Creating a Simple Site for Your Mobile Application Using Your App’s GitHub Repository: Step-by-Step Guide

4 min readJul 31, 2023

Creating a Simple Site for Your Mobile Application Using Your App’s GitHub Repository

Introduction

Having a dedicated website for your mobile application can significantly boost its visibility, provide valuable information to users, and serve as a hub for updates and support. In this step-by-step guide, I’ll walk you through the process of creating a simple website for your mobile application using your app’s GitHub repository. GitHub Pages, a free hosting service offered by GitHub, will allow you to showcase your app and reach a wider audience without any additional cost. Let’s get started!

Set up a GitHub Repository for Your Mobile Application

If you haven’t already, create a GitHub repository to host your mobile application’s code. In this example, I’ll use the Serverpod repository from the Serverpod tutorial.

Create a New Branch for GitHub Pages

In your GitHub repository, from the Branches dropdown, create a new branch named gh-pages . GitHub Pages will automatically recognize this branch and use it to generate your website.

Design Your Simple Site

For a basic site, you can use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Keep it clean and straightforward, with essential information such as an app description, features, screenshots, and download links. Consider using responsive design to ensure the site looks great on both desktop and mobile devices.

You can create an index.html file in the root of your gh-pages branch and include all necessary HTML elements and content. For styling, use a separate “style.css” file. Additionally, if you need any interactivity or dynamic content, utilize JavaScript in a “script.js” file.

Also, Github will use the README.md in case there is no index.html. In our case, we’ll let it use README.md

Commit and Push Your Changes

If you’ve designed your simple site, commit your changes to the gh-pages branch. Go to the Code tab, ensure you are on the gh-pages branch, and click on Add file , Upload filesand Commit changes

Another alternative is using the command line and running the commands:

git add .

git commit -m "creating a simple site for my application"

git push -u origin main

Enable GitHub Pages

To enable Github Pages, go to the Settings tab of your repository.

Select Pages on the left side-menu.

Select the gh-pages branch from the dropdown menu. Click on Saveto apply the changes. GitHub Pages will now use the content from your gh-pagesbranch to generate a live website accessible at https://yourusername.github.io/your-repo-name/. This is displayed at the top of the current screen above. The changes may take a few minutes to propagate.

In my case it picked the README.md file and displayed the contents on my new site.

Conclusion

Creating a simple site for your mobile application using your app’s GitHub repository and GitHub Pages is an efficient and cost-effective way to promote your app and provide essential information to users. By following this step-by-step guide, you can showcase your mobile app professionally and effectively, increasing its reach and user engagement. Remember to regularly update your site and continuously improve it based on user feedback. Good luck with your mobile application and its new website!