What We've Been Building

A complete record of the work behind the scenes — from security fixes to a full platform migration. The site may look similar, but everything underneath has changed.

250+

Commits

Bugs Fixed

55+

Accessibility Fixes

51K+

Lines of Code Cleaned

8→0

Servers Eliminated

$0/mo

Hosting Cost

🚧 What's Next

BlockedTransfer 4apdf.org domain to Cloudflare and set up redirect — Waiting on domain registrar access
PlannedCommunity polls for structured member feedback
PlannedCare Cards condition templates managed via CMS — Currently hardcoded
NeededFirst non-Matt publisher uses the Content Dashboard — Adoption goal
NeededDiscord lifeboat drill — every board member logs in

September 2026Feature

YouTube Video Clips & Mobile Polish

Added CMS-managed YouTube video integration and fixed the stats section being too large on mobile.

•New Video Clips content type in CMS — paste a YouTube link and it shows on the site
•Homepage: latest video appears as first card in Voices of Resilience with thumbnail + play button
•New /videos page with embedded YouTube players and Subscribe button
•Privacy-respecting embeds via youtube-nocookie.com
•Stats section ("80M+ Americans...") reduced ~50% on mobile — 2×2 grid instead of stacked
•Video Clips added to Resources navigation dropdown

September 2026Feature

Mobile Donate Button & Deploy Notifications

Made donating easier on phones and added real-time deploy alerts for our team.

•Heart icon donate button always visible on mobile header — no menu needed
•Discord notification on every successful deploy with commit details
•Removed unverified financial claims from donate page (will re-add with real numbers)

September 2026Feature

Feedback System — Tell Us What You Think

A floating feedback button on every page sends your thoughts directly to our team via Discord.

•Floating 💬 Feedback button on every page (bottom-right corner)
•Type selector: bug report, suggestion, content issue, or general feedback
•Auto-captures which page you're on
•Optional email field if you want a reply
•Color-coded Discord notifications for our team

September 2026Bug Fix

Care Cards Safety & UX Overhaul

Major improvements based on an expert UX review — fixing safety bugs, adding patient identity fields, and making the cards more useful for medical staff.

•Patient name and date of birth on every card header
•Allergies moved to red banner at top of ER card (most critical info first)
•Medical staff notes now visible and editable by the patient
•Tap-to-add common medications — no more typing drug names on a phone
•"Updated" date on every card so doctors know the info is current
•Fixed safety bug where browsing a condition accidentally added it to your card
•Print button now prints just the card, not the whole page
•Delete confirmation prevents accidental removal
•Export errors now show helpful messages instead of failing silently

September 2026Feature

Care Cards — Medical Quick-Reference for Patients in Crisis

Fillable care cards that patients prepare once and share instantly with ER staff, doctors, or caregivers via text message.

•10 chronic pain conditions with pre-filled symptom checklists and ER staff notes
•3 card types: ER (one-page fast), Caregiver (textable), Specialist (detailed visit prep)
•Multi-condition support — shared medications, allergies, and contacts across all cards
•Combined ER card merges all conditions into one shareable image
•One-tap share via native SMS/iMessage/WhatsApp (Web Share API)
•Save as PNG or print for your wallet
•Phone number auto-formatting with digit limit
•100% private — all data in localStorage, nothing sent to servers

September 2026Accessibility

WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility & Mobile Overhaul

Comprehensive accessibility audit and mobile-first fixes to ensure the site works for everyone, especially people with disabilities.

•Color contrast fixes across entire site (#636e72 → #475569, 3.9:1 → 6.9:1)
•ARIA labels on 55+ sections across 21 pages
•iOS auto-zoom prevention — all form inputs bumped to 16px
•44px minimum touch targets on checkboxes and radio buttons
•Responsive padding on privacy, terms, search, story detail pages
•Accessibility statement page at /accessibility with feedback process
•WCAG 2.1 AA badge in footer
•Formal accessibility statement with known limitations and contact info

September 2026Feature

Givebutter Donations Live

Working donation flow on the support page, powered by Givebutter.

•Prominent "Donate via Givebutter" button on /support page
•Tax-deductible notice with EIN 84-2647447
•Secure payments via Givebutter — one-time or recurring

September 2026Infrastructure

Full Platform Migration — Zero Servers, Zero Cost

Completed a ground-up replatform from 8 self-hosted Docker containers to fully managed cloud services at $0/month.

•Migrated from Strapi CMS to Sanity — intuitive iPad-friendly content dashboard
•Moved from Docker on Unraid to Cloudflare Workers — global edge deployment
•Replaced Mattermost & NodeBB with Discord community
•Converted policy & research bots from Docker containers to GitHub Actions
•Set up CI/CD: push to main auto-deploys to production
•Migrated 41 content items and 13 images to new CMS
•DNS cutover to Cloudflare Workers — site live at americanpainfoundation.org
•Decommissioned all 8 Docker containers on Unraid server
•Removed 51,000+ lines of dead infrastructure code

September 2026Feature

Podcast Live Stream Indicator

Board members can now announce live streams from their phone — the site shows a pulsing indicator automatically.

•Pulsing "Podcast Live" dot in the header on every page (desktop + mobile)
•Auto-expiring announcements — defaults to 1 hour, no manual cleanup needed
•Live stream banner on homepage with direct link
•One-field announcement type in CMS — designed for phone use

September 2026Content

Content Migration & CMS Upgrade

All content moved from the old CMS to Sanity with a custom "board desk" interface designed for non-technical publishers.

•4 blog posts, 4 patient stories, 7 team member profiles migrated
•4 photo albums, 6 carousel photos with images uploaded to CDN
•5 resources, 6 FAQs, 3 letter templates, 3 call scripts preserved
•4 events migrated with full detail
•Rich text content converted to Portable Text format
•Content Dashboard link added to footer and navigation for easy access

September 2026Bug Fix

Navigation & Link Cleanup

Removed dead links, consolidated redundant pages, and simplified the site structure.

•Replaced 6 Mattermost/forum links with Discord community invite
•Consolidated FAQ into Resources page (was a separate page)
•Removed empty Provider Directory page and all references
•Simplified footer — removed redundant link columns
•Fixed stale /faq links across contact, header, and test files
•Added Sanity Content Dashboard to navigation and footer

September 2026Bug Fix

Test Suite Repair

Fixed 45 broken tests caused by recent feature additions and brought the full suite back to green.

•Fixed homepage tests for podcast and announcement features
•Updated Header tests for FAQ→Resources navigation change
•Rewrote FAQ tests for redirect behavior
•Fixed news page tests for text-only card layout
•Added 4 new tests for live stream indicator
•All 566 tests passing across 36 test suites

June–August 2026Infrastructure

Cloudflare Workers Deployment

Built a complete CI/CD pipeline deploying Next.js to Cloudflare Workers via OpenNext.

•OpenNext build producing 29 static routes for Cloudflare Workers
•R2 bucket for ISR incremental cache
•D1 database for tag-based cache revalidation
•Durable Objects for revalidation queue processing
•GitHub Actions workflow: test → build → deploy on every push
•Usage monitoring with Pushover alerts at 50/75/90% of free tier limits

March–May 2026Feature

Automated Policy & Research Monitoring

Built bots that monitor federal policy actions and medical research affecting chronic pain patients.

•Policy bot: monitors Federal Register + Congress.gov every 4 hours
•Research bot: weekly PubMed digest of chronic pain research papers
•Color-coded alerts by type (rules, proposed rules, bills)
•JSON-file deduplication with 30-day retention
•Originally Docker containers, now GitHub Actions cron jobs

March 2026Feature

Photo Gallery & Lightbox

Added a photo gallery with albums, category filtering, and an accessible lightbox viewer.

•Album grid with category filter pills
•Full lightbox with keyboard navigation and focus trap
•Photo counter, caption display, and swipe support
•CMS-managed albums with cover images and event dates

February 2026Infrastructure

Disaster Recovery & Backup System

Built automated backup, offsite replication, and a tested restore procedure.

•Single-archive backup script (was 7 separate archives)
•Automated offsite backup to geographic redundancy site
•Tested restore script with interactive confirmations
•Recovery runbook for non-automated disaster recovery steps

February 2026Accessibility

ADA Compliance Overhaul

Fixed 44 accessibility issues across the entire site to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

•4 critical issues: missing form labels, broken focus management
•16 major issues: color contrast, heading hierarchy, ARIA attributes
•24 minor issues: placeholder text, subtitle contrast, skip links
•Global color contrast improvement: #64748b → #475569 (7.58:1 ratio)
•Carousel: removed auto-scroll per WCAG 2.2.2
•Form autocomplete attributes added per WCAG 1.3.5
•Axe-core automated testing added to test suite

February 2026Security

Security Hardening

Comprehensive security audit and fixes across the entire application stack.

•XSS sanitization with DOMPurify on all user-submitted content
•Security headers: CSP, HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy
•Rate limiting on all form submission endpoints
•CORS configuration for API routes
•JWT token expiry reduced to 2 hours
•Password policy enforcement for admin accounts
•CVE patches applied to all dependencies
•Story privacy page with 7-day deletion policy and consent recording

February 2026Performance

Performance Optimization

Reduced page load times and optimized the build pipeline.

•AVIF image format for 50-70% smaller file sizes
•ISR with 3600s revalidation and on-demand cache tag invalidation
•Blur placeholders for images during loading
•generateStaticParams for pre-rendered dynamic routes
•jsdom externalized from client bundles (was crashing builds)
•Cache tags on all 16 Sanity fetch calls

January 2026Feature

5 Calls Advocacy Toolkit

Built a powerful advocacy toolkit integrating the 5 Calls API for contacting representatives.

•ZIP code lookup for local representatives via 5 Calls API
•Pre-written letter templates for policy campaigns
•Call scripts with talking points for phone advocacy
•Petition signing with Discord webhook notifications
•Story submission form with consent management and draft workflow

January 2026Feature

Foundation — Site Launch

Built the initial website from scratch with Next.js 15, brand identity, and core content pages.

•Next.js 15 with App Router and TypeScript
•Brand identity: Fraunces + Source Sans 3 typography, purple/orange palette
•Homepage with hero, stats bar, featured stories, and photo carousel
•23 pages: stories, news, resources, events, gallery, team, and more
•Responsive design with mobile-first approach
•Full test suite from day one (TDD workflow)

Built with Purpose

Every line of code serves our mission: empowering chronic pain patients through advocacy, education, and community.

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