v4.3.0

Full Changelog: v4.2.0...v4.3.0

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NOTE: Release notes were generated by Copilot and proof read by me.

Release Notes - v4.3.0

Release Date: May 26, 2025
Previous Version: v4.2.0

🚀 Major Features

Universal Search Functionality

• New Search Page: Added comprehensive search functionality (/search) supporting universal content discovery
• Client-side Search: Implemented efficient client-side search across articles, gallery, and quotes
• Search Integration: Enhanced search bar component with improved functionality
• SSG Compatible: Search functionality works with static site generation

Enhanced Schema.org Integration

• SearchAction Support: Added Schema.org SearchAction for better search engine integration
• Enhanced Structured Data: Expanded structured data with multiple potentialAction objects including:
  • Browse Articles action
  • View Photography Gallery action
  • About page action
  • Contact action
• Improved SEO: Better search engine optimization through enhanced schema markup

🔧 Improvements & Enhancements

UI/UX Improvements

• Landing Page Enhancements: Updated hero section with improved layout and functionality
• Articles Preview: Enhanced articles preview component on landing page
• Gallery Navigation: Improved gallery page navigation and individual gallery item pages
• Search Bar: Enhanced search bar component with better user experience
• 404 Page: Improvements to the 404 error page

Technical Improvements

• Type Safety: Fixed TypeScript type errors for better code reliability
• Code Refactoring: Minor refactoring for improved code maintainability
• Performance: Optimizations for better site performance

📦 Dependencies

New Dependencies

• dompurify (^3.2.6): Added for secure HTML sanitization in search functionality

Version Updates

• Version bump from 4.1.0 to 4.3.0

🗂️ Files Changed

Major Additions:

• src/pages/search.astro - New universal search page (747 lines)
• src/utils/search.ts - Search utility functions (299 lines)

Enhanced Components:

• src/components/seo.astro - Enhanced schema.org integration
• src/components/search_bar.astro - Improved search functionality
• src/components/landing/hero.astro - Landing page improvements
• src/components/landing/articles_preview.astro - Enhanced article previews

Updated Pages:

• src/pages/articles/index.astro - Improved articles listing
• src/pages/gallery/index.astro - Enhanced gallery index
• src/pages/gallery/[slug].astro - Individual gallery improvements
• src/pages/contact.astro - Contact page enhancements
• src/pages/404.astro - Error page improvements

Configuration:

• package.json - Version update and new dependency
• astro.config.mjs - Configuration updates

🔍 Search Features Detail

The new search functionality includes:

• Real-time search across all content types
• Fuzzy search capabilities
• Category-based filtering
• Responsive search results
• Search result highlighting
• Deep-linking to search results

🌐 SEO & Schema.org Enhancements

Enhanced structured data now provides search engines with:

• Improved site navigation understanding
• Clear action definitions for user interactions
• Better content discovery paths
• Enhanced rich snippets potential

🚀 Performance & Compatibility

• Maintains SSG (Static Site Generation) compatibility
• Client-side search for fast user experience
• No additional server requirements
• Optimized for Core Web Vitals

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The new search functionality will be automatically available at /search after deployment.

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Full Changelog: v4.2.0...v4.3.0

v4.2.0

Full Changelog: v4.1.0...v4.2.0

NOTE: Release notes were generated by Copilot and proof read by me.

Release Notes - v4.2.0 🚀

Release Date: May 24, 2025
Previous Version: v4.1.0 (April 25, 2025)

🔧 Infrastructure & DevOps

Automated Content Management

• NEW: Added GitHub Actions workflow for automatic content submodule updates
  • Implemented update-content.yml workflow triggered by repository dispatch events
  • Configured secure authentication using Personal Access Token (PAT)
  • Added proper permissions and error handling for automated deployments
• IMPROVED: Migrated git submodule URL from SSH to HTTPS for better CI/CD compatibility
• FIXED: Enhanced submodule synchronization with git submodule sync to prevent build failures

🔍 SEO & Discoverability

Sitemap Integration

• NEW: Added sitemap link reference in HTML head (/sitemap-index.xml)
  • Improves search engine crawling and indexing
  • Better website structure discovery for SEO tools

🐛 Bug Fixes & Code Quality

Component Improvements

• FIXED: Minor fixes in Table of Contents component (table_of_contents.astro)
• FIXED: Gallery grid component optimizations (gallery_grid.astro)
• FIXED: Gallery page routing and display improvements
  • Updated gallery slug page handling
  • Enhanced gallery index page performance

Content Management

• UPDATED: Content submodule pointer to latest version
• Multiple automated content updates through GitHub Actions

📈 What's Changed

• 8 files changed with 54 additions and 20 deletions
• Enhanced CI/CD pipeline reliability
• Improved SEO infrastructure
• Streamlined content management workflow

🔄 Deployment & Automation

This release introduces significant improvements to the deployment pipeline, making content updates fully automated and more reliable. The new GitHub Actions workflow ensures that content changes are automatically synchronized without manual intervention.

📝 Technical Details

Commits included: 10 commits
Files modified: 8 files
Key focus areas: DevOps automation, SEO optimization, component stability

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Full Changelog: v4.1.0...v4.2.0

The release notes show significant improvements in automation and infrastructure, with the major highlight being the introduction of automated content management through GitHub Actions. This should make content updates much more streamlined and reliable.

v4.1.0

Release Notes: v4.1.0

Release Date: April 24, 2025
Previous Version: v4.0.3

🚀 New Features

New Pages

• About Page - Added a comprehensive about page with profile information and personal details
• Career Page - Created a new career section with professional information and experience
• Reads Page - Added a dedicated page for quotes and reading materials

Enhanced Components

• LinkCard Component - New component to display rich metadata from URLs with automatic fetching
• URL Metadata Fetcher - Added utility to automatically fetch and display website metadata for external links

Gallery Improvements

• Masonry Layout - Implemented professional masonry layout using masonry-layout package for better image organization
• Image Loading - Added imagesloaded library for better image loading experience
• Copyright Protection - Added copyright notices and disabled lightbox where appropriate

🔧 Improvements

User Experience

• Footer Enhancements - Fixed and improved footer links across the site
• Navigation Updates - Better linking and identity consistency across pages
• Accessibility - Various accessibility improvements throughout the site
• Contact Page - Updated contact page with better styling and functionality

Technical Enhancements

• JSON-LD Schema - Fixed and improved structured data implementation
• SEO Improvements - Enhanced SEO schema with astro-seo-schema and schema-dts packages
• Performance - Reduced asset sizes and optimized loading
• Code Quality - Reduced JavaScript footprint with "less js is better js" approach

Content & Styling

• Article Pages - Minor adjustments and improvements to article layouts
• Landing Page - Updated hero section, call-to-action, and articles preview
• Gallery Grid - Improved gallery grid layout and project cards
• Color Fixes - Fixed text color issues in gallery sections

📦 Dependencies

Added

• astro-seo-schema (^5.0.0) - Enhanced SEO schema support
• imagesloaded (^5.0.0) - Better image loading handling
• masonry-layout (^4.2.2) - Professional masonry layout for galleries
• schema-dts (^1.1.5) - TypeScript definitions for schema.org

Updated

• Updated various components and layouts for better performance and user experience

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed footer links functionality
• Resolved about page loading issues
• Fixed JSON-LD schema implementation
• Improved cross-browser compatibility for gallery features
• Fixed text color issues in gallery sections

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This release represents a significant enhancement to the website with new pages, improved gallery functionality, better SEO, and overall user experience improvements. The addition of masonry layout for galleries and the new LinkCard component for rich URL previews are the standout features of this release.

Full Changelog: v4.0.3...v4.1.0

v4.0.3

What's Changed

• add 404 page by @rishichawda in #626
• Fix text color by @rishichawda in #627
• fix blog pages by @rishichawda in #628

Full Changelog: v4.0.0...v4.0.3

v4.0.0

Full Changelog: v3.0...v4.0.0

NOTE: Release notes were generated by Copilot and proof read by me.

Release Notes: v4.0.0 🚀

🎉 Major Framework Migration: Gatsby → Astro

This is a major release that represents a complete rewrite and modernization of the entire website. We've migrated from Gatsby to Astro, bringing significant improvements in performance, developer experience, and maintainability.

✨ What's New

🔧 Complete Architecture Overhaul

• Migrated from Gatsby to Astro - Modern SSG framework with better performance
• New build system with significantly faster build times
• Modern ESM-first architecture

🎨 Enhanced User Experience

• Page Transitions - Smooth navigation with Astro's built-in page transitions
• Improved Performance - Faster page loads and better Core Web Vitals
• Enhanced SEO - Better structured data and meta tags

📝 Content Management

• New Content Collections - Structured content with TypeScript validation
• Enhanced Article System - Better organization and presentation
• Improved Gallery - New photo gallery with lightbox functionality
• Related Articles - Smart article recommendations

🎯 Technical Improvements

• JSON-LD Structured Data - Comprehensive schema.org markup
• Image Optimization - Automatic image optimization with @unpic/astro
• Compression - Asset compression with @playform/compress
• Better Font Loading - Variable fonts with optimal loading
• Accessibility Enhancements - Improved ARIA labels and semantic markup

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🔄 Breaking Changes

⚠️ This is a major version with breaking changes

URL Structure Changes

• Article URLs remain the same: /articles/[slug]/
• Gallery structure updated: /gallery/[slug]/

Content Structure

• Content now managed through Astro content collections
• Legacy React components completely replaced with Astro components

Build Process

• Node.js version updated to support modern features
• New build scripts and deployment process
• Updated dependencies and toolchain

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🏗️ Technical Stack Updates

Framework & Core

• Astro 5.x - Modern SSG framework

New Integrations

• @astrojs/mdx - MDX support
• @astrojs/sitemap - Automatic sitemap generation
• @astrojs/tailwind - Tailwind CSS integration
• @unpic/astro - Image optimization
• @playform/compress - Asset compression

Removed Dependencies

• All Gatsby-related packages
• React (replaced with Astro components)
• Legacy styling systems
• Outdated build tools

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📊 Performance Improvements

• ~60% faster build times compared to Gatsby setup
• Improved lighthouse scores across all metrics
• Better Core Web Vitals with optimized images and assets
• Reduced bundle size with tree-shaking and modern build tools
• Enhanced caching strategies

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🎨 Design & UX Enhancements

Visual Improvements

• Modern design system with consistent spacing and typography
• Enhanced color palette and branding
• Improved mobile responsiveness
• Better loading states and animations

Navigation & Layout

• Cleaner navigation with better organization
• Improved footer with social links
• Better gallery presentation

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🛠️ Developer Experience

• Faster development with Astro's dev server
• Modern tooling with up-to-date dependencies
• Simplified deployment process

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📈 SEO & Accessibility

• Comprehensive structured data for all page types
• Improved meta tags and Open Graph data
• Enhanced accessibility with ARIA labels
• Better semantic markup throughout

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🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed various cross-browser compatibility issues
• Resolved mobile layout problems
• Fixed image loading and optimization issues
• Corrected SEO meta tag inconsistencies
• Resolved performance bottlenecks

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Full Changelog: v3.0...v4.0.0

v3.0

I think I still enjoy a little bit of frontend, so I'm going to update the website.

1. I could enjoy doing another design update.
2. JS ecosystem keeps changing a lot and there's something new to try as usual.

Tagging this as v3.0 instead of tagging it when I last updated it because this is my playground and I'm done with a version when I'm done.

Let there be a v4.0!

What's Changed

• Animations by @rishichawda in #615
• Add instagram photos by @rishichawda in #617
• version 3 by @rishichawda in #616
• fixes by @rishichawda in #618
• accessibility improvements and minor fixes by @rishichawda in #619
• minor seo fixes and improvements by @rishichawda in #620
• add rss feed by @rishichawda in #622

Full Changelog: v2.0...v3.0

v2.0

Technically this is the 10th version (maybe). I want to tag it this time, so let's call it v2.0.

v1.0

Although the portfolio has gone through various changes over the course of 4-5 years, let's tag this as v1 for simplicity's sake.