preview-site

name	preview-site
description	Serves the academic website locally and verifies it renders correctly — all JSON data files parse and every section renders from its data. Use to preview the site, check changes after editing data or design files, or debug a section that isn't showing up.

Preview the Site

Serve the site locally and verify it works. The site renders all content client-side from data/*.json, so a malformed JSON file silently hides its entire section — always validate the data files, not just the page load.

Steps

Step 1: Validate the data files

for f in data/*.json; do python3 -m json.tool "$f" > /dev/null && echo "OK $f" || echo "FAIL $f"; done

Fix any failures before continuing (a trailing comma is the usual culprit).

Step 2: Serve

python3 -m http.server 8000 --bind 127.0.0.1

Run in the background (pick another port if 8000 is busy). Tell the user the URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Step 3: Verify the rendered page

If a headless browser is available (e.g., a Playwright-cached Chromium under ~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/), dump the rendered DOM and check that each section with data is populated and not hidden:

<chrome-headless-shell> --headless --disable-gpu --dump-dom --virtual-time-budget=3000 http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Otherwise, ask the user to open the URL and check the page (and the browser console for fetch errors).

Step 4: Report

Tell the user the URL, what was verified, and any sections that failed to render (with the offending file). Leave the server running for them unless they say otherwise.

Debugging a hidden section

1. Its JSON failed to parse → Step 1 catches this.
2. Its JSON is an empty array/object → the section hides by design.
3. The page was opened via file:// instead of the local server → fetch fails; must use HTTP.
4. Renderer error → check the browser console; the JS module for each section lives in js/.