Current Progress
Since the kickoff of GSoC 2025 in June, the project has made strong progress. Although I began with limited experience in web development and Static Site Generation (SSG), I’ve been able to complete about 50% of our initial milestones while steadily climbing the learning curve. By following Astro’s blog tutorial, I successfully built the foundational site. In addition, I completed the first version of the SQLite3 extraction tool and developed a “TWEETS” page to display the tweet data. While the tweets are currently hidden, they will be visible on the final version of the site. Please view my screenshots instead:
View a preview the current website here:
https://sandraastro.netlify.app/tweets/
GitHub:
https://github.com/freifunk/social-media-archive
Milestone Completion Overview
Select the Static Site Generator – Finalize the choice of SSG—currently, Astro is the preferred option.SSG Setup – Set up the SSG and ensure all related technologies are working. Begin early discussions around prototypes to determine which data fields need to be extracted from the database.Develop Data Extraction Tool – Build a script to extract relevant fields from the archived SQLite3 database and normalize them into a unified schema.Create Static Site Mockup – Generate an initial static website using the parsed and structured data.- Implement Client-Side Search – Define minimal site features. Add client-side search functionality by preprocessing and indexing data during the build process.
- Test, Optimize, and Ensure Scalability – Conduct thorough testing and optimization. Ensure the site remains stable and the search remains accurate, even when additional archives are added.
- Design and Implement Theming Support – Build an engaging, Freifunk-inspired frontend and implement support for customizable themes via configuration files.
- Documentation and Deployment – Write comprehensive documentation and deploy the final static site.
Reflections
Astro, the web framework we’re using to build the website, has excellent documentation. Following their initial blog tutorial was instrumental in helping me grasp the fundamentals and gain momentum early in the project. It energized me and reinforced the importance of good documentation. If a project is hard to understand or use due to poor documentation, its impact decreases. Therefore, I am committed to providing clear documentation for my contributions to the Social Media Archive.
June presented challenges, particularly when trying to balance other commitments. There were times when staying on top of tasks proved difficult. I’m glad to have refocused and gotten back on track. I’ve learned that meaningful progress tends to come from small, consistent steps, and I plan to maintain that approach moving forward. Now that I’ve started using GitHub Issues, I believe I’ll be able to scope tasks more clearly and work more effectively.
Highlights & Wins
I’ve enjoyed learning new tools, such as SQLite3, Astro, and Netlify, in the context of web development. It’s also been fun switching between different languages such as Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Markdown, CSS, and HTML. While I’m not yet an expert in most of these, this experience has given me considerable confidence in my ability to learn and apply new tools effectively within a formal codebase.
Conclusion
I’m excited for what’s to come in July. Now that some of the core technical components are in place, I’m looking forward to beginning prototype of what the final site could look like. This task will be a key step in personalizing the site for Freifunk and tailoring it to their specific needs. Thanks again to Andi for his continued support.