Dynamic Sections - Release Notes

Phase 1: Backend Foundation (PR #117)

Released: 2026-01-04

What’s New

• Section Model: New data model for configurable site sections with:

  • Display types: feed, card-grid, static-page, gallery
  • Content types: story, project, page, image
  • Navigation visibility: main, secondary, hidden
  • Unlimited nesting via parent_id
  • Soft delete support

• NavLink Model: Simple model for hamburger menu links (separate from section hierarchy)

• REST API Endpoints:

  • GET /sections - List all sections
  • GET /sections/{id} - Get section by ID
  • GET /sections/slug/{slug} - Get section by slug
  • POST /sections - Create section (authenticated)
  • PUT /sections/{id} - Update section (authenticated)
  • DELETE /sections/{id} - Soft delete section (authenticated)
  • GET /navlinks - List all navlinks
  • GET /navlinks/{id} - Get navlink by ID
  • POST /navlinks - Create navlink (authenticated)
  • PUT /navlinks/{id} - Update navlink (authenticated)
  • DELETE /navlinks/{id} - Delete navlink (authenticated)

Technical Details

• Auto-generates slugs from titles if not provided
• Validates parent_id references exist
• Prevents circular parent references
• 183 total tests passing

Breaking Changes

None - additive changes only.

Phase 2: Migration Infrastructure (PR #105)

Released: 2026-02-01

What’s New

• pymongo-migrate framework: Migration scripts in backend/migrations/ with upgrade/downgrade support
• Initial section seeding (0003_seed_initial_sections): Creates blog, about, projects, contact sections from hardcoded structure
• section_id on content models: Added section_id field to Story, Project, and Page models
• Content backfill (0004_backfill_section_ids): Links existing content to appropriate sections
• Index creation: section_id indexes on stories, projects, and pages collections

Breaking Changes

None - section_id is nullable during transition.

Phase 3: Display Registry (PR #111)

Released: 2026-02-15

What’s New

• Display type registry (modules/registry/displayRegistry.ts): Maps display_type to React components
  • feed → FeedDisplay (infinite scroll list)
  • card-grid → CardGridDisplay (responsive grid)
  • static-page → StaticPageDisplay (single content block)
• Content type registry (modules/registry/contentRegistry.ts): Maps content_type to list/detail components
  • story → StoryCard / StoryDetail
  • project → ProjectCard / ProjectDetail
  • page → static page rendering
• Projects module (modules/projects/): Extracted ProjectCard and ProjectDetail
• Guide: /guides/creating-content-types for adding new content types

Breaking Changes

None - existing pages render identically via registry.

Phase 4: Dynamic Routing (PR #118)

Released: 2026-02-27

What’s New

• Catch-all route (pages/[...slugPath].tsx): Single route resolves all section URLs
• Section path resolution: First URL segment → section lookup → display/content component selection
• Generic content fetching (useFetchContent): Content-type-agnostic infinite scroll hook
• SSR support: getServerSideProps fetches section config and initial content
• Removed hardcoded routes: about.tsx, contact.tsx, projects.tsx, stories/[slug].tsx, projects/[slug].tsx

Breaking Changes

None - all existing URLs continue to work through the catch-all route.

Phase 5: Database Navigation (PR #122)

Released: 2026-03-01

What’s New

• Database-driven nav: TopNav renders from sections where nav_visibility = "main" instead of hardcoded array
• Navigation API proxy (pages/api/sections/navigation.ts): Proxies GET /sections?nav_visibility=main with Cache-Control: public, max-age=300, stale-while-revalidate=600
• NavSectionItem type: Frontend representation with id, slug, path, label, icon
• useNavSections hook: Module-level singleton cache with listener-based invalidation
• Active section detection: useActiveSection derives current section from URL path

Breaking Changes

None - navigation appearance unchanged.

Phase 6: Section Editor (PR #126)

Released: 2026-03-04

What’s New

• Admin sections page (/admin/sections): Full CRUD for sections with auth guard
• Section CRUD proxy routes: pages/api/sections/index.ts (list + create), pages/api/sections/[id].ts (get + update + delete)
• Sections module (modules/sections/): useFetchSections and useSectionMutations hooks
• Section-aware editor: editor.tsx refactored to thin shell that delegates to content-type-specific forms
• StoryEditorForm: Extracted from original editor, accepts section context
• ProjectEditorForm: New form for project content type with all project fields
• PageEditorForm: Simple form for static page content
• Context-aware “New” button: TopNav ”+” links to /editor?section_id={activeSectionId}
• Nav cache invalidation: Section CRUD operations trigger invalidateNavCache() for immediate nav updates

Technical Details

• 102 Playwright e2e tests passing
• Editor resolves section from content item for legacy edit links
• Section picker shown when navigating to /editor without parameters

Breaking Changes

None - existing editor functionality preserved, new section context added.

Future Phases

• Quick Wizard: Mobile-friendly 3-step section creation (deferred)
• Tree view with drag-and-drop: Hierarchical section reordering (deferred)