This is how my website (mej.xyz) works and some planned improvements I want to make.

Git

My entire website is set up in a git repository. This provides me with the ability to make changes to the CMS that I am using (Astro), configuration of said CMS and also the content. My site is essentially a clone of the Astro Nano configuration. I use gitlab to store my website for free in a private repo.

Basically, what I do is update the files and push them to my git repo. The actual workflow is described later on.

Future improvements I want to explore:

1. It’s been a long time since I have developed from a Windows machine. I am currently using git shell for all git commands, but I feel this could be enhanced with setting up WebStorm, Obsidian and Visual Studio Code.
2. I want to improve my use of branches and better unlock the capabilities of Git
3. Explore splitting out the content and infrastructure of my website into different repositories.

Hosting

Currently I am hosting my website on Nonic Cloud, it was a fairly affordable VPS that is essentially my cloud facing server. This service has been very reliable. I use this sever for all sorts of other things that need to be exposed to the web.

Future Improvements:

1. I might switch this to a dedicated server just for my website if I keep the maintenance of this blog.
2. Add performance monitoring.
3. Set up some form of High Availability. (I know this is just a personal website, but the fun is in the process!)

SSL

I am simply using lets encrypt for SSL right now.

Future Improvements:

1. Explore a more complex setup for education purposes.

Workflow

When I want to update my blog

I follow a pretty standard workflow on git, but I only work out of 1 branch right now (if I was to do some sort of major web redesign or something, I would use a special branch for that):

1. git pull to get the latest copy of my blog, locally.
2. …produce content…
3. git --add
4. git commit -m "a description"
5. git push

As for publication I have a deploy script that:

1. git pull - Get the latest blog version
2. npm run build - Build the site and create static elements
3. scp the files to the webserver.

Future improvements:

1. Have some testing in the process (for example a spellchecker, deadlinks checking)
2. Create a release process and automate deployments off a specific release branch.

Design

As you can see the site’s design is pretty boilerplate at the moment and lacks inspiration. I like the clean and simple approach.

Future Improvements:

1. Implement a Rainbow mode colour scheme (in addition to light and dark).
2. Add a couple of graphics to the homepage (a picture of myself)

Function

There is not a great deal of function on this website, intentionally.

Future Improvements:

1. Simple tracking of page views with a self-hosted (or even self-developed) tool, just to get an idea of site traffic.
2. Implement tagging on the site.
3. Build a digital business card page.