Project Documentation: Personal Portfolio Website

Project Overview

This project involved creating a personal portfolio website to showcase my skills, experience, and projects. The website is hosted on AWS and utilizes a variety of cloud services to ensure scalability, reliability, and performance. Additionally, I implemented a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automate deployments, ensuring seamless updates to the website.

Objectives

• Create a professional and responsive portfolio website.
• Gain hands-on experience with AWS services and CI/CD practices.
• Implement a serverless architecture for backend functionality.
• Ensure global accessibility and fast load times.
• Automate deployment processes for efficiency.

Technologies Used

• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (using HTML5Up template).
• Backend: AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB.
• Hosting & Deployment: AWS S3, CloudFront.
• Domain & Routing: GoDaddy (domain purchase), Route 53 (DNS routing).
• SSL/TLS Certificate: AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).
• Source Code Management: GitHub.
• CI/CD Pipeline: GitHub Actions for automated deployments to S3.

Key Features

• Static Website Hosting: Used AWS S3 to store and serve static files (HTML, CSS, JS).
• Global Content Delivery: Configured CloudFront to distribute the website to edge locations.
• Contact Form Backend: Created a serverless backend using AWS Lambda and API Gateway.
• Custom Domain: Purchased a domain via GoDaddy and configured DNS routing using Route 53.
• SSL/TLS Certificate: Secured the website with HTTPS using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).
• Responsive Design: Used a pre-designed template from HTML5Up for a modern and mobile-friendly design. (Also modified and created some new templates with the help of AI.
• Source Code Management: Used GitHub for version control.
• Continuous Deployment: Set up GitHub Actions to automate deployments to S3.

Challenges & Solutions

• Challenge: Ensuring low latency for global users.
  Solution: Used CloudFront to cache content at edge locations.
• Challenge: Implementing a serverless backend for the contact form.
  Solution: Leveraged Lambda and API Gateway for a scalable solution.
• Challenge: Automating deployments to S3.
  Solution: Configured GitHub Actions for CI/CD.
• Challenge: Securing the website with HTTPS.
  Solution: Used AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to provision and manage SSL/TLS certificates.

Outcome

• Successfully deployed a fully functional portfolio website.
• Gained practical experience with AWS services, serverless architecture, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Achieved fast load times and global accessibility.
• Secured the website with HTTPS using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).
• Streamlined the development process with automated deployments using GitHub Actions.

Future Improvements

• We can add authentication and user management using AWS Cognito.
• We can integrate a blog section using AWS Amplify.
• We can implement analytics using AWS CloudWatch or Google Analytics.
• We can enhance the CI/CD pipeline to include testing and staging environments.

GitHub Repository

You can access the source code for this project on GitHub:

https://github.com/kiraag/my-portfolio-project.git