Aakarsh Portfolio – Flask App

A modern, responsive personal portfolio built with Flask and Bootstrap, featuring smooth animations, a projects section, and a secure contact form with Google reCAPTCHA and Gmail SMTP.

🌟 Features

• Responsive UI: Mobile‑first layout using Bootstrap 5
• Smooth Animations: AOS, Swiper, GLightbox, and Typed.js integrations
• Contact Form: Server‑side email delivery via Gmail (yagmail)
• Spam Protection: Google reCAPTCHA v2/v3 verification
• SEO Friendly: Clean HTML, metadata‑ready templates
• Deploy Ready: Works with Gunicorn on Render/Heroku/any WSGI host

🚀 Tech Stack

• Backend: Flask 3.1, Jinja2 templates
• WSGI Server: Gunicorn
• Styling: Bootstrap 5, custom CSS
• Animations/UX: AOS, GLightbox, Swiper, Typed.js
• Email: yagmail (Gmail SMTP)
• Config: python‑dotenv for environment variables

📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ (project uses python-3.8.6 by default via runtime.txt)
• pip (or pipx) and virtualenv
• A Gmail account with an App Password (2FA enabled)
• Google reCAPTCHA Secret Key

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Aakarsh-Kumar/portfolio.git
cd portfolio

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (Windows)

py -3.8 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

# Google reCAPTCHA
RECAPTCHA_VERIFICATION_URL=https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify
RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=your_recaptcha_secret_key

# Gmail SMTP (yagmail)
GMAIL_ID_SENDER=your_sender@gmail.com
GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD=your_16_char_app_password
GMAIL_ID_RECIEVER=your_receiver@gmail.com

Notes:

• Generate a Gmail App Password from your Google Account (Security → App passwords). Regular passwords will not work.
• Keep .env out of version control.

▶️ Run Locally (Development)

Using the built‑in server with auto‑reload enabled in app.py:

python app.py

• App runs by default at: http://127.0.0.1:5000

Optionally, with Flask CLI:

set FLASK_APP=app.py && set FLASK_ENV=development && flask run

📦 Run with Gunicorn (Production‑like)

gunicorn app:app --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 --workers 2

• Adjust workers/port as needed for your host.

🗂️ Project Structure

app.py
requirements.txt
runtime.txt
static/
  assets/
    css/
      style.css
    img/
    js/
      main.js
    vendor/
      aos/
      bootstrap/
      bootstrap-icons/
      boxicons/
      glightbox/
      isotope-layout/
      php-email-form/
      purecounter/
      swiper/
      typed.js/
      waypoints/
templates/
  index.html
  # (portfolio-details.html is also rendered if present)

🎨 Available Pages

• / – Main landing page
• /portfolio-details – Portfolio/project details page (template optional)

🔌 API Endpoints

• POST /api/contact – Sends a contact message via email
  • Form fields: name, email, subject, message, g-recaptcha-response
  • Validates reCAPTCHA at RECAPTCHA_VERIFICATION_URL using RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY
  • Uses Gmail SMTP (yagmail) to deliver messages to GMAIL_ID_RECIEVER
  • Responses: 200 OK on success; 400 on validation errors

🔐 Environment & Secrets

• RECAPTCHA_VERIFICATION_URL: Typically https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify
• RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY: Server secret from Google reCAPTCHA
• GMAIL_ID_SENDER: Gmail address used to send emails
• GMAIL_APP_PASSWORD: 16‑character app password (with 2FA)
• GMAIL_ID_RECIEVER: Destination address for incoming messages

🚀 Deployment

This app is WSGI‑ready and runs well on services like Render, Railway, Fly.io, or Heroku.

• Gunicorn: gunicorn app:app
• Python Runtime: specified in runtime.txt (python-3.8.6)
• Recommended: create a Procfile with web: gunicorn app:app for Heroku
• Set all environment variables in your hosting provider’s dashboard

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b initials/feat/YourFeature
3. Commit: git commit -m "feat: add YourFeature"
4. Push: git push origin initials/feat/YourFeature
5. Open a Pull Request

👥 Author

Aakarsh Kumar

• GitHub: @Aakarsh-Kumar
• Website: aakarsh.is-a.dev
• Email: aakarsh2504@gmail.com

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Made with ❤️ by Aakarsh