alexander-chen.vercel.app

A multi-page personal site with a hidden admin editor. Static HTML — hosts on GitHub Pages or Vercel with zero build step.

Pages

URL	What
/	Home — hero + intro + tour cards to other pages
/math.html	Competition record, research, reading list
/projects.html	Projects (textbook, SSAMO, etc.)
/recommendations.html	Rated book / video / etc. recommendations
/beyond.html	Beyond math: swimming, piano, skiing, DECA
/sessions.html	"Problem Sessions" — apply via the form (opens email client)
/admin.html	Hidden editor (passphrase-gated)

All content lives in data.json. Each page reads from it via shell.js.

The hidden admin

Three ways to reach it from the public site:

1. Visit /admin.html directly
2. Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + .
3. Triple-click the initials in the top-left nav

Default passphrase: changeme (change it from the Passphrase section in the admin sidebar)

What you can edit

The admin sidebar is split into sections:

• Identity — name, initials, subtitle, intro paragraph
• Sections — toggles for show/hide of each page (Math, Projects, Recs, Beyond, Sessions). Hidden pages disappear from the nav but still work via direct URL.
• Writing link — adds a "Substack" (or any label) pill to the top nav
• Home page — the two-column blurbs on the home page
• Hero tags — the pills under the intro
• About / Competitions / Research / Reading
• Projects — add/edit/reorder
• Recommendations — with star ratings + categories
• Beyond math — swimming etc.
• Sessions page — every bit of copy on the Problem Sessions page (title, subtitle, house rules, level options, time windows, success message)
• Applicants — anyone who submits the Sessions form has their info saved in your browser's localStorage; you can view it here
• Contact — email + GitHub/AoPS/etc. links
• Passphrase — change the admin passphrase

Publishing flow

Edits save instantly to your browser's localStorage (so you see them on preview), but to publish them for visitors:

1. In the admin, click Export data.json
2. Open https://github.com/Steve8323/personal-site/blob/main/data.json on GitHub
3. Click the pencil ✏️ icon → paste the new contents → commit
4. Vercel auto-deploys in ~10 seconds

Security note

The passphrase is checked entirely in the browser, so a savvy visitor could bypass it via DevTools. Treat it as obfuscation, not security. Don't put truly private info in data.json. The actual auth that matters is your GitHub account — only people with repo write access can change what gets published.

The Sessions form

The form on /sessions.html doesn't have a real backend. When someone submits, two things happen:

1. Their info is logged to localStorage under sessionApps.v1 (visible in the Applicants section of the admin — but only on the browser they submitted from, since static sites have no shared store)
2. Their email client opens with a pre-filled message to whatever email address is set in Contact → Email

If you want real persistence later, the natural upgrade is a Vercel serverless function that writes to Vercel KV or sends via Resend.

Local dev

python3 -m http.server 8000
# visit http://localhost:8000

Forgot the passphrase

Open devtools on admin.html and run:

localStorage.removeItem('sitePwHash.v1')

It resets to changeme.