final edit: new-website
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---
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title: "New Website"
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date: "2025-05-16T13:16:00-06:00"
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date: "2025-06-10T08:00:00-06:00"
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description: "There's finally a new website at d-b.ca."
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summary: "I've published my personal website. A brief history of some past endeavours, and some details on the technology behind the new site."
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---
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@ -16,23 +16,30 @@ a culmination of the platform I've developed to host it.
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My first personal website was developed while I was a student at the
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[University of Alberta](https://ualberta.ca), near the end of the previous
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century. The web itself was still quite young, but the university provided
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century. The web was still in its early stages, but the university provided
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students with the means to publish web content. It was mostly a novelty at the
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time and didn't last beyond my time at school, but it sparked my interest in
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Internet technologies and their applications.
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That early site included one interesting feature. I developed a mechanism to
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automatically update a page every time I logged into one of the school's
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computers, so my friends could find me if they wanted to.
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computers, so my friends could find me if they wanted to. The only way at the
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time that was available for generating dynamic content in a website was
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[CGI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface), and the
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university did not allow student sites to use it. So, I wrote some shell
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scripts that were called as part of my login and logout scripts that would
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generate the static HTML file and write it to my web content directory. It
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needed to handle cases like multiple logins, and the logout script didn't
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always get triggered, so I'd have to keep an eye on it for stale entries.
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### Self-Hosting
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I've always been an avid self-hoster. It began when I was working at a local
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Internet service provider. I was able to get a special deal on a
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business-class broadband connection at home, which included a small network
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block (a `/28`, or 16 IP addresses) that I could use. I dedicated my most
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powerful machine to be my server and developed several services, including a
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new website.
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block (a `/28`, consisting of 16 IP addresses) that I could use. I dedicated
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my most powerful machine as my server and developed several services,
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including a new website.
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My website at that time wasn't fancy, and was geared primarily towards
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experimentation. I developed a simple content management system from scratch
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@ -62,35 +69,105 @@ resulting static resources can be served as regular files from any web
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service, without the need for dynamically generating content upon request from
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a database, as traditional CMS systems do.
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Using Hugo is much easier with a good base template, and there are
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[many to choose from](https://themes.gohugo.io/). I've chosen one called
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["Blowfish"](https://blowfish.page/) for this site.
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Using Hugo is much easier with a solid base template. There are
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[many to choose from](https://themes.gohugo.io/), including the one I've
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selected here called ["Blowfish"](https://blowfish.page/).
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Another benefit of a static site generator is that all the sources for the
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site can be treated like software code, making it simple to use development
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tools like Git for version control. I keep the sources for this site in a
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public repository on my own Git server. Feel free to take a look:
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tools like [Git](https://git-scm.com/) for version control. I keep the sources
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for this site in a public repository on my own Git server. Feel free to take a
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look:
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{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/web" >}}
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### CI/CD
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I've also set up a CI/CD pipeline to build and deploy the site whenever
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changes are made to the source repository. The CI portion is triggered by a
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push to the web repository. It runs a workflow that builds the site and
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packages the resulting artifacts into a container image based on
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[Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/). The build container with Hugo is another
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image I maintain in this repository:
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changes are made to the source repository. What does this mean?
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**CI** = *Continuous Integration*
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> This is the practice of frequently integrating changes into a source
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> repository. The changes are checked, assembled, and packaged through
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> automated processes. [More information](https://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html)
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**CD** = *Continuous Delivery*
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> This is the capability of being able to take new changes (such as the
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> outputs of the CI process) and getting them deployed and running
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> automatically. [More information](https://continuousdelivery.com/)
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The CI portion is triggered by a push to the
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[`web`](https://git.brds.ca/d-b.ca/web) repository. It runs an automated
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workflow that builds the site and packages the resulting artifacts into a
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container image based on [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/). This image
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contains everything needed to serve the website. The build container with Hugo
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is another image I maintain in this repository:
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{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/hugo-builder" >}}
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Next, the workflow updates the CD GitOps repository to deploy this new version
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to a private staging site. When I want to publish the new version as the
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production site, I use my regular GitOps repository to update the image tag,
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and the rest happens automatically.
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After the workflow has built the container image for running the website, it
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updates the CD GitOps repository to deploy this new version immediately to a
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private staging site. Another definition:
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> **GitOps** refers to the practice of managing infrastructure automation by
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> keeping machine-readable descriptions of the intended infrastructure in a
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> version-controlled Git repository. A CD system will monitor the repository
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> for changes, immediately adding, modifying, or removing infrastructure to
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> bring the state of the operational system into alignment with the source
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> description.
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When I want to publish the new version as the production site, I use my
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regular private production GitOps repository to update the image tag, and the
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rest happens automatically. The CD repository for the staging site is public,
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you're welcome to check it out here:
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{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/db-cd" >}}
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#### Pipeline Diagram
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{{< mermaid >}}
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flowchart TB
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subgraph GIT [Git Repository]
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WR[(Web)]
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CDR[(CD)]
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end
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WP(Push Web Updates)-->WR
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WP ~~~ HBI
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subgraph CI [CI Workflow]
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CIP[Pull Source
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Repository]-->BWI[Build Web
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Image]
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BWI-->PWI[Push Web
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Image]
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PWI-->UCD[Update CD
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Repository]
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end
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PWI-->WI
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WR-->CIP
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subgraph DOCKER [Image Repository]
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HBI((Hugo
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Build))
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WI((Web))
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end
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HBI-->BWI
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UCD-->CDP(Push Image
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Update)
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CDP-->CDR
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CDR-->CDPull
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subgraph CD [CD Process]
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CDPull[Pull Source Repository]-->DWI[Deploy Web Image]
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end
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WI-->DWI
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{{< /mermaid >}}
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## Underlying Platform
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In my next article, I'll describe the platform this site is running on, and
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