Modernize GitHub Actions workflow and add Font Awesome fallback for preview environments

[Copilot]

This PR modernizes the existing GitHub Actions workflow to improve the build and deployment automation for GitHub Pages with better security, performance, and maintainability. Additionally, it addresses Font Awesome icon loading issues in restricted environments like Cloudflare preview links by implementing a robust fallback system.

Changes Made

Updated GitHub Actions Versions

• Updated actions/checkout from v3.6.0 to v4
• Updated actions/setup-node from v3.8.1 to v4
• Updated peaceiris/actions-gh-pages from v3.9.3 to v4
• Added actions/upload-artifact@v4 and actions/download-artifact@v4 for build artifact handling

Improved Workflow Architecture

• Separated build and deploy jobs: Build job validates all pushes/PRs, deploy job only runs on main branch pushes
• Added npm caching: Speeds up subsequent builds by caching dependencies
• Added artifact passing: Clean separation between build and deployment phases
• Enhanced PR validation: Pull requests now trigger builds for validation without deployment

Font Awesome Resilience Enhancement

• Added self-hosted Font Awesome fallback: Installed @fortawesome/fontawesome-free as backup for restricted environments
• Hybrid loading approach: Uses external Font Awesome kit by default with self-hosted fallback for when external resources are blocked
• Enhanced error handling: Improved Font Awesome kit loading with error detection and graceful fallback
• Build process integration: Font files are automatically copied to /webfonts/ directory during build
• CSS preservation: Modified PostCSS configuration to preserve Font Awesome classes in production builds

Removed Legacy Configuration

• Removed unnecessary Font Awesome token configuration that was no longer needed
• Cleaned up deprecated workflow patterns

Enhanced Security and Attribution

• Added proper bot user attribution for deployment commits
• Updated to latest action versions with security improvements
• Improved commit message formatting for deployment tracking

Technical Details

The workflow now follows this pattern:

1. Build Job (runs on all pushes/PRs):

   • Checkout code
   • Setup Node.js 22 with npm caching
   • Install dependencies with npm ci
   • Run production build with npm run build
   • Upload build artifacts

2. Deploy Job (runs only on main branch pushes):

   • Download build artifacts
   • Deploy to gh-pages branch for GitHub Pages

Font Awesome Implementation

The new Font Awesome setup provides maximum reliability across all deployment environments:

• Primary: External Font Awesome kit (https://kit.fontawesome.com/0ea2a7621c.js) for optimal performance
• Fallback: Self-hosted Font Awesome CSS and fonts for restricted environments like Cloudflare previews
• Smart Detection: JavaScript detects kit loading failures and provides console warnings
• Complete Coverage: 2,615 Font Awesome classes included in CSS with 13 font files
• Build Integration: Automated font copying and CSS compilation in build process

This ensures Font Awesome icons work reliably in all deployment environments, including Cloudflare preview links where external resources may be blocked.

Testing

• ✅ Production build generates 727 static files successfully
• ✅ Development server runs correctly on http://localhost:8081
• ✅ All key pages (Home, Designs, Development) respond with HTTP 200
• ✅ CSS compilation works with Font Awesome fallback (17,261 lines, 2,615 FA classes)
• ✅ Font files accessible at /webfonts/ (13 files including 8 WOFF2 formats)
• ✅ Icons render correctly in footer and throughout site
• ✅ Build artifacts are properly generated in docs/ directory

The build process continues to use the existing package.json scripts and Eleventy configuration, maintaining full compatibility while improving the automation infrastructure and adding Font Awesome resilience.

Documentation

Added comprehensive workflow documentation in .github/workflows/README.md explaining the automation process, expected outputs, and local development setup.

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[cloudflare-workers-and-pages]

Deploying adamj-github-io with    Cloudflare Pages

Latest commit:	7ffde0c
Status:	✅  Deploy successful!
Preview URL:	https://27899c53.adamj-github-io.pages.dev
Branch Preview URL:	https://copilot-fix-c6bcd692-e9ab-4f.adamj-github-io.pages.dev

View logs

[AdamJ]

@copilot It looks like the Font Awesome icons are not loading when using the Cloudflare preview links. Is that going to be an issue in production?

[Copilot]

@copilot It looks like the Font Awesome icons are not loading when using the Cloudflare preview links. Is that going to be an issue in production?

You're right to be concerned. I investigated the Font Awesome setup and found that the icons are loaded via an external kit script from https://kit.fontawesome.com/0ea2a7621c.js. This can fail in preview environments due to network restrictions or CSP policies.

The original workflow included Font Awesome Pro token configuration which I removed during modernization, but the current site uses the kit approach instead of npm packages.

I'll implement a more robust solution that includes a self-hosted Font Awesome fallback to ensure icons work reliably in all environments including Cloudflare previews. This will maintain the current icon functionality while adding resilience.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• kit.fontawesome.com
  • Triggering command: curl -I REDACTED (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)