Deployment Guide with EXIF Processing

This site includes automated EXIF processing that requires ExifTool to be available during the build process. Here’s how to deploy with different platforms.

🚨 Current Status: GitHub Pages

You’re currently using GitHub Pages (egeste.github.io), which has limitations:

❌ GitHub Pages Limitations

• No ExifTool - System dependencies not available
• Limited plugins - Only allows approved Jekyll plugins
• No custom build scripts - Uses standard Jekyll build only

✅ GitHub Pages Workarounds

Option 1: GitHub Actions (Recommended)

Switch to GitHub Actions for building with GitHub Pages for hosting:

1. Enable GitHub Actions deployment:
   • Go to your repo: Settings → Pages
   • Source: “GitHub Actions” (instead of “Deploy from a branch”)
2. The workflow is ready: .github/workflows/deploy.yml
   • Installs ExifTool automatically
   • Builds with EXIF processing
   • Deploys to GitHub Pages
   • Runs on every push to master/main

Option 2: Pre-process Locally

# Process images locally before committing
./build.sh --production
git add .
git commit -m "Update with processed images"
git push origin main

🚀 Alternative Deployment Platforms

Netlify (Recommended Alternative)

✅ Full EXIF processing support

1. Configuration ready: netlify.toml
2. Connect your GitHub repo to Netlify
3. Automatic deployments with EXIF processing
4. Custom domain support
5. Better performance with CDN

Setup:

1. Sign up at netlify.com
2. Connect GitHub repo
3. Deploy settings are already configured in netlify.toml

Vercel

✅ EXIF processing support

1. Configuration ready: vercel.json
2. Connect GitHub repo at vercel.com
3. Automatic builds with custom dependencies

DigitalOcean App Platform

✅ Full control over build environment

# .do/app.yaml
name: steve-regester-consulting
services:
- name: web
  source_dir: /
  github:
    repo: egeste/egeste.github.io
    branch: main
  run_command: ./build.sh --production && cd _site && python -m http.server 8080
  build_command: |
    apt-get update
    apt-get install -y libimage-exiftool-perl
    bundle install
  http_port: 8080

📊 Deployment Comparison

🎯 Recommended Migration Path

Immediate Solution (5 minutes)

Enable GitHub Actions deployment:

1. Go to GitHub repo → Settings → Pages
2. Change Source from “Deploy from a branch” to “GitHub Actions”
3. Push any change - the workflow will run automatically
4. EXIF processing will work on all future deployments

Alternative: Netlify Migration (10 minutes)

For better performance and features:

1. Sign up at netlify.com
2. Connect GitHub repo
3. Deploy settings are already configured
4. Update DNS to point to Netlify (optional)

🔧 Testing Deployment

Verify EXIF Processing

After deployment, check if processing worked:

# Download an image from your deployed site
curl -o test-image.png https://your-site.com/assets/images/steve-regester-headshot.png

# Check metadata
exiftool test-image.png | grep "Steve Regester"

Build Logs

Look for these messages in build logs:

• EXIF Processor: Processing images...
• EXIF Processor: Successfully processed X images
• ✅ EXIF metadata processing verified

🚨 Current Deployment Status

Your site is currently on GitHub Pages which means:

• ❌ EXIF processing does NOT run on deployment
• ✅ Images have metadata from local processing
• 🔄 Need to switch to GitHub Actions for automatic processing

🎬 Quick Setup: GitHub Actions

1. Enable in GitHub:

   Your Repo → Settings → Pages → Source → GitHub Actions
   

2. Push to trigger:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Enable GitHub Actions deployment"
   git push origin main
   

3. Monitor build:
   • Go to “Actions” tab in your GitHub repo
   • Watch the deployment workflow run
   • Verify EXIF processing in logs

Result: Automatic EXIF processing on every deployment! 🎉

Professional Jekyll Site Steve Regester - Technology Consulting & Engineering Leadership https://egeste.net