Hoops to jump through to get pagefind working

[HankB]

Good evening,
Before I switched to ProperDocs, I added pagefind to MkDocs for improved search in my private notes repo. It was quite a challenge, mostly since I'm not a web dev and this is quite a deep part of the pool for someone who is more comfortable with embedded systems and micro-controllers. Recently the drop down navigation menus stopped behaving - more than just the missing pointer. While looking at issues for MkDocs I saw a mention that the invisible pointer issue was fixed in ProperDocs. I followed up on that and here I am.

I had grown to like the pagefind search and wanted to use that with ProperDocs. I removed all of the code that had been added to get pagefind working with MkDocs and started from scratch.

Vibe code warning: I lack the knowledge to fix the issues with integrating pagefind and relied heavily on Claude (free, in a web page) to diagnose the cause of problems and provide fixes. This is vibe coding in it's best (worst?) as I lack the knowledge to even evaluate the suggestions that Claude provided. The issues revolved around the drop down nav menus misbehaving and the lack or response to the "search" button. But I did get it working and am happy with the result.

The main question I have: Should it be this difficult? And difficulty is relative. Perhaps with sufficient experience developing web servers it would have been a lot easier, but I don't even know what I don't know. But I would like to see it made easier. In this regard:

• Would it be up to the ProperDoc devs to better accommodate pagefind?
• Would it be up to the pagefind devs to make their search add-on easier to integrate (or perhaps provide better instructions?)
• Is this something even worth pursuing in any way, or just accept it as it is?

For my part, I'd be happy to put up a demonstration project with pagefind working with ProperDocs. If that interests, you can look at my other repos and see if you think the quality of my efforts even warrants something here. And of course, I'd be open to suggestions for improvement on that effort (particularly since I'm not equipped to evaluate the solution beyond "it works, ship it!")

Of course I can't finish this without thanking those who made MkDocs and now ProperDocs a good solution for managing my notes. Your efforts are highly appreciated.

Thanks!

(There's a tiny bug on my screen. It's not constrained to this web page so I wonder what is providing it.)