DEV Community: Nicola Massarenti

Pair programming with ChatGPT - an unexpected path

Nicola Massarenti — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:30:00 +0000

ChatGPT is out there and everyone is talking about it. I have read tons of posts regarding how to write prompts, what prompt is going to give you the secret strategy for the business... yada yada yada...

My story, here, is not about prompt engineering.

It's about one unexpected outcome, about how, for the first time, I felt like I was getting help from a Senior peer: someone who understood my problem, someone located remotely (because I was chatting with him), someone that had more experience than me in Linux, someone I could learn from.

The problem

My OS is Linux Ubuntu. My shell is fish and I love it (check out my dotfiles). It allows the creation of functions (a.k.a. aliases) very easily.

My note-taking tool is Obsidian, an open source software for building the second brain (it's also where I'm drafting this blog post).

On Ubuntu, I run the Obsidian app by running an AppImage, a format for distributing software on Linux. An AppImage file contains the software and all the dependencies you need to run the app. This means that to run the file you only type one command: ./path/to/file.AppImage.

Well, running obsidian via AppImage implies the following steps:

Opening a terminal - typing: CTRL+T
Running the AppImage - typing: ./path/to/AppImage
Keeping the terminal open to keep the process up and running - the main problem, because I often do some house-cleaning and close all the pending processes and terminals

This means that I should repeat these three steps at least once a day. Every day.... This had to be automated!

What I wanted to do

My initial goal was to create a fish function that allowed me to type obsidian and, in turn, run the app image.

This creates the following function (located in ~/.config/fish/functions/obsidian.fish):

function obsidian --wraps=/opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage --description 'alias obsidian=/opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.0.3.AppImage'
  /opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.0.3.AppImage $argv; 
end

However, this partially solved my problem. I had to keep the terminal up and running. This is what the terminal was printing while Obsidian was running:

So I thought: I just have to redirect the logs to /dev/null and it's done! I can close or use the terminal for other stuff! Great!

At this point, I wanted a quick result since (I thought) I knew what was the path to follow. So, I decided to ask ChatGPT to solve the problem. I asked:
write a fish function that runs a detached appImage at path "/opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage"

Great! I got the solution:

function run-obsidian
    nohup /opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage > /dev/null 2>&1 &
end

I modified the .fish file and tested the new function: obsidian was opened and the process was detached, but when I closed the terminal, obsidian was closed too!

Fair enough... With some disappointment, I wrote to ChatGPT: the process should be alive even if I kill the terminal.

And here happened the unexpected! Here I was suggested a new path, something I knew could be used for such use cases but for a lack of experience I never considered. Here I learned something new, without searching for it.

What I discovered it was possible

ChatGPT now shared an unexpected solution. It said that if I wanted to have the process running even if I logged out of the system, I had to use systemd service manager.

This is the service file generated:

# Create a new service file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/user/obsidian.service

# Add the following content to the file
[Unit]
Description=Obsidian AppImage

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/obsidian/Obsidian-1.0.3.AppImage
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

And, I could use the following commands to enable and start the service:

systemctl --user enable obsidian.service
systemctl --user start obsidian.service

This was my reaction:

I was stunned. This kind of interaction it's exactly what a person expects by a Senior colleague. I felt enriched from the answer. It was great.

Now, I had to automate the setup. I asked: create a script that automates the generation of the file, the setup of systemctl, and that runs the latest version of the AppImage among those in the folder. Make it fish-compliant

This was the output:

#!/usr/bin/env fish

# Edit this line to specify the path to your AppImages
set APPIMAGE_PATH '/opt/obsidian'

# Edit this line to specify the service name
set SERVICE_NAME 'obsidian'

# Find the latest AppImage
set appimage (find $APPIMAGE_PATH -name "Obsidian-*.AppImage" | sort -r | head -n 1)

# Create the service file
sudo sh -c "echo '[Unit]\nDescription=Obsidian AppImage\n\n[Service]\nExecStart=$appimage\nRestart=always\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=default.target' > /etc/systemd/user/$SERVICE_NAME.service"

# Reload the systemd configuration
systemctl --user daemon-reload

# Enable the service
systemctl --user enable $SERVICE_NAME.service

# Start the service
systemctl --user start $SERVICE_NAME.service

and it was done. Wow.

How to create a website using GitHub Pages, Google Domains and Hugo

Nicola Massarenti — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 08:15:32 +0000

Originally posted here

It's early 2023, and I've resigned from my full-time well-paid job to start a new journey as a freelancer. The first thing to do is to open a website that allows me to share thoughts, projects, and blog posts and be a reference for my clients.

There are tons of options. I must keep into account that:

I have very little time available
I have limited knowledge of front-end technologies
I need a personal website deployed as soon as possible

In the next sections I'll bring you on the journey of deploying a no-cost, minimal-effort and blog-friendly website on a custom domain (in my case, it's nicolamassarenti.com.

Technologies

If you're like me and not a front-end/full-stack developer you'll be
overwhelmed by the options. To name a few, you'll have to choose among:

Spend time and learn a new technology
Use a no-code platform
Create a static site
Create a dynamic site

In the beginning, I was considering developing the website with Vue.js, which is easy to use and has an active community. I already know it a bit: in the past, I created a few dashboards (with vue.js and bootstrap), some login pages, and some upload pages. It would have been too much of an effort. It would have required a few days of coding, my design (colours, font, etc) would have been poor and, most importantly, there was the risk of falling into the rabbit hole of learning. I couldn't take this effort: I needed a website as soon as possible.
On the other side, there was React, a popular framework with a steep learning curve. It may have been a good choice, but again, no time. I had to move on.

The second option was to use some no-code platforms such as Squarespace or Wix, which have the following drawbacks:

they're not free
I would be limited to the design they offer... Yes, I know, there are A LOT of templates.. But hey, I am a developer, and I want to have freedom ;)
I would be dependent forever on a specific vendor

So, I ended up choosing the third option: building a website using a framework for static websites. After some googling I stumbled upon hugo, which provides many themes, and supports Markdown and content organization through the use of taxonomies (e.g., categories, tags). One of the coolest themes I stumbled upon is PaperMod, a minimal theme suited for a blog. The documentation wasn't great and it didn't seem straightforward to change the homepage.

So I did a deeper search and came across LoveIt, a theme similar to PaperMod, with better documentation, recent commits and an easy way of customizing the home page.

Once I chose the website, it was time for the interesting part: developing.

How to create a website

First of all, you have to install hugo, the link to the installation is here.

Then, create your project.

hugo new site my-website
cd my-website
git init #initializing the folder as a repository

Now install the theme. The straightforward way is to add the theme repository as a sub-module.

git submodule add https://github.com/dillonzq/LoveIt.git themes/LoveIt

Customization

The configurations are stored in the file config.toml. My configurations are the following:

baseURL = "https://nicolamassarenti.com/"

# Change the default theme to be use when building the site with Hugo
theme = "LoveIt"

# website title
title = "Nicola Massarenti"

# language code ["en", "zh-CN", "fr", "pl", ...]
languageCode = "en"
# language name ["English", "简体中文", "Français", "Polski", ...]
languageName = "English"
# whether to include Chinese/Japanese/Korean
hasCJKLanguage = false

# default amount of posts in each pages
paginate = 12
# google analytics code [UA-XXXXXXXX-X]
googleAnalytics = ""
# copyright description used only for seo schema
copyright = ""

# whether to use robots.txt
enableRobotsTXT = true
# whether to use git commit log
enableGitInfo = true
# whether to use emoji code
enableEmoji = true

# ignore some build errors
ignoreErrors = ["error-remote-getjson", "error-missing-instagram-accesstoken"]

# Author config
[author]
  name = "Nicola Massarenti"
  email = "nicola.massarenti@gmail.com"
  link = ""

# Menu config
[menu]
  [[menu.main]]
    weight = 1
    identifier = "blog"
    pre = ""
    post = ""
    name = "Blog"
    url = "/blog/"
    title = "The blog"
  [[menu.main]]
    weight = 2
    identifier = "about"
    pre = ""
    post = ""
    name = "About"
    url = "/about/"
    title = "The about page"

[params]
  # site default theme ["auto", "light", "dark"]
  defaultTheme = "dark"
  # public git repo url only then enableGitInfo is true
  gitRepo = "https://github.com/nicolamassarenti/nicolamassarenti.com"
  #  which hash function used for SRI, when empty, no SRI is used
  # ["sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "md5"]
  fingerprint = ""
  #  date format
  dateFormat = "02/01/2006"
  # website title for Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  title = "Nicola Massarenti's website"
  # website description for RSS, SEO, Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  description = "The personal website of Nicola Massarenti"
  # website images for Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  images = ["/logo.png"]

  # Header config
  [params.header]
    # desktop header mode ["fixed", "normal", "auto"]
    desktopMode = "auto"
    # mobile header mode ["fixed", "normal", "auto"]
    mobileMode = "auto"
    #  Header title config
    [params.header.title]
      # URL of the LOGO
      logo = ""
      # title name
      name = "Nicola Massarenti"
      # you can add extra information before the name (HTML format is supported), such as icons
      pre = ""
      # you can add extra information after the name (HTML format is supported), such as icons
      post = ""
      #  whether to use typeit animation for title name
      typeit = false

  # Footer config
  [params.footer]
    enable = true
    #  Custom content (HTML format is supported)
    custom = ''
    #  whether to show Hugo and theme info
    hugo = false
    #  whether to show copyright info
    copyright = true
    #  whether to show the author
    author = true
    # Site creation time
    since = 2023
    # ICP info only in China (HTML format is supported)
    icp = ""
    # license info (HTML format is supported)
    license = '<a rel="license external nofollow noopener noreffer" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC 4.0</a>'

  #  Section (all posts) page config
  [params.section]
    # special amount of posts in each section page
    paginate = 20
    # date format (month and day)
    dateFormat = "02-01"
    # amount of RSS pages
    rss = 10

  #  List (category or tag) page config
  [params.list]
    # special amount of posts in each list page
    paginate = 20
    # date format (month and day)
    dateFormat = "02-01"
    # amount of RSS pages
    rss = 10

  #  App icon config
  [params.app]
    # optional site title override for the app when added to an iOS home screen or Android launcher
    title = "Nicola Massarenti's website"
    # whether to omit favicon resource links
    noFavicon = false
    # modern SVG favicon to use in place of older style .png and .ico files
    svgFavicon = ""
    # Android browser theme color
    themeColor = "#ffffff"
    # Safari mask icon color
    iconColor = "#5bbad5"
    # Windows v8-10 tile color
    tileColor = "#da532c"

  #  Search config
  [params.search]
    enable = true
    # type of search engine ["lunr", "algolia"]
    type = "lunr"
    # max index length of the chunked content
    contentLength = 4000
    # placeholder of the search bar
    placeholder = ""
    #  max number of results length
    maxResultLength = 10
    #  snippet length of the result
    snippetLength = 30
    #  HTML tag name of the highlight part in results
    highlightTag = "em"
    #  whether to use the absolute URL based on the baseURL in search index
    absoluteURL = false
    [params.search.algolia]
      index = ""
      appID = ""
      searchKey = ""

  # Home page config
  [params.home]
    #  amount of RSS pages
    rss = 10
    # Home page profile
    [params.home.profile]
      enable = true
      # Gravatar Email for preferred avatar in home page
      gravatarEmail = ""
      # URL of avatar shown in home page
      avatarURL = "/images/NicolaMassarenti.jpg"
      #  title shown in home page (HTML format is supported)
      title = "Nicola Massarenti"
      # subtitle shown in home page (HTML format is supported)
      subtitle = "Freelance AI/ML Engineer"
      # whether to use typeit animation for subtitle
      typeit = true
      # whether to show social links
      social = true
      #  disclaimer (HTML format is supported)
      disclaimer = ""
    # Home page posts
    [params.home.posts]
      enable = false
      # special amount of posts in each home posts page
      paginate = 6
      #  replaced with hiddenFromHomePage in params.page
      # default behavior when you don't set "hiddenFromHomePage" in front matter
      defaultHiddenFromHomePage = false

  # Social config about the author
  [params.social]
    GitHub = "nicolamassarenti"
    Linkedin = "nicola-massarenti/?locale=en_US"
    Twitter = ""
    Instagram = ""
    Facebook = ""
    Telegram = "@nicolamassarenti"
    Medium = "@nicola-massarenti"
    Gitlab = ""
    Youtubelegacy = ""
    Youtubecustom = ""
    Youtubechannel = ""
    Tumblr = ""
    Quora = ""
    Keybase = ""
    Pinterest = ""
    Reddit = ""
    Codepen = ""
    FreeCodeCamp = ""
    Bitbucket = ""
    Stackoverflow = ""
    Weibo = ""
    Odnoklassniki = ""
    VK = ""
    Flickr = ""
    Xing = ""
    Snapchat = ""
    Soundcloud = ""
    Spotify = ""
    Bandcamp = ""
    Paypal = ""
    Fivehundredpx = ""
    Mix = ""
    Goodreads = ""
    Lastfm = ""
    Foursquare = ""
    Hackernews = ""
    Kickstarter = ""
    Patreon = ""
    Steam = ""
    Twitch = ""
    Strava = ""
    Skype = ""
    Whatsapp = ""
    Zhihu = ""
    Douban = ""
    Angellist = ""
    Slidershare = ""
    Jsfiddle = ""
    Deviantart = ""
    Behance = ""
    Dribbble = ""
    Wordpress = ""
    Vine = ""
    Googlescholar = ""
    Researchgate = ""
    Mastodon = ""
    Thingiverse = ""
    Devto = ""
    Gitea = ""
    XMPP = ""
    Matrix = ""
    Bilibili = ""
    Discord = ""
    DiscordInvite = ""
    Lichess = ""
    ORCID = "0000-0002-8882-4252"
    Pleroma = ""
    Kaggle = ""
    MediaWiki= ""
    Plume = ""
    HackTheBox = ""
    RootMe= ""
    Phone = ""
    Email = "nicola.massarenti@gmail.com"
    RSS = true # 

  #  Page global config
  [params.page]
    #  whether to hide a page from home page
    hiddenFromHomePage = false
    #  whether to hide a page from search results
    hiddenFromSearch = false
    #  whether to enable twemoji
    twemoji = false
    # whether to enable lightgallery
    lightgallery = false
    #  whether to enable the ruby extended syntax
    ruby = true
    #  whether to enable the fraction extended syntax
    fraction = true
    #  whether to enable the fontawesome extended syntax
    fontawesome = true
    # whether to show link to Raw Markdown content of the content
    linkToMarkdown = true
    #  whether to show the full text content in RSS
    rssFullText = false
    #  Table of the contents config
    [params.page.toc]
      # whether to enable the table of the contents
      enable = true
      #  whether to keep the static table of the contents in front of the post
      keepStatic = true
      # whether to make the table of the contents in the sidebar automatically collapsed
      auto = true
    #  KaTeX mathematical formulas
    [params.page.math]
      enable = true
      #  default inline delimiter is $ ... $ and \( ... \)
      inlineLeftDelimiter = ""
      inlineRightDelimiter = ""
      #  default block delimiter is $$ ... $$, \[ ... \], \begin{equation} ... \end{equation} and some other functions
      blockLeftDelimiter = ""
      blockRightDelimiter = ""
      # KaTeX extension copy_tex
      copyTex = true
      # KaTeX extension mhchem
      mhchem = true
    #  Code config
    [params.page.code]
      # whether to show the copy button of the code block
      copy = true
      # the maximum number of lines of displayed code by default
      maxShownLines = 50
    #  Mapbox GL JS config
    [params.page.mapbox]
      # access token of Mapbox GL JS
      accessToken = ""
      # style for the light theme
      lightStyle = "mapbox://styles/mapbox/light-v10?optimize=true"
      # style for the dark theme
      darkStyle = "mapbox://styles/mapbox/dark-v10?optimize=true"
      # whether to add NavigationControl
      navigation = true
      # whether to add GeolocateControl
      geolocate = true
      # whether to add ScaleControl
      scale = true
      # whether to add FullscreenControl
      fullscreen = true
    #  social share links in post page
    [params.page.share]
      enable = true
      Twitter = true
      Facebook = true
      Linkedin = false
      Whatsapp = false
      Pinterest = false
      Tumblr = false
      HackerNews = true
      Reddit = false
      VK = false
      Buffer = false
      Xing = false
      Line = true
      Instapaper = false
      Pocket = false
      Flipboard = false
      Weibo = true
      Blogger = false
      Baidu = false
      Odnoklassniki = false
      Evernote = false
      Skype = false
      Trello = false
      Mix = false
    #  Comment config
    [params.page.comment]
      enable = true
      # Disqus comment config
      [params.page.comment.disqus]
        # 
        enable = false
        # Disqus shortname to use Disqus in posts
        shortname = ""
      # Gitalk comment config
      [params.page.comment.gitalk]
        # 
        enable = false
        owner = ""
        repo = ""
        clientId = ""
        clientSecret = ""
      # Valine comment config
      [params.page.comment.valine]
        enable = false
        appId = ""
        appKey = ""
        placeholder = ""
        avatar = "mp"
        meta= ""
        pageSize = 10
        # automatically adapt the current theme i18n configuration when empty
        lang = ""
        visitor = true
        recordIP = true
        highlight = true
        enableQQ = false
        serverURLs = ""
        #  emoji data file name, default is "google.yml"
        # ["apple.yml", "google.yml", "facebook.yml", "twitter.yml"]
        # located in "themes/LoveIt/assets/lib/valine/emoji/" directory
        # you can store your own data files in the same path under your project:
        # "assets/lib/valine/emoji/"
        emoji = ""
      # Facebook comment config
      [params.page.comment.facebook]
        enable = false
        width = "100%"
        numPosts = 10
        appId = ""
        # automatically adapt the current theme i18n configuration when empty
        languageCode = ""
      #  Telegram comments config
      [params.page.comment.telegram]
        enable = false
        siteID = ""
        limit = 5
        height = ""
        color = ""
        colorful = true
        dislikes = false
        outlined = false
      #  Commento comment config
      [params.page.comment.commento]
        enable = false
      #  utterances comment config
      [params.page.comment.utterances]
        enable = false
        # owner/repo
        repo = ""
        issueTerm = "pathname"
        label = ""
        lightTheme = "github-light"
        darkTheme = "github-dark"
      # giscus comment config (https://giscus.app/)
      [params.page.comment.giscus]
        # You can refer to the official documentation of giscus to use the following configuration.
        enable = false
        repo = ""
        repoId = ""
        category = "Announcements"
        categoryId = ""
        # automatically adapt the current theme i18n configuration when empty
        lang = ""
        mapping = "pathname"
        reactionsEnabled = "1"
        emitMetadata = "0"
        inputPosition = "bottom"
        lazyLoading = false
        lightTheme = "light"
        darkTheme = "dark"
    #  Third-party library config
    [params.page.library]
      [params.page.library.css]
        # someCSS = "some.css"
        # located in "assets/"
        # Or
        # someCSS = "https://cdn.example.com/some.css"
      [params.page.library.js]
        # someJavascript = "some.js"
        # located in "assets/"
        # Or
        # someJavascript = "https://cdn.example.com/some.js"
    #  Page SEO config
    [params.page.seo]
      # image URL
      images = []
      # Publisher info
      [params.page.seo.publisher]
        name = ""
        logoUrl = ""

  #  TypeIt config
  [params.typeit]
    # typing speed between each step (measured in milliseconds)
    speed = 100
    # blinking speed of the cursor (measured in milliseconds)
    cursorSpeed = 1000
    # character used for the cursor (HTML format is supported)
    cursorChar = "|"
    # cursor duration after typing finishing (measured in milliseconds, "-1" means unlimited)
    duration = -1

  # Site verification code config for Google/Bing/Yandex/Pinterest/Baidu
  [params.verification]
    google = ""
    bing = ""
    yandex = ""
    pinterest = ""
    baidu = ""

  #  Site SEO config
  [params.seo]
    # image URL
    image = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicolamassarenti/nicolamassarenti.com/main/assets/images/NicolaMassarenti.jpg"
    # thumbnail URL
    thumbnailUrl = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicolamassarenti/nicolamassarenti.com/main/assets/images/NicolaMassarenti.jpg"

  #  Analytics config
  [params.analytics]
    enable = false
    # Google Analytics
    [params.analytics.google]
      id = ""
      # whether to anonymize IP
      anonymizeIP = true
    # Fathom Analytics
    [params.analytics.fathom]
      id = ""
      # server url for your tracker if you're self hosting
      server = ""
    # Plausible Analytics
    [params.analytics.plausible]
      dataDomain = ""
    # Yandex Metrica
    [params.analytics.yandexMetrica]
      id = ""

  #  Cookie consent config
  [params.cookieconsent]
    enable = true
    # text strings used for Cookie consent banner
    [params.cookieconsent.content]
      message = ""
      dismiss = ""
      link = ""

  #  CDN config for third-party library files
  [params.cdn]
    # CDN data file name, disabled by default
    # ["jsdelivr.yml"]
    # located in "themes/LoveIt/assets/data/cdn/" directory
    # you can store your own data files in the same path under your project:
    # "assets/data/cdn/"
    data = ""

  #  Compatibility config
  [params.compatibility]
    # whether to use Polyfill.io to be compatible with older browsers
    polyfill = false
    # whether to use object-fit-images to be compatible with older browsers
    objectFit = false

# Markup related config in Hugo
[markup]
  # Syntax Highlighting
  [markup.highlight]
    codeFences = true
    guessSyntax = true
    lineNos = true
    lineNumbersInTable = true
    # false is a necessary configuration
    # (https://github.com/dillonzq/LoveIt/issues/158)
    noClasses = false
  # Goldmark is from Hugo 0.60 the default library used for Markdown
  [markup.goldmark]
    [markup.goldmark.extensions]
      definitionList = true
      footnote = true
      linkify = true
      strikethrough = true
      table = true
      taskList = true
      typographer = true
    [markup.goldmark.renderer]
      # whether to use HTML tags directly in the document
      unsafe = true
  # Table Of Contents settings
  [markup.tableOfContents]
    startLevel = 2
    endLevel = 6

# Sitemap config
[sitemap]
  changefreq = "weekly"
  filename = "sitemap.xml"
  priority = 0.5

# Permalinks config
[Permalinks]
  # posts = ":year/:month/:filename"
  posts = ":filename"

# Privacy config
[privacy]
  #  privacy of the Google Analytics (replaced by params.analytics.google)
  [privacy.googleAnalytics]
    # ...
  [privacy.twitter]
    enableDNT = true
  [privacy.youtube]
    privacyEnhanced = true

# Options to make output .md files
[mediaTypes]
  [mediaTypes."text/plain"]
    suffixes = ["md"]

# Options to make output .md files
[outputFormats.MarkDown]
  mediaType = "text/plain"
  isPlainText = true
  isHTML = false

# Options to make hugo output files
[outputs]
  # 
  home = ["HTML", "RSS", "JSON"]
  page = ["HTML", "MarkDown"]
  section = ["HTML", "RSS"]
  taxonomy = ["HTML", "RSS"]
  taxonomyTerm = ["HTML"]

Favicons

I used this picture and generated the different formats using realfavicongenerator .

Skeleton structure

Setting up the skeleton (menu bar, header, footer) is fairly simple.

# Menu config
[menu]
  [[menu.main]]
    weight = 1
    identifier = "blog"
    pre = ""
    post = ""
    name = "Blog"
    url = "/blog/"
    title = "The blog"
  [[menu.main]]
    weight = 2
    identifier = "about"
    pre = ""
    post = ""
    name = "About"
    url = "/about/"
    title = "The about page"

[params]
  # site default theme ["auto", "light", "dark"]
  defaultTheme = "dark"
  # public git repo url only then enableGitInfo is true
  gitRepo = "https://github.com/nicolamassarenti/nicolamassarenti.com"
  #  which hash function used for SRI, when empty, no SRI is used
  # ["sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "md5"]
  fingerprint = ""
  #  date format
  dateFormat = "02/01/2006"
  # website title for Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  title = "Nicola Massarenti's website"
  # website description for RSS, SEO, Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  description = "The personal website of Nicola Massarenti"
  # website images for Open Graph and Twitter Cards
  images = ["/logo.png"]

  # Header config
  [params.header]
    # desktop header mode ["fixed", "normal", "auto"]
    desktopMode = "auto"
    # mobile header mode ["fixed", "normal", "auto"]
    mobileMode = "auto"
    #  Header title config
    [params.header.title]
      # URL of the LOGO
      logo = ""
      # title name
      name = "Nicola Massarenti"
      # you can add extra information before the name (HTML format is supported), such as icons
      pre = ""
      # you can add extra information after the name (HTML format is supported), such as icons
      post = ""
      #  whether to use typeit animation for title name
      typeit = false

  # Footer config
  [params.footer]
    enable = true
    #  Custom content (HTML format is supported)
    custom = ''
    #  whether to show Hugo and theme info
    hugo = false
    #  whether to show copyright info
    copyright = true
    #  whether to show the author
    author = true
    # Site creation time
    since = 2023
    # ICP info only in China (HTML format is supported)
    icp = ""
    # license info (HTML format is supported)
    license = '<a rel="license external nofollow noopener noreffer" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC 4.0</a>'

It sets the menu, the footer and the header configurations. There are two sections: blog, which contains my articles, and about, a page with my work experiences.

Home page

To set up the home page is necessary to save the avatar in the folder assets/images. The configurations are:

  [params.home]
    rss = 10
    [params.home.profile]
      enable = true
      gravatarEmail = ""
      avatarURL = "/images/NicolaMassarenti.jpg"
      title = "Nicola Massarenti"
      subtitle = "Freelance AI/ML Engineer"
      typeit = true
      social = true
      disclaimer = ""
    [params.home.posts]
      enable = false
      paginate = 6
      defaultHiddenFromHomePage = false

  [params.social]
    GitHub = "https://github.com/nicolamassarenti"
    Linkedin = "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-massarenti/"
    Telegram = "@nicolamassarenti"
    Medium = "https://medium.com/@nicola-massarenti"
    ORCID = "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8882-4252"
    Email = "nicola.massarenti@gmail.com"
    RSS = true #

Setting up CI/CD

Setting up the CI/CD on GitHub is fast: you can automate your deployments by using the default action for hugo applications. The yml is provided by GitHub and is the following:

# Sample workflow for building and deploying a Hugo site to GitHub Pages
name: Deploy Hugo site to Pages

on:
  # Runs on pushes targeting the default branch
  push:
    branches: ["main"]

  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:

# Sets permissions of the GITHUB_TOKEN to allow deployment to GitHub Pages
permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

# Allow one concurrent deployment
concurrency:
  group: "pages"
  cancel-in-progress: true

# Default to bash
defaults:
  run:
    shell: bash

jobs:
  # Build job
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      HUGO_VERSION: 0.108.0
    steps:
      - name: Install Hugo CLI
        run: |
          wget -O ${{ runner.temp }}/hugo.deb https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v${HUGO_VERSION}/hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_linux-amd64.deb \
          && sudo dpkg -i ${{ runner.temp }}/hugo.deb
      - name: Install Dart Sass Embedded
        run: sudo snap install dart-sass-embedded
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          submodules: recursive
      - name: Setup Pages
        id: pages
        uses: actions/configure-pages@v2
      - name: Install Node.js dependencies
        run: "[[ -f package-lock.json || -f npm-shrinkwrap.json ]] && npm ci || true"
      - name: Build with Hugo
        env:
          # For maximum backward compatibility with Hugo modules
          HUGO_ENVIRONMENT: production
          HUGO_ENV: production
        run: |
          hugo \
            --minify \
            --baseURL "${{ steps.pages.outputs.base_url }}/"
      - name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
        with:
          path: ./public

  # Deployment job
  deploy:
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v1

Setting up GitHub Pages and Google Domains

First of all, you have to enable GitHub Pages for your profile by going to your profile settings and enabling Pages. Then, you have to configure an apex domain, add your desired custom domain and save the configurations.

Now it's time to move to Google Domains and click on Manage to the website you want to use as a custom domain.

Then, add the Host Name records as shown in the picture below.

Conclusions

The process of creating a website can be daunting, especially if you have limited time and knowledge of front-end technologies. However, as demonstrated in this post, it is possible to create a professional, blog-friendly website with minimal effort by using a framework for static websites such as Hugo and a suitable theme. By following the steps outlined in this post, you can have your own website up and running in no time and for free.

I hope you found this post helpful and informative. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to leave them below or to reach out to me on my LinkedIn account. I would love to hear from you.