How to properly configure GitBook Space's README.md?

Question

I'm using GitBook's GitLab integration to create a documentation for a product my company is preparing to launch. The below is how the git-sync'd Space currently looks like from app.gitbook.com:

Currently, I have the following files in my project root:

usage-doc/
|
+-- README.md
+-- SUMMARY.md
+-- book.json

book.json has the following:

{
  "title": "Usage Documentation",
  "description": "Hello World"
}

The problems I'd like to solve are the following:

1. From the gitbook docs : Title of your book, default value is extracted from the README. On legacy.gitbook.com this field is pre-filled. Title of your book, default value is extracted from the README. On legacy.gitbook.com this field is pre-filled. However neither the title I added inside of README.md , nor the "title" key I had set in book.json seem to be correctly extracted for display on the GitBook space, which you can see still show up as " Untitled " on the sidebar, and the README page displays the generic " README " text, while the title "___ Usage Documentation" shows up as a description underneath.

2. I'd like to add another section link/shortcut on the README page, below "Seller" for "Buyer". How would I do that?

Answer 1

The features you are referring to, are about GitBook Legacy which is a version GitBook hasn't been supporting for years. GitBook is a cloud offering now, and the official docs are here: https://docs.gitbook.com .

The way to change the title of the space itself in your example is to type the title at the top where it says: "Enter a title for this space". Then let it sync. Git sync is a two way sync. When you change something in the GitBook Space, it syncs to the Git repository, and vice versa.

I'd like to add another section link/shortcut on the README page, below "Seller" for "Buyer". How would I do that?

Here's an example SUMMARY.md file that shows pages, a group and a link:

# Table of contents

* [README](README.md)
* [Test](test.md)

## Group

* [Group](group/group.md)

***

* [My blog](https://petros.blog)

The way to add pages, groups, or links from within the space itself is via a change request. That is, you need to click Edit to start a new change request. After doing so, you will see a New page option in the left sidebar. If you click the option you can choose what you want to add.