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Exploring Astro: Building My Portfolio and Blog

As someone who’s still learning web development and exploring different tools and technologies, I’m always on the lookout for things that make the process easier and more enjoyable. Recently, I discovered Astro, a modern static site builder that instantly caught my attention. I decided to rebuild my portfolio website using Astro—and in this post, I’ll share my experience and why I think Astro is an amazing option, even for beginners like me.

Why Astro?

Astro caught my attention for several reasons:

  1. Performance: Astro’s approach to shipping zero JavaScript by default results in incredibly fast websites.
  2. Flexibility: It allows the use of various front-end frameworks within the same project.
  3. Static Site Generation: Perfect for a portfolio and blog that doesn’t require dynamic server-side rendering.
  4. Markdown Support: Makes blogging a breeze, as you’re reading right now!

Setting Up the Portfolio

Setting up my portfolio with Astro was surprisingly straightforward. Here are some key features I implemented:

  • A clean, responsive design using Tailwind CSS
  • A projects showcase with filterable categories
  • An about me section highlighting my skills and experience

Implementing the Blog

One of the most impressive aspects of Astro is how easy it makes setting up a blog. Here’s what I did:

  1. Created a blog directory in my src/content folder
  2. Set up a simple schema for blog posts using Astro’s content collections
  3. Created index and individual post pages with minimal effort

The ability to write posts in Markdown and have them automatically rendered and integrated into my site is a huge time-saver.

Challenges and Solutions

While the overall experience was smooth, I did encounter a few challenges:

  • TypeScript Integration: Ensuring type safety across the project required some additional configuration.
  • Styling Markdown Content: I had to set up a custom style for the rendered Markdown to match my site’s design.

Conclusion

Astro has proven to be an excellent choice for my portfolio and blog. Its performance benefits, ease of use, and powerful features have made the development process enjoyable and efficient.

If you’re considering rebuilding your portfolio or starting a blog, I highly recommend giving Astro a try. The combination of speed, flexibility, and developer experience is hard to beat.

Stay tuned for more posts about my web development journey and the technologies I’m exploring!