Gnosis Research Center Website

The official website for the Gnosis Research Center at Illinois Institute of Technology, built with Docusaurus 3.

Architecture

This repository implements a data-driven architecture where content is managed through YAML files in the data/ directory and dynamically transformed into web pages via custom Docusaurus plugins.

Data-Driven Content Management

The data/ folder serves as the single source of truth for all entity types:

• data/faculty/ - Faculty member profiles and information
• data/members/ - Research team member details
• data/projects/ - Research project metadata
• data/publications/ - Publication records and citations

Plugin System

Custom plugins in the plugins/ directory automatically process the YAML data files and generate:

• Dynamic pages - Individual pages for faculty, projects, etc.
• Global data - Makes data available across all components
• JSON exports - Creates importable data files for components

Each plugin follows the pattern:

1. Load YAML files from corresponding data/ subdirectory
2. Transform and validate the data structure
3. Generate pages and make data globally available
4. Watch for file changes during development

Key Features

• TypeScript support - Full type safety with custom type definitions
• Responsive design - Mobile-first CSS with custom styling
• MDX integration - Rich content with React components in Markdown
• Multi-instance blogs - Separate blog and newsletter systems
• SEO optimization - Structured metadata and social cards

Development

Installation

npm install

Local Development

npm start

Starts the development server on http://localhost:4720 with hot reloading.

Build

npm build

Generates static content in the build/ directory for deployment.

Project Structure

├── data/           # YAML data files (single source of truth)
├── docs/           # Documentation and tutorials
├── plugins/        # Custom Docusaurus plugins
├── src/            # React components and TypeScript utilities
├── static/         # Static assets (images, files)
├── blog/           # Blog posts
├── newsletter/     # Newsletter posts
└── build/          # Generated static site

Deployment

The site is automatically deployed to grc.iit.edu via static hosting.