DigitalOcean Academy

DigitalOcean Academy is the official learning-content repository for DigitalOcean on the Meshery Academy platform. It hosts structured learning paths, challenges, certifications, and Meshery infrastructure designs — helping engineers learn how to manage cloud-native infrastructure with Meshery on DigitalOcean.

🔗 Live site: https://digitalocean.layer5.io/academy

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📚 Overview

Purpose	Primary source of DigitalOcean-specific Meshery learning content
Platform	Runs on the shared Layer5 Academy platform
Authoring	Markdown-based content with live local preview via Hugo
Content types	Learning paths · Challenges · Certifications · Infrastructure designs
Org ID	3e2f9c82-1a4c-4781-adf9-99ec22cd994e

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🛠️ Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

Tool	Version	Link
Hugo (extended)	≥ 0.156.0	Install Hugo
Go	≥ 1.24	Install Go
Node.js / npm	LTS	Install Node.js
Git	Latest	Install Git

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Fork & Clone

# Fork this repository on GitHub, then clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/digitalocean-academy.git
cd digitalocean-academy

2. Install Dependencies

npm install

3. Run the Site Locally

Start the Hugo development server with drafts and future content enabled:

hugo server -D

Or use the Makefile target (includes draft and future content):

make site

The site will be available at http://localhost:1313/academy/ (or the port shown in your terminal).

Note: The local preview uses basic styling. Full Academy branding is applied after content is integrated into the cloud platform.

4. Other Useful Commands

Command	Description
make setup	Install npm dependencies
make build	Build the site for production
make clean	Clear build cache and restart the dev server
make theme-update	Update the academy-theme Hugo module to the latest version

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📁 Repository Structure

digitalocean-academy/
├── .github/                  # GitHub workflows, issue templates, PR templates
│   ├── build/                # Makefile includes
│   ├── readme/images/        # README assets
│   ├── workflows/            # CI/CD pipelines
│   └── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
├── assets/json/              # JSON data assets
├── content/                  # 📝 All learning content lives here
│   ├── _index.md             # Site root page
│   ├── learning-paths/       # Learning paths scoped by org ID
│   ├── certifications/       # Certification content
│   └── challenges/           # Challenge content
├── designs/                  # Meshery infrastructure designs (YAML)
├── layouts/                  # Hugo layout overrides & shortcodes
│   ├── _partials/            # Partial templates
│   └── shortcodes/           # Custom Hugo shortcodes
├── public/                   # Generated site output (git-ignored)
├── resources/                # Hugo resource cache
├── go.mod / go.sum           # Go module (pulls academy-theme)
├── hugo.yaml                 # Hugo configuration
├── Makefile                  # Build & dev targets
├── package.json              # Node.js dependencies
└── README.md                 # ← You are here

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✍️ Content Authoring

Content Hierarchy

The Academy content follows this structure: Learning Path → Course → Chapter → Lesson.

content/
└── learning-paths/
    ├── _index.md
    └── 3e2f9c82-1a4c-4781-adf9-99ec22cd994e/   # DigitalOcean org UID
        └── <your-learning-path>/
            ├── _index.md
            └── <your-course>/
                ├── _index.md
                └── content/
                    ├── lesson-1.md
                    └── lesson-2.md

Adding Images

Use the usestatic shortcode (not standard Markdown image links) for tenant-aware asset paths:

1. Place your image in static/3e2f9c82-1a4c-4781-adf9-99ec22cd994e/images/
2. Reference it in your lesson:

   ![Alt text]({{< usestatic path="images/your-image.png" >}})
   

Adding Videos

{{< card title="Video: Example" >}}
<video width="100%" height="100%" controls>
    <source src="https://example.com/video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
    Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
{{< /card >}}

Adding Assessments

Assessment files use the Academy test layout. Question and option IDs must be unique within their scope.

---
title: "Assessment Example"
id: "assessment-example"
type: "test"
layout: "test"
passPercentage: 70
maxAttempts: 3
timeLimit: 30
numberOfQuestions: 1
questions:
  - id: "q1"
    text: "DigitalOcean Academy content is authored in Markdown."
    type: "true-false"
    marks: 1
    options:
      - id: "true"
        text: "True"
        isCorrect: true
      - id: "false"
        text: "False"
---

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🤝 Contribution Workflow

We welcome contributions! Please follow the fork → branch → commit → push → pull request workflow:

Step-by-Step

1. Fork this repository on GitHub.
2. Clone your fork locally:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/digitalocean-academy.git
   cd digitalocean-academy

3. Create a branch for your changes:

   git checkout -b feature/<your-username>/<issue-number>

4. Make your changes — add or edit content in content/, fix bugs, improve docs.
5. Preview locally to verify:

   hugo server -D

6. Commit with a sign-off (required by DCO):

   git commit -s -m "docs: describe your change"

7. Push to your fork:

   git push origin feature/<your-username>/<issue-number>

8. Open a Pull Request against the master branch of this repository.

For a detailed guide on the fork-and-pull workflow, see CONTRIBUTING-gitflow.md.

Important Guidelines

• All commits must be signed-off (Developer Certificate of Origin).
• Pull requests should reference an open issue.
• See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full contribution guide.
• See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md for community standards.

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🔗 Related Repositories

Repository	Description
meshery/meshery	Meshery core project
meshery-extensions/meshery-academy	Meshery Academy content
meshery-extensions/digitalocean-academy	This repository (upstream)
layer5io/academy-theme	Academy Hugo theme — styles, shortcodes, layouts
layer5io/academy-build	Build pipeline that aggregates academies for publishing

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📄 License

This repository is available as open source under the terms of the Apache 2.0 License.