Personal Website

External Links

Github Repo: https://github.com/JREricson/jrericson_v2_rebuild

Live website: https://www.jrericson.com/

Project summary

This site is a portfolio for code samples and projects I’ve worked on. The technology choices are explained in the sections below.

site home

Project year

  • 2024

Project goals

Primary goal — Create a functional portfolio following good coding practices.

Secondary goal — Gain more experience with the technology used (Django, Docker, Linode, PostgreSQL, etc.).

Technology

Python, Django, Markdown, Nginx, Docker, Docker Compose, Linode, Bash, Bootstrap, Linux, SSH, Rsync.

tech img

Key Features

  • HTTPS through Let's Encrypt certificate authority secure https

  • S3 storage for database backups s3 storage

  • Deployment on a remote Linux server

  • Docker container-based deployment and development containers

  • Email-based contact form re-routing to my inbox(deprecated)

    • No longer implemented

AI usage

Most of this code was written before I introduced agentic AI into my coding practices. I have used AI in later versions, primarily for styling.

Site structure

Projects Model

Projects are stored with a variety of attributes, such as ranking (used for ordering), a GitHub link, a sample image, and a description of the project.

project schema

Project descriptions are written in Markdown. - Converted to HTML using the markdownify library - Convenience - Easy to write - Easy to transfer info from READMEs in GitHub repos - New projects are added through the admin console

markdown ex

Projects are displayed and paginated through a Django ListView. Project descriptions are displayed using a Django DetailView.

Security

  • Firewall: Using UFW to further restrict access to the site.
  • SSH key: Access to the host is restricted through an SSH key. Password and root access are disabled.
  • One-way access to S3 buckets — The system is only able to write to S3 buckets, ensuring that no data can be overwritten.
  • CORS: For trusted origins in Django.
  • Hidden access points: The Admin portal is accessed via a hidden location.

  • HTTPS: Using Let's Encrypt certificate authority.

  • Other standard practices: Including sanitization, .env files, and .gitignore files.

Backups

  • Done with a manual checkpointing method

    • Uses django-dbbackup, which provides a wrapper over Postgres's pg_dump.
    • All backups are stored externally in an S3 bucket as described below.
    • A previous version of the site used cron jobs to do this

  • Design decision

    • Backups could be done with a managed database
    • Implemented this way for zero financial cost and simplicity

S3 storage

  • Used as blob storage for backups
  • Chosen due to familiarity

Database: PostgreSQL

  • Why PostgreSQL:
    • Cheap, easy, and familiar
    • Wanted SQL

UI

  • Bootstrap was chosen for simplicity.
  • Uses the "Darkly" theme from Bootswatch to make the site less like generic Bootstrap.
  • Dark by default.

Site hosting

  • Ubuntu server (LTS) using Linode: I am familiar with Debian distributions.
  • Single node
  • Remote access:
    • SSH
    • "Visual Studio Code Remote - SSH" extension
    • Rsync (or SCP) for file transfers

Docker and Docker Compose

Docker has been chosen to run the site for the following reasons.

  1. It simplifies porting from development to production.
  2. It makes it easier to run the Nginx server, the database, the certificate authority, and other services with one another.

Separate Docker/Docker Compose files are provided for the production and local development environments.

Nginx Web Server

Nginx is used to serve static content and act as a reverse proxy for the site.

Email Form

  • I previously had send_mail() send emails to my primary address. However, Google is discontinuing password-based logins.
  • I rerouted to LinkedIn, as that is how most people will contact me.

Git Usage

I use branching similar to the Git Flow method. There is a production branch and a development branch for features that get merged into it.

Simplifying development

An aliases.sh Bash script is loaded to create shortcuts for common project-specific commands that I do not want to include in my personal .bash_aliases file. - I have moved to Makefiles in more recent projects

Citations for the codebase

The structure and design choices for the site were heavily based on the following sources. Much of the code from those tutorials was used as boilerplate.

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