jekyll-blog-demo

jekyll-blog-demo

Download

Static Blog Demo (Jekyll)

This was set up in the afternoon / evening of May 6th, 2023. I don't know Ruby and this is the first time I've deployed Jekyll, but figured it was the best solution for getting a nice site up and running very fast.

Thinking

  • Setting up a database is always a hassle - let's not do that. Let's not even go near a database.
  • Our spec requires only that we have a headless CMS and that there's a static output.
  • Why not just use flat files?
  • I could write some git actions to render flat files (e.g. MD files).
  • Or I could just use a static site builder like Jekyll.
  • I can use the extra time to build some demo content and set up a better deploy than if I write a lot of code.
  • Authentication will always be time-consuming, let's sidestep it for now.

Alternative solution

  • Could have used git as my "CMS" and used git actions to automatically deploy. (If I had used Hyde then this would have made sense but Hyde is deprecated.)
  • This would have simplified authorisation / security and made version control automatic.
  • But as git is not really a "Headless CMS", I figured it was too spicy for the brief.
  • In a real-world scenario, having a more conventional CMS backend is probably more helpful for less technical users than forcing everyone to use git.

Stack

  • Amazon EC2 service
  • Nginx
  • Ruby, Jekyll, Jekyll-Admin

Server Setup Process

Created new EC2 instance. Installed needed packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ruby ruby-dev apache2-utils
sudo gem install jekyll bundler

Copied contents of repository to remote server. Installed using bundle install. Used minimal mistakes jekyll theme.

Setup and configured nginx.

Using following guide as reference, setup services to automatically host admin and static site separately. https://jekyll.github.io/jekyll-admin/self-hosting

Setup basic HTTP auth with htpasswd.

Setup HTTPS using certbot. Setup crontab for auto-renewal.

Added content and configured.

Issues / Upgrades

  • Would have preferred a Docker container based setup, but would have been frustratingly complex to set up in timeframe given available images.
    • If had used a Docker-based setup, would have been a lot easier to save and load and have portable config.
  • Unfamiliar with Ruby / Jekyll workflow - first time setting up this structure. Some weirdness around gem locations / setup as a result.
  • Uses HTTPS auth - fine for now, but could have a nicer portal given more time.
  • Could have set static site to be pushed to a CDN of some sort e.g. Cloudfront.
  • Would be cool to set up processes to keep the blog and this git repository in sync.
    • Server-side, watching for changes to the flat files and pushing updates to the git periodically (if any changes).
    • Client-side, pushes to the git repo should trigger an upload and rebuild on the server.
minimalacademicresumeportfoliodocumentationwikitailwindbootstrapdarkecommercegithub-pagesblog