Website Project — the.raulmillan.com

URL: https://the.raulmillan.com
GitHub repo: https://github.com/theraulmillan/theraulmillan.github.io
Theme: Beautiful Jekyll
Local folder: ~/Developer/cowork/personal/website
Last updated: 2026-05-01

Current Status: ✅ Live

The site is fully deployed and running on GitHub Pages with a custom domain, automatic HTTPS, and a GitHub Actions build pipeline that triggers on every push to master.

What Was Done

Infrastructure

• Fixed git remote — was pointing to the original Freelancer theme repo (jeromelachaud/freelancer-theme), now correctly points to theraulmillan/theraulmillan.github.io
• Created CNAME file for custom domain the.raulmillan.com
• Added .github/workflows/jekyll.yml — GitHub Actions build and deploy pipeline using actions/jekyll-build-pages (avoids apt/Launchpad issues)
• Removed ci.yml — pre-existing Beautiful Jekyll CI workflow that was failing on every push due to Launchpad network timeouts
• Resolved git branch divergence between local Freelancer theme commits and remote Beautiful Jekyll commits
• Updated Gemfile to use explicit gem versions compatible with Ruby 3.x (removed gemspec reference to old Freelancer gemspec)

Theme Migration

• The remote repo was already using Beautiful Jekyll, not the old Freelancer theme
• Fixed _layouts/default.html which still contained the Freelancer HTML layout causing build failures
• Replaced _config.yml with a proper Beautiful Jekyll configuration

Content & Personalization

• Updated _config.yml with real info: name, description, social links (LinkedIn, GitHub, Instagram), Panama timezone, correct URL
• Updated index.html with English title and subtitle
• Created about.md with professional bio
• Translated all 22 blog posts from Spanish to English (posts dating back to 2009)
• Translated bio.md, conferences.md, and events.md from Spanish to English
• Added blog.md to make the Blog nav link work correctly
• Updated navbar to include an About dropdown with: About, Bio, Speaking, Events

Profile & Branding

• Updated profile photo to IMG_6063.jpeg
• Copied profile photo to assets/img/profile.jpeg (path referenced by Beautiful Jekyll)
• Generated dark navy (#2c3e50) shield favicon from scratch using Python PIL
• Added favicon link tags to _includes/head.html

How the Site Works

Jekyll build cycle:

1. Push any change to master
2. GitHub Actions triggers the jekyll.yml workflow
3. actions/jekyll-build-pages builds the static site (no Ruby install needed)
4. Output is deployed to GitHub Pages CDN
5. Site is live at the.raulmillan.com in ~1–2 minutes

Key files:

Writing a New Blog Post

Create a file in _posts/ named YYYY-MM-DD-your-title.md:

---
layout: post
title: Your Post Title
subtitle: Optional subtitle
tags: [cybersecurity, zero-trust]
---

Your content here in Markdown.

Then:

git add _posts/your-file.md
git commit -m "New post: Your Post Title"
git push

Remaining / Ideas

• Change site title and homepage subtitle (currently _config.yml title and index.html subtitle)
• Review and update older posts (2009–2018) — content may be outdated
• Add cover images to blog posts for visual appeal
• Set up Formspree contact form (hooks already in Beautiful Jekyll)
• Add Google Analytics (gtag field in _config.yml)
• Consider adding a dedicated “Services” or “Consulting” page
• Review bio.md vs about.md — content overlaps; may want to consolidate or differentiate
• Update conferences.md and events.md with any 2021–2026 activity

Useful Commands

# Navigate to site folder
cd ~/Developer/cowork/personal/website

# Push a change
git add .
git commit -m "Your message"
git push

# Check deployment status
# → https://github.com/theraulmillan/theraulmillan.github.io/actions