GSoC 2026 Midterm - Retooling Jenkins.io Web Success Stories
Hello everyone!
I’m Vatsal Verma, working on Retool jenkins.io website Success Stories project. The project’s vision is to modernize the Jenkins Success Stories website by migrating it from Gatsby to Vite, improving performance, streamlining the story submission workflow, and enhancing the overall user experience.
For a detailed overview, please refer to the please refer to the project page.
We’ve just crossed the midterm evaluations, so I’d like to share a progress update on the project.
What we’ve accomplished so far?
The project has made significant progress since the start of GSoC, with work primarily focused on two major areas: the application migration and improving the quality of the Success Stories data.
Application Migration
We successfully migrated the entire application from Gatsby to Vite, laying the foundation for a faster and more maintainable codebase. This work included:
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Migrating all
existing React componentswhile adapting theirlogicandstructureto the new architecture. -
Setting up
dynamic routingusingvite-react-ssgto enable static site generation. -
Replacing the previous
GraphQL-baseddata layer with directYAML parsingusing import.meta.glob, simplifying data loading and improving maintainability. -
Recreating the interactive world map using
Leafletwhile ensuring compatibility with static site generation. -
Preserving and improving the site’s
performanceandSEOthroughout the migration.
YAML Refinement and Validation
Another major focus was improving the quality and reliability of the Success Stories dataset. This included:
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Auditingandcleaningall 194 YAML files to resolvebroken structuresanddata inconsistencies. -
Removing unknown, unused, and inconsistent metadata fields.
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Introducing
yaml-lintto detect structural issues during development and CI. -
Implementing
strict schema validationusingAJVandajv-formatsto ensure every story adheres to a consistent schema before being accepted.
What I’ve Learned?
This project has been a great learning experience, both technically and personally. Migrating the application from Gatsby to Vite helped me understand static site generation, routing, data loading, performance optimization, and SEO, while improving the YAML data pipeline taught me the importance of building reliable and maintainable systems.
Beyond the technical work, I’ve learned a lot from the Jenkins community and my mentors. Their reviews, discussions, and continuous guidance have helped me think more about maintainability, writing better code, and approaching problems from different perspectives. Their support has played a significant role in my growth as both a developer and an open source contributor.
What’s Next?
The next phase of the project will focus on the following areas:
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Redesign the user story submission workflow using GitHub Actions to simplify the contribution process.
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Modernize the website’s UI/UX by creating new designs and implementing a more intuitive interface.
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Introduce additional testing to improve the reliability of the application.
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Enhance the existing code quality tooling to ensure long-term maintainability.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my mentors, Kris Stern, Rajiv Singh, Chamod Shehanka Perera, and the community for giving me this opportunity. I am excited to learn, contribute, and share my experience with others.
About the author