Personal Website Setup Guide

This guide explains how to populate your website with data from Google Sheets and deploy it to GitHub Pages.

Overview

Your personal academic website is built with Jekyll and automatically pulls data from your Google Sheet to generate pages for publications, talks, and teaching experience.

Google Sheet Setup

Your Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qT2tvmvXeUyYYCYgUag12yf7-nz8JGpkCI3bjUe9eEU/edit?usp=sharing

The sheet contains three tabs:

• cv-data: Your education, research positions, publications, presentations, teaching, references, and awards
• cv-info: Your contact information
• cv-skills: Your technical skills and proficiency levels

Important: Sheet Must Be Public

Make sure your Google Sheet is set to “Anyone with the link can view”:

1. Click “Share” in Google Sheets
2. Change from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link”
3. Set permission to “Viewer”

Updating Your Website

Step 1: Fetch Data from Google Sheets

cd /home/mustafa/mustafapir.github.io
python3 scripts/fetch_google_sheet.py

This downloads the latest data from your Google Sheet and saves it to the _data/ directory.

Step 2: Generate Website Content

python3 scripts/populate_website.py

This creates individual markdown files for each:

• Publication in _publications/
• Talk/Presentation in _talks/
• Teaching entry in _teaching/

Step 3: Update Everything at Once

You can combine both steps:

python3 scripts/fetch_google_sheet.py && python3 scripts/populate_website.py

Building and Testing Locally

Using Docker (Recommended)

If you have Docker installed:

chmod -R 777 .
docker compose up

Then visit: http://localhost:4000

Using Jekyll Directly

1. Install dependencies: ```bash

   On Ubuntu/Debian

   sudo apt install ruby-dev ruby-bundler nodejs

On macOS

brew install ruby node gem install bundler

2. Install Ruby gems:
```bash
bundle install

1. Serve the site:

   bundle exec jekyll serve -l -H localhost
   

Then visit: http://localhost:4000

Deploying to GitHub Pages

Initial Setup

1. Push your repository to GitHub (if not already done):

   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit with personalized content"
   git push origin main
   

2. Enable GitHub Pages:
   • Go to your repository on GitHub: https://github.com/mustafapir/mustafapir.github.io
   • Click “Settings” → “Pages”
   • Under “Source”, select the branch (usually main or master)
   • Click “Save”
3. Wait for deployment:
   • GitHub will automatically build and deploy your site
   • This takes 1-5 minutes
   • Your site will be available at: https://mustafapir.github.io

Updating Your Site

Whenever you update your Google Sheet:

1. Fetch and regenerate content:

   python3 scripts/fetch_google_sheet.py && python3 scripts/populate_website.py
   

2. Commit and push changes:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Update content from Google Sheets"
   git push origin main
   

3. GitHub Pages will automatically rebuild your site (takes 1-5 minutes)

File Structure

mustafapir.github.io/
├── _config.yml              # Site configuration
├── _data/                   # CSV data from Google Sheets
│   ├── cv-data.csv
│   ├── cv-info.csv
│   └── cv-skills.csv
├── _pages/                  # Main pages
│   ├── about.md            # Home page
│   ├── cv.md               # CV page
│   ├── publications.html
│   ├── talks.html
│   └── teaching.html
├── _publications/          # Generated publication files
├── _talks/                 # Generated talk files
├── _teaching/              # Generated teaching files
└── scripts/
    ├── fetch_google_sheet.py    # Fetches data from Google Sheets
    └── populate_website.py      # Generates markdown files

Customization

Update Personal Information

Edit _config.yml to update:

• Name and bio
• Social media links
• Email address
• Site title and description

Update Profile Picture

Replace images/profile.png with your own photo (recommended size: 300x300 pixels)

Edit About Page

Edit _pages/about.md to update your bio and research interests

Edit CV

Edit _pages/cv.md to customize the CV layout

Troubleshooting

Site not updating on GitHub Pages?

• Check the “Actions” tab in your GitHub repository to see build status
• Ensure your repository is named mustafapir.github.io (your username + .github.io)
• Clear your browser cache

Local build errors?

• Make sure all dependencies are installed: bundle install
• Try deleting Gemfile.lock and running bundle install again
• Check Ruby version: ruby -v (should be 2.5+)

Google Sheets fetch failing?

• Verify the sheet is set to “Anyone with the link can view”
• Check your internet connection
• Ensure the sheet ID in scripts/fetch_google_sheet.py is correct

Automated Updates

Your website is configured to automatically update from your Google Sheet!

How It Works

A GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/auto-update.yml) runs automatically:

• Schedule: Every day at 2 AM UTC
• Manual: You can trigger it anytime from GitHub

The workflow:

1. Fetches latest data from your Google Sheet
2. Regenerates publication, talk, and teaching files
3. Commits and pushes changes (only if there are updates)
4. GitHub Pages automatically rebuilds your site

Manual Trigger

To update immediately after editing your Google Sheet:

1. Go to https://github.com/mustafapir/mustafapir.github.io/actions
2. Click “Auto-update from Google Sheets” workflow
3. Click “Run workflow” → “Run workflow”
4. Wait 1-2 minutes for completion

Customize Update Frequency

Edit .github/workflows/auto-update.yml and change the cron schedule:

schedule:
  - cron: '0 2 * * *'  # Daily at 2 AM UTC

Common schedules:

• '0 */6 * * *' - Every 6 hours
• '0 0 * * 0' - Every Sunday at midnight
• '0 9 * * 1-5' - Weekdays at 9 AM UTC

Check Workflow Status

View automation logs at: https://github.com/mustafapir/mustafapir.github.io/actions

Note: The first time you push this workflow, you may need to enable GitHub Actions in your repository settings.

Your website URL: https://mustafapir.github.io

For more help with the Academic Pages template, see: https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io