Customising your Ensembl website
Here at the Ensembl project, in addition to www.ensembl.org we run many different websites based on Ensembl code, including public sites such as pre! and the Ensembl archives, and private sites used for internal development. In order to distinguish these sites we use plugins to alter the colour scheme and/or site logo, in addition to the changes in content. For example, pre! is green, and the archives are light brown.
You may find it useful to do something similar with an Ensembl mirror, so that your users know they are looking at a local copy and not the actual Ensembl site. How to change your logo and colour scheme...
Configuring your species
You don't need to install every Ensembl species in order to have a working website, but conversely you can add your own species if you have created the necessary databases using our pipelines. Adding and removing species.
Removing unwanted views
You can also run Ensembl without any variation, comparative genomics or regulation data (though you must install all the APIs, as there are code dependencies). Learn how to remove unwanted views.
Adding and updating static content
You may wish to include information about your own project on your Ensembl website. All the navigation for the static pages within the /info directory is automatically generated, so all you need to do is write the pages and put them in your plugin. Tips on how to create HTML pages.
Further development
If you want to get your hands dirty with our Perl code, see the web code development section of this documentation.