Personal Website - Static Site Generator

A modern, static site generator for your personal website. This replaces the Flask-based server with a simple Python build script that generates static HTML files.

Features

• ✅ Static Site Generation - No server needed, just HTML files
• ✅ Modern Design - Clean, responsive design with improved typography
• ✅ Blog Support - Easy markdown-based blog posts
• ✅ Projects Page - Showcase your work with a beautiful grid layout
• ✅ Papers Page - Improved styling for your publications
• ✅ Cheap Hosting - Deploy to GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel for free

Structure

njwfish/
├── static/              # Source files
│   ├── about.md         # About page content
│   ├── posts/           # Blog posts (each in its own folder)
│   ├── css/             # Stylesheets
│   ├── js/              # JavaScript
│   └── ...
├── templates/           # Jinja2 templates
├── talks.json           # Talks metadata
└── ...

site/                    # Generated static site (output)

Usage

Building the Site

With conda environment:

conda activate website-build
python3 build.py

Or use the helper script:

./build.sh

Without conda:

python3 build.py

This will:

1. Read all markdown files and templates
2. Convert markdown to HTML
3. Generate static HTML files in the site/ directory
4. Copy static assets (CSS, JS, images, etc.)

Adding a New Blog Post

1. Create a new folder in njwfish/static/posts/ (e.g., my-new-post/)
2. Create three files:
   • title - The post title
   • blurb - A short description
   • main.md or main.html - The post content

Example:

njwfish/static/posts/my-new-post/
├── title
├── blurb
└── main.md

Updating Papers

Papers are automatically fetched from Google Scholar when you run build.py. To manually update:

python3 fetch_scholar.py

Or edit njwfish/papers.json directly. The CV will automatically update with all papers from papers.json.

Adding a Talk

Edit njwfish/talks.json:

[
    {
        "title": "My Talk Title",
        "venue": "Conference Name",
        "location": "City, Country",
        "date": "2024",
        "slides": "/static/slides/my-slides.pdf",
        "video": "https://...",
        "links": []
    }
]

Deploying

Option 1: GitHub Pages (Free)

1. Push the site/ directory to a gh-pages branch
2. Enable GitHub Pages in your repo settings

Or use GitHub Actions to auto-build on push.

Option 2: Netlify (Free)

1. Install Netlify CLI: npm install -g netlify-cli
2. Build command: python3 build.py
3. Publish directory: site
4. Deploy: netlify deploy --prod

Option 3: Vercel (Free)

1. Install Vercel CLI: npm install -g vercel
2. Build command: python3 build.py
3. Output directory: site
4. Deploy: vercel --prod

Development

Local Testing

After building, you can serve the site locally:

# Using Python
cd site
python3 -m http.server 8000

# Or using Node.js
npx serve site

Then visit http://localhost:8000

Requirements

• Python 3.6+ (Python 3.9 recommended)
• markdown package
• jinja2 package

Installation Options

Conda (Recommended):

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate website-build

pip:

pip install markdown jinja2

Migrating from Flask

The old Flask app is still in njwfish/njwfish.py and njwfish/core.py. You can:

1. Keep it for reference
2. Delete it once you've migrated
3. Run both in parallel during transition

The new system uses the same content structure, so your posts will work immediately.

Customization

• Colors: Edit CSS variables in njwfish/static/css/main.css
• Layout: Modify templates in njwfish/templates/
• Styling: Update CSS in njwfish/static/css/main.css

Notes

• Posts are sorted by modification date (newest first)
• The build script preserves your existing post structure
• All static assets are copied to the site/ directory
• The site is fully static - no server-side code needed