
massa, nec semper lorem quam in massa.

Return to the browser at localhost:8000/background/ You should now see the page being populated with the new title and content

Shut down the container

When you are done editing and no longer need your browser, go back to the terminal, hit Ctrl+C on your keyboard to exit the live server.

Server shutdown

Screenshot above is for Docker, but the message will be the same for a Python environment.

Once you have done so, refreshing the page should give you a 404 error.

In the future, should you wish to start the live server again, you do not need to repeat the installation steps.