Alex Herlan Portfolio

A custom React and FastAPI portfolio built from Alex Herlan's résumé. The interface uses hand-written CSS—no Tailwind or component library—and all profile, career, skills, and journal content is loaded from JSON through the API.

Project structure

backend/
  data/                  JSON content store
  main.py                FastAPI routes, SMTP delivery, and production serving
  requirements.txt
frontend/
  public/                Alex's locally stored profile image
  src/                   React pages, components, and custom CSS
Alexander Herlan Resume 2024.pdf
Alexander Herlan Resume 2024.md

Run locally

Create and install the Python environment from the repository root:

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r backend\requirements.txt

Start FastAPI:

uvicorn backend.main:app --reload --port 8000

In a second terminal, start React:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. Vite proxies /api requests to FastAPI on port 8000.

Contact-form delivery

The form uses POST /api/contact and sends email through SMTP. Copy backend/.env.example to backend/.env, fill in the SMTP values, and start the API with the environment file:

uvicorn backend.main:app --reload --port 8000 --env-file backend\.env

If SMTP is unavailable, the API returns a clear delivery error and the page keeps Alex's direct email, LinkedIn, and GitHub links visible.

Content API

GET /api/profile
GET /api/experience
GET /api/skills
GET /api/posts
GET /api/posts/{slug}
GET /api/resume
POST /api/contact

Edit the files in backend/data to update portfolio content. No database is required.

Production build

cd frontend
npm run build
cd ..
uvicorn backend.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

When frontend/dist exists, FastAPI serves the built single-page application and supports direct links such as /experience and /blog/{slug}.

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