Entry Task link (deployed on vercel):
For the entry task I focused on improving the landing page UI/UX and content flow, mainly to reduce bounce rate and help users understand the project within the first 5–10 seconds .
Changes made:
Improved navbar UI/UX and reduced clutter
Introduced theme colors based on the project logo
Light mode: orange / white / black
Dark mode: blue / white / black
Reordered page sections to improve initial understanding:
Prioritized USP and tutorial/demo sections
Turned the logo wall into a mobile carousel for better UX
Moved news and FAQ toward the end since they are mostly for returning users
Placed support and community sections earlier
Improved footer UI and overall layout consistency
I kept the scope limited since it’s an entry task. I’ll continue iterating on it over time.
master ← Aayushman-nvm:issue404
opened 05:58PM - 23 Feb 26 UTC
Pages from submodules were showing incorrect last-modified dates because actions… /checkout does a shallow clone of submodules even when fetch-depth: 0 is set. This caused all submodule pages to show the same wrong date.
Fix: added a step to unshallow all submodules after checkout so Jekyll can
correctly determine the last commit date for each file.
Closes: Issue #404
Screenshots:
Before -
<img width="1579" height="963" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a075de76-c445-49d7-a56e-a6801c3d10b6" />
After -
<img width="1578" height="961" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7965d88c-c679-4196-933d-eaef9815aa2e" />
master ← Aayushman-nvm:issue586
opened 01:26PM - 25 Feb 26 UTC
## Automate tutorial sidebar generation
Replaces the manually maintained `tut… orial_sidebar.yml` with a Liquid-based auto-discovery system (related to #586 - partial fix).
### Problem
Adding a tutorial required manually updating `tutorial_sidebar.yml`, creating duplication and cross-repo dependency between the main site and the tutorials submodule.
### Solution
- **_includes/sidebar.html**
Dispatches to a dedicated tutorial sidebar include when `tutorial_sidebar` is requested. Other sidebars remain unaffected.
- **_includes/tutorial_sidebar.html**
Auto-builds the sidebar using `site.pages` filtered to `imported/tutorials/`.
Renders:
- **Introduction** (hardcoded — lives in main repo)
- **Basic cases** (configured via data file, link-only behavior preserved)
- **All tutorials** (auto-discovered, alphabetically interleaved flat pages and groups)
- **_data/tutorial_sidebar_config.yml**
Centralizes editorial decisions: featured tutorials, subgroup definitions, display order, short title overrides.
Only this file requires manual updates.
- **_data/sidebars/tutorial_sidebar.yml**
Preserved for reference but no longer used.
### Result
- New tutorial added → appears automatically in **All tutorials**
- Featuring/grouping changes → edit `_data/tutorial_sidebar_config.yml` only
- No additional front matter required in tutorial READMEs
- All other sidebars remain unchanged
### Hugo Migration
The configuration file structure is directly portable.
Template logic maps cleanly to Hugo (`range where`, `GroupByParam`).
No changes required to tutorial front matter.
### Testing
- Renamed and deleted `tutorial_sidebar.yml` → sidebar still renders
- Verified layout matches hosted site
### Note
- The sidebar for other repos can be automated similarly while being completely Hugo migration safe and will close the issue completely. This refers to issue #586.
- Short names present in tutorial_sidebar.yml couldn't be replicated, its only possible if all the README.md of subfolders in imported/tutorials has those short names in its front matter.
### Comparison
**Hosted site**
**Local site**
master ← Aayushman-nvm:issue617
opened 11:52AM - 28 Feb 26 UTC
# Automate Ubuntu dependency baseline generation (closes #617)
## Approach
…
Repology's API is rate-limited and the dumps are too large (noted in the issue), so this uses Docker + `apt-cache policy` to query package versions directly from Ubuntu's apt repositories instead.
## What's included
- **`scripts/dependencies.yml`** — package list (required/optional), derived from the Ubuntu system guide
- **`scripts/generate_ubuntu_baseline.py`** — queries each package version via Docker and writes `_data/ubuntu-baseline.yml`. Run manually at release time with `python3 scripts/generate_ubuntu_baseline.py --lts 22.04 24.04`. A `--mock` flag is available to test without Docker.
- **`_data/ubuntu-baseline.yml`** — generated output, committed so Jekyll can reference it at build time
- **`.github/workflows/generate-baseline.yml`** — `workflow_dispatch`-only workflow for auto regenerating and adding ubuntu-baseline.yml list locally
## How I tested
- Ran `debug.yml` (a temporary workflow, not included in this PR) on the `issue617` branch to verify all packages in `dependencies.yml` are actually available and resolvable on both Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 via apt.
- Ran the generation script locally with Docker to produce the committed `ubuntu-baseline.yml` and confirmed the versions match what `apt-cache policy` reports inside the containers.
## Notes
- The package list in `dependencies.yml` can be updated independently of the script — easy to add or remove packages without touching any logic.
- Page integration `content/docs/installation/building-from-source/installation-source-dependencies` is intentionally left untouched for now. Happy to wire the data file into the dependencies page however you'd prefer.
Screenshots:
Core:
<img width="306" height="350" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c73c3901-145f-4e35-83c9-4418078ff240" />
Autogenerated:
<img width="546" height="654" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a533830d-6138-4d74-bd4c-524391e76bbf" />
master ← Aayushman-nvm:issue411
opened 01:08PM - 01 Mar 26 UTC
## Summary
Standardizes the `About` page to use an extensionless permalink (`… /about/`) and fixes relative asset paths that broke when switching away from `/about.html`.
---
## Changes
- **Permalink**: `about.html` → `/about/`, with a `redirect_from: /about.html` redirect
- **Canonical URL**: Replaced `.html` removal hacks with `{{ page.url | absolute_url }}`
- **Asset paths**: Fixed relative `images/` and `css/` references using `| relative_url` to prevent `/about/images/...` misresolution
- **Internal links**: Replaced `.html` links (e.g. `privacy.html`) with extensionless equivalents (e.g. `/privacy/`)
---
## Note
- The scope of this PR is intentionally limited to the About page to keep the change small, isolated, and easy to review.
- The same pattern can be systematically replicated across other pages to fully address issue #411.
- Updated `head.html` to remove the assumption of a flat URL structure (i.e., direct `.html` file endings). The previous logic did not account for nested paths or directory-based URLs.
- Similar adjustments may be required in other templates where this flat URL assumption exists.
---
## Why
- Removes flat-file permalink assumptions
- Compatible with `permalink: pretty` and Hugo's default URL structure
- Reduces migration friction and improves long-term URL hygiene
---
## Testing
- `/about/` loads correctly
- `/about.html` redirects to `/about/`
- All assets and internal links resolve without issues
master ← Aayushman-nvm:issue405
opened 08:47PM - 05 Mar 26 UTC
## Documentation Footer
Adds a lightweight documentation footer above the sit… e footer.
Addresses Issue #405
Features:
- "Edit this page" GitHub edit link
- Last updated date
- Quick help links (only FAQ for now - Discourse links planned for later... perhaps after review)
### Design considerations
The implementation intentionally remains minimal and migration-safe since the documentation site will migrate from Jekyll to Hugo in the near future.
Features that require additional infrastructure (feedback forms, contributor lists, GitHub API usage) are intentionally not implemented here and can be reconsidered after migration.
### Future improvements
Once the documentation system migrates to Hugo, themes such as Docsy could provide additional functionality including:
- feedback widgets
- enhanced navigation
- richer page metadata
### Note:
This PR intentionally omits section-aware Discourse links (e.g. linking to "Installing preCICE" when browsing installation docs). This would require a `section:` front matter field to be added across doc pages. Happy to open a follow-up issue for this if the team think it's worth pursuing.
`_data/discourse_map.yml` is included as a reference for the planned section-aware Discourse links but is not actively used in this PR.
`content/docs/fundamentals/fundamentals-overview.md` is the only file where this appears for now. Will add it to other doc pages similarly.
### Screenshot:
<img width="770" height="313" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5a8b3f8f-1e04-4d01-adbf-bab323296314" />
GSoC is a great chance to gain real open-source experience early and work in a collaborative environment where people are actively improving a project.
Contributing to the web modernization .
My main commitment is college , but outside class hours my schedule is flexible. During summer the workload is lighter, so I’ll have consistent time for the project .
I’ve been doing web development for ~1.5+ years , mainly with:
Next.js, React
MERN stack
Git and GitHub
Tailwind, Bootstrap and modern frontend tooling
WebSockets, web scraping
Recently I’ve also been exploring cloud, DevOps basics, and bash scripting for CI/CD .
Apart from personal projects, I’ve also:
helped a startup build a prototype web platform
built a website for my college club , which gets around 500+ visits during active events
I’ve been using Git and GitHub for ~1.5 years , mainly through projects and open-source contributions (branches, PRs, discussions, etc).
1 Like
Makis
March 16, 2026, 8:57pm
2
Welcome, @Aayushman-nvm , and thanks for all the PRs! I have left some first comments in most of them. Not sure which ones will end up merged, but I do see the effort.
Nice prototype for the website! Seems creative, and while there are various issues here and there, the landing page looks cool.
Make sure to look at the newly published proposal guidelines:
Dear GSoC contributors,
thank you for your interest to contributing to preCICE. In the preCICE team, we are really excited, but also a bit overwhelmed.
We will use this thread to distribute information to everyone. Due to the volume of activity, please avoid replying without a good reason, and be kind to each other (we will moderate).
Keep in mind that:
We (maintainers) work have irregular work schedules: some weeks we are available on GitHub, some other weeks we have to prioritize other wo…
1 Like