Google Summer of Code 2026 Discussion

[willgearty]

If you have questions or comments about the Google Summer of Code 2026 program, please put them here.

GSoC 2026 Ideas List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSQrzex-1PlqTGwOiFmiFnGlm1_3ajsf-Wo2z-9hUzJybZQOBD4EraIH_iW7Qn87TPB2SR5O_JX1T6C/pub

[Oval17]

How are we planning to review so many PRs cause number is increasing at crazy level 😅

[willgearty]

Appreciate the concern. We'll get through them eventually. I'll put in a little bit of time tomorrow.

[willgearty]

We're used to a much slower development cadence, so we're still figuring out how best to handle all of this. Bear with us!

[Oval17]

Yeah absolutely, meanwhile can more of those benchmarking issues be assigned to me , will comment on them now, as I am doing it right now would be better if I do all of them , will raise PRs for them soon...

[Saahi30]

A great way to handle all those piled-up PRs could be to introduce triage. The last place I worked had a ton of contributors, and they made triage mandatory before assignment. Plus, only assigned issues could be closed with a PR. This really cut down on the workload and gave all those contributors and their efforts some direction, which was good for the organization

[Oval17]

Yes, this is good idea, implemented by big orgs.
cc : @willgearty can be planned

[PrajaRavi]

can i start contributing from now in problem mantioned in the idealist

[Oval17]

Hi @PrajaRavi
Idealist problems we can discuss them right now regarding scopes , and if any questions you have , you can discuss with the mentors mentioned in list.
Regarding contributing you can see there are almost 600+ issues some of them are good first issues you can filter them pick them up and start contributing plus you can see https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#getting-started and this https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#rules

Rest any problem you face you can tag mentor @willgearty @kkbrum @hwatheod
Have fun contributing

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@Oval17 I got assigned a issue i starting working to fix it.

I also finalised my gsoc project for which i have to make a file So let me when I can start I have expirence in open source contribution And I work in full stack too.
If any kind to help regarding maintaing PR's etc let me know ping me We'll discuss Just a suggestion We can use code rabbit to for PR's.

[Oval17]

Hi @Dhirenderchoudhary
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/discussions -> here you will find all the current discussions that are going on
Also would advice you to go through GSoC official documentation as its not at all advised to start working on any project before official coding period begins..
Rather you can discuss the project with assigned mentors and other contributers..
If you want to contribute either you can pick any issues from issues tab or you can go through our codebase and see if there are any issues.
Regarding becoming org member you can see in discussion tab core members are discussing amongst themselves.

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

I have not started just decided which projects is incline with my intrest and i can do best.
Yes I'll contact mentors. I have taken a issue and started working on that not on gsoc project

thanks for the feedback

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

Just a small request where i can find which mentor is mentroing which project ?

[Oval17]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQHE4OyXDdhDPkP2X7OWdSjauW_rQi1Fhr3RwEgTrSjDbrHO3nePDCdJkCheeocMrRTdqbHqnmb9WcG/pub

-> You can here there is a row in every project which says possible mentor

[Oval17]

One more thing :
gsoc-mentors-2026@learningu.org
This is official mail id if you are comfortable connecting over mail.

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@willgearty @kkbrum @hwatheod I have started working on the assigned issue and have raised a PR. I have also finalized my GSoC project and am preparing the required Proposal. Please let me know when I can start. I have open source and full stack experience, so feel free to ping me if any help is needed with PRs or reviews. Also, we can consider using CodeRabbit for PR reviews.

[Oval17]

Congrats on first PR keep going !!

[willgearty]

GSoC proposals are due in late March. After that we'll pick interns to work on the projects. For that reason, please do not start working on GSoC projects until you have been selected through the GSoC process.

[pushkarkumar06]

@Dhirenderchoudhary, Hii dhirender hope you’re doing well!
I’ve successfully set up and run the project locally and gone through the relevant documentation. I’m ready to start contributing now.
Could you please let me know which mentor I should coordinate with for issue assignment, or if there’s a specific issue you’d recommend I start with?
Thanks !

[Oval17]

Hi @pushkarkumar06
you can connect with @willgearty and you can find names of other mentors as well in the idealist doc, after doing local setup you can get some issue assigned and start contributing try for good first issue, then after you feel comfortable you can pick larger bugs
Thanks

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

hello @pushkarkumar06 We can talk through the Idealist-related questions right now, especially around the project scope. If you have any other doubts, feel free to reach out to the mentors listed.
For contributions, there are around 600+ issues available. Many of them are marked as good first issues—you can filter those, pick one, and start contributing. Also, make sure to check out these links to get started and understand the rules:
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#getting-started
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#rules
If you run into any problems, you can tag the mentors @willgearty, @kkbrum, @hwatheod.

OR you just simply start with good first issues

[Oval17]

Copied and pasted my exact statement from above 🤔
Its fine though its bit funny cause when I read first time I was like where I have seen this then realised I only said exact thing above 😂

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@Oval17 yaa yaa Didn't understand how i guide him don't wanted to tell something wrong that's why

[Oval17]

Ya its cool keep on helping each other.

[Mew-72]

Hello everyone! I'm Mayank, interested in contributing for gsoc 2026. I looked through the issues page but didn't find any good-first-issue labels so could someone please point me in the right direction?

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@Mew-72 https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3AStarter%20OR%20label%3AEasy%20OR%20label%3ASmall

Check out this and ping me if any help needed

[pushkarkumar06]

Hi @Oval17 , If I see any particular issue is unassigned.
Would it be okay if I start working on it without any permission, as it may take some time to get a response?
Please let me know.

Thanks!

[Oval17]

Best would be to get it assigned by @willgearty first , so that there is no duplication of efforts + also see that no one has already raised a pr for that issue that can be verified by viewing if theres any link to that pr.
After its assigned you can work on that issue.

[SKM2227229725]

Hi @willgearty,

Thank you for the clarification regarding the GSoC timeline.

I’ll continue contributing through regular issues and improving my familiarity with the codebase while preparing my proposal. Looking forward to contributing meaningfully.

[vipulpandey21]

Hi @willgearty and the Learning Unlimited team,
I’m Vipul Pandey, a 3rd-year student at IIIT Gwalior. I have successfully set up the local development environment using the Vagrant VM.
Regarding GSoC 2026, I have two brief questions:

1. To ensure a strong application, does the organization prioritize the volume of bug-fix contributions made during the pre-application period, or is the final selection primarily based on the technical depth and feasibility of the project proposal?

2. For the project I'm interested in, should I focus my current contributions on the specific modules related to that idea, or is a broad range of general bug fixes preferred at this stage?
   Looking forward to contribute seriously and meaningfully!

[willgearty]

Thanks for your interest in our GSoC project!

1. See Google Summer of Code 2026 Discussion #4140 (comment)
2. It's up to you. You shouldn't be doing any work directly related to the project before GSoC begins. Working on things that are similar could be helpful, but definitely not required.

[vipulpandey21]

Hi Mr. Will,
Thanks for the clarification! That makes total sense—I’ll focus my efforts on general bug fixes and similar modules to get a deeper feel for the codebase without touching the specific project scope yet.

[logicwithharshal]

Hello Everyone, I’m Harshal, very interested in participating in GSoC 2026.
I’m currently going through the ESP‑Website repo to understand its structure and workflows.
My focus is on the New Module Management UI and Better Form Customization projects, and i appreciate guidance on contribution priorities or beginner‑friendly issues that would help me get started.
Looking forward to learning and contributing!

Thank you

[willgearty]

Thanks for your interest in our GSoC projects! Check out issues with the tags Easy, Starter, or Small. Most of them may be assigned at the moment, but we'll hopefully have more soon. You're also welcome to set up your own development environment and identify issues (bugs, features requests) that you find.

[willgearty]

We've seen this question a few times, so I'm putting it here so everyone can see it:

Q: How will you be judging GSoC proposals?
A: We will be looking for thoughtful plans and timelines that show both 1) an understanding of our complex codebase, and 2) insight into how long tasks will likely take. In addition to the proposal, we expect that each applicant will have submitted at least one pull request to our repository before applying. We will not be judging applicants based on the number of PRs submitted, but on the quality, thoughtfulness, and insight of the PRs.

[logicwithharshal]

Thank you, sir. This guidance is very helpful. It helps me a lot that I should focus my efforts on preparing a thoughtful proposal and timeline, rather than spending time on multiple small PRs. I will give my full attention to the projects New Module Management UI and Better Form Customization, and ensure that my contribution and proposal reflect quality, insight, and a clear understanding of the codebase
Sir, if you have any specific tips or suggestions for approaching the New Module Management UI project, I would greatly appreciate your guidance.

[celesmedina]

Hi everyone

I’m María Celeste Medina, a Software Engineer based in New York, originally from Argentina.

I’m planning to apply for GSoC and would love to start contributing to this project. If I need to wait to be assigned a bug fix or beginner-friendly issue, I’m happy to do so, just let me know how I can get started.

Looking forward to collaborating!

Celeste

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

Hello @celesmedina Nice to see you here
If you want to start contributing https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3AStarter%20OR%20label%3AEasy%20OR%20label%3ASmall
Good first issues

Check out this and ping me if any help needed

[pkaushalendra08]

@willgearty can you please share community link like discord, slack etc , for communicating ?

[willgearty]

See #4310

[mrkeshav-05]

Hi @willgearty, could you clarify why vagrant up is taking 9+ hours to complete? Is there a quicker or recommended way to run the project locally?

[willgearty]

Hmm...I've never experienced this issue before. You could try running the development environment in Docker instead. See #4281

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

Kindly wait we are migrating to docker PR is raised and merged soon.
Thanks for your time.

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@willgearty this issue mainly arising in Macbook's I also faced the same issue but I wrote my docker code and run it locally to verify my code changes and it went perfectly.

[mrkeshav-05]

@willgearty this issue mainly arising in Macbook's I also faced the same issue but I wrote my docker code and run it locally to verify my code changes and it went perfectly.

Thanks @Dhirenderchoudhary for suggesting. I'll also try to do in same way.

[pushkarkumar06]

Hi @Oval17,
I’ve raised two PRs for this project, but they haven’t been reviewed yet.
Could you please let me know when I can expect a review or feedback?
Thanks a lot!

[Oval17]

There are a lot of PR that needs to be reviewed and all the maintainers of project are overburdened,
Everyones working , they will let you know when pr is reviewed.
Have patience!!

[pushkarkumar06]

Hi @willgearty

I noticed that the project no longer contains a Vagrantfile and running vagrant up now fails. It seems the repository may have migrated from Vagrant to Docker.

Could you please confirm whether the development environment has officially moved to Docker?

If yes, could you guide me on the correct steps to set up and run the development server using the new workflow?

Thank you!

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@pushkarkumar06

Open your docker delete the esp_website container
Then follow
Git checkout main
Git pull origin main
After deleting container

Use docker compose up — build to run

And for more details read docker and readme file

[userAdityaa]

Hey @pushkarkumar06, you’re correct about the move from Vagrant to Docker. If your repository hasn’t been updated yet and is still using Vagrant, try syncing it first by running git fetch upstream main or git pull origin main, then rebase onto upstream/main or origin/main. After that, you can follow the updated quick-start instructions to set things up more easily: Quick Setup Guide for Docker Changes

[pushkarkumar06]

thank to both of you @Dhirenderchoudhary , @userAdityaa

[VipulMore11]

Hi everyone, I’m Vipul, an undergraduate engineering student from India interested in contributing to Learning Unlimited and applying for GSoC 2026.
I’m currently exploring the repository and would appreciate guidance on beginner-friendly issues to get started. There are lot of good-first-issues, Ig I will start running the project locally and start contributing 😄 !!!

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[RosieTang]

Hi! @willgearty
I’m Rosie, and I’m interested in the Regression Tests Expansion idea for GSoC 2026.
I’m setting up the dev/test environment locally now, and I’m hoping to get familiar with the project structure and submit a first PR soon. Could you recommend a good first target area where tests are most needed right now? If someone is already working on part of it, I’m happy to focus on a different area to avoid overlap. Thanks!

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[Pooja-Rajput05]

Hi @willgearty
I'm Pooja, a 3rd year engineering student from India. I'm really interested in the "Better Form Customization" idea and would love to start contributing. could you please guide me on where to begin?

[SKM2227229725]

@Pooja-Rajput05 Welcome, and thanks for your interest in GSoC project! Check out .

Idea list

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSQrzex-1PlqTGwOiFmiFnGlm1_3ajsf-Wo2z-9hUzJybZQOBD4EraIH_iW7Qn87TPB2SR5O_JX1T6C/pub

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[SHREESHANTH99]

Hi @willgearty

My name is Shreeshanth. I’m interested in contributing to ESP-Website as part of my GSoC preparation.

I’ve set up the project locally and have been going through the codebase, especially the forms system. The “Better Form Customization” idea really caught my attention. I’m particularly interested in improving how admins configure forms and exploring how custom fields could be added without needing hardcoded Python changes.

I wanted to ask:

Which part of the current forms implementation would be a good place to start understanding the system better?

Are there any architectural decisions or constraints I should keep in mind while exploring this feature?

Would you recommend working on a smaller, related issue first to get familiar with the forms flow?

I’m happy to begin with smaller tasks and gradually work toward the larger feature.

Thanks for your time — I’m looking forward to your guidance.

[SKM2227229725]

idea list ### https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSQrzex-1PlqTGwOiFmiFnGlm1_3ajsf-Wo2z-9hUzJybZQOBD4EraIH_iW7Qn87TPB2SR5O_JX1T6C/pub

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[samson1299]

Hii! @willgearty sir,
My name is samson i am interested in New Module Management UI like to handle the fronted part if any good-first-issues are there can you please assign to me sir only if no one working on it to avoid overlap. i would like to be a part of this project sir ,
Thank you sir.

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[ShraddhaSharma3]

Hello @willgearty sir,
I am Shraddha, a 1st year engineering student from India. I am interested in contributing to ESP-Website for GSoC 2026. As a beginner, I would like to start with beginner-friendly issues and then move to complex ones. Looking forward to collaborating!
Thank you!

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@ShraddhaSharma3
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3AStarter%20OR%20label%3AEasy%20OR%20label%3ASmall

Check out this and ping me if any help needed

[PABLOUJIJIJA]

GSoC 2026 - Interested in "Theming Improvements" project (Pablo Ojeda)

Hi mentors, @willgearty
My name is Pablo Ojeda, a first-year Software Engineering student from Mexico. I read that Learning Unlimited focuses on helping young students experience real-world open-source development, which really inspired me to reach out!

Since I study online, I have a lot of free time that I dedicate entirely to self-learning. I have taught myself HTML and CSS (intermediate level) and I am very interested in the "Theming Improvements" project, as my goal is to further develop my front-end skills in a real environment. I am also highly motivated to learn JavaScript while working on this project.

Before proceeding, I would like to ask a few quick questions regarding the contributor guidelines:

Is it strictly necessary to make a complex Pull Request to apply, or could I start by fixing a simple HTML/CSS visual bug?

Is knowing JavaScript beforehand a strict requirement for this specific project?

Would knowing only HTML and CSS at this moment be a limitation for my application?

Thank you so much for your time and guidance!

Best regards,
Pablo

[willgearty]

1. Any PR is acceptable. We just want to make sure that you've interacted with our codebase and are familiar with the Issue -> PR process.
2. Javascript is not a strict requirement for the Theming Improvements project. Sounds like you'd be able to pick it up over the summer if necessary.

[PABLOUJIJIJA]

Hi @willgearty,
Thank you so much for the clarification! That is very encouraging to hear.

I will start getting familiar with the codebase right away and look for a simple visual bug to submit my first PR. I will also begin drafting my proposal based on the "Theming Improvements" project.

Thanks again for your guidance!

Best,
Pablo

[TebohManoiella]

Hi all,
My name is Teboh Manoiella, a third year bachelor in computer engineering student in the university of Buae, Cameroon. I am excited to start contributing to learning-unlimited and I am particularly interested in HTML and CSS

Over the past few days, I've been setting up the project locally and reviewing the repository to build context, I would appreciate guidance on beginner-friendly issues to get started.

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@TebohManoiella
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3AStarter%20OR%20label%3AEasy%20OR%20label%3ASmall

Check out this and ping me if any help needed

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[NJ-012]

Hi @willgearty - I'm applying for the Better Form Customization project and wanted to run my approach by you before finalizing the proposal.

I opened PR #4694 as a starting point - it adds an admin_config_banner templatetag to the teacher class reg form with staff-only visibility and 6 unit tests. The broader proposal builds toward a database-backed custom field system (CustomFormField + CustomFieldResponse via ContentType framework), a Django Admin interface for managing fields without code changes, and export integration with query performance locked via assertNumQueries in CI.

Two quick questions:

1. The customforms app already has its own schema - from what I can see it handles survey-style forms rather than registration flows, so my models shouldn't overlap. Does that match your understanding?
2. Are any live chapters relying on teacherreg_custom.py in a way that would affect the migration strategy?

Happy to share the draft proposal if that makes feedback easier.

[Dhirenderchoudhary]

@NJ-012 don't submit or raise PR without getting the issue assigned and it seems you submitted PR for GSOC project so don't do that
thanks

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved. As stated above, our rules include getting assigned to an issue before submitting a pull request.

[celesmedina]

Hi @willgearty, quick question: can we already share draft proposals for feedback, or should we wait until the official contribution application period begins before sending them?

[kkbrum]

Hi everyone! While we appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm, we are a small core team of 5 developers, who typically each spend 1-5 hours volunteering for this code organization per week. We are inundated with PRs. To make sure that we have time to review a bit of everyone’s code/proposals:

• We have added a tag on PRs to indicate that the submitted PR is the 6th or greater open PR by a single contributor. These PRs will be ignored until the contributor’s other PRs have been addressed. You should be addressing Copilot’s reviews, our reviews, failing tests, and merge conflicts, to ensure your original PRs get merged before submitting additional PRs. You should be focused on creating high quality PRs, or on developing your GSOC proposal, rather than creating a great quantity of PRs. Quality is much preferable to quantity.
• Please do NOT direct message or email the developers, or comment unnecessarily on issues or PRs, unless you have a concrete question. Letting us know that you have submitted a PR, or that the tests are passing, is unnecessary and bogs us down, slowing down our ability to review PRs.

[Asmi768]

hi @Oval17 @willgearty @kkbrum @hwatheod I’m Asmi Mohan, a 2nd-year BCA (Hons) student. I’m passionate about web development, AI, and cybersecurity and have experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Android, and MySQL. Excited to contribute to Learning Unlimited this GSoC'26!

[Sabya-Codes]

@Asmi768 If you want to start contributing
https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3AStarter%20OR%20label%3AEasy%20OR%20label%3ASmall

Check out this and any help needed in setup ping me

[Asmi768]

@Sabya-Codes actually i am facing an issue that the issues which i am picking is already assigned then what to do ? almost 90% issues are assigned. How to find the issue which is not at all assigned

[userAdityaa]

@Sabya-Codes actually i am facing an issue that the issues which i am picking is already assigned then what to do ? almost 90% issues are assigned. How to find the issue which is not at all assigned

The best approach here is to analyze the part of the project that interests you, identify potential problems or improvements, open an issue for it, and then get yourself assigned to work on it.

[kkbrum]

Here is a filtered list of issues: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20no%3Aassignee%20created%3A%3C%40today-2w%20-label%3A%22Idea%20for%20Discussion%22%20-label%3A%22GSoC%202026%22. It looks only for issues with no assigness, those which were created more than 2 weeks ago (since the more recent issues are all created by people doing what @userAdityaa states and are thus not good candidates for things for you to work on), those which are not discussion based, and those which are not GSOC summer projects. This list of issues is a good starting point.

[AnushkaPandit-21]

Hi @willgearty @Oval17 @kkbrum,

I'm Anushka, interested in Communications Improvements and Better Onsite Management for Admins for GSoC 2026. I've been exploring the codebase and have submitted a couple of PRs in these areas:

• Fix PlainRedirect exposing all recipient addresses in To: header (#2393) #4864 — Fixed PlainRedirect exposing all recipient addresses in the To: header (Plain redirects should protect recipient info #2393, in the email/mailgate pipeline)
• feat: show previous-day check-in status on teacher check-in page #4867 — Added previous-day check-in status to the missing teachers page (Teacher check-in should show which teachers checked in the previous day #1540, in the onsite teacher check-in module)

A couple of questions as I work on my proposal:

1. Communications: The current email pipeline (MessageRequest → cronmail → send_mail) handles sending well, but the admin-facing comm panel doesn't surface delivery status or bounce info. Is tracking email delivery status (e.g. via SendGrid webhooks) something that's in scope for this project, or is the focus more on the compose/preview/filter UX?

2. Onsite Management: For the teacher check-in improvements — beyond the previous-day indicator, are there other pain points the team has experienced during events? For example, would a real-time dashboard or push notifications for missing teachers be useful?

Happy to discuss further. Thanks for maintaining this project!

[willgearty]

1. Tracking email status could definitely be in scope! We have the Email Status page (linked from the Manage All Programs page) which shows whether an email has been processed (via the cron job), but nothing from the SendGrid side of things.
2. Improvements to the teacher check-in page (or improving it when it's in the admin onsite webapp) would be welcome. I don't think push notifications would be useful, since it's unlikely the users would have our website open on their phone (and a full app is definitely out of scope).

[riyajnv825413-ui]

"Hello Community! I'm Riya, a first-year student looking to get involved with Learning Unlimited for GSoC. I have some experience with HTML,CSS,Javascript,Python,C++ and I'm keen to learn more about Web Development. I’d like to start by fixing some 'good first issues'—could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks!"

[willgearty]

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in our GSoC project! Check out our wiki for details about getting started: https://github.com/learning-unlimited/ESP-Website/wiki#i-want-to-get-involved

[AnushkaPandit-21]

Thanks for the guidance, @willgearty! I went straight to work on both fronts:

SendGrid Delivery Tracking → #4908
I traced the full email pipeline (CommModule.commfinal() → MessageRequest → cron process_messages() → TextOfEmail.send() → CustomSMTPBackend → SMTP relay) and saw the Email Status page at /manage/emails only shows cron processing status. Since SendGrid is already the relay (confirmed by the dedup comment in send_mail()), I added a webhook endpoint that captures delivery events and links them back to TextOfEmail via SendGrid's unique_args. The Email Status page now shows Delivered/Bounced/Opened columns.

This is a stepping stone toward the larger Communications Improvements scope — the same X-SMTPAPI header mechanism can support scheduled sending (#3951) via send_at, and the delivery tracking data could feed into a template performance dashboard once the template UI (#2885) is built.

Teacher Check-In Auto-Refresh → #4909
After exploring the TeacherCheckinModule and the onsite webapp architecture (OnsiteCore → individual modules with @aux_call endpoints), I added a real-time stats bar with 30-second AJAX polling to the missing teachers page. Per-timeslot check-in percentages update live with color-coded indicators, without disrupting active check-in workflows.

This maps directly to the admin onsite webapp vision in #2672 — the auto-refreshing enrollment/check-in dashboard with progress bars. The ajaxmissingstats endpoint I built follows the same pattern that would power the "live registration for all classes" feature described in that issue.

Looking ahead
I'm drafting my proposal around both ideas and would appreciate feedback on the approach. Specifically, for the admin onsite webapp (#2672), I'm considering building it as a new AdminOnsiteModule (similar to TeacherOnsite) with a React-free, jQuery + AJAX approach matching the existing codebase patterns — rather than introducing a new frontend framework. Does that align with the team's direction?

[willgearty]

@AnushkaPandit-21 you shouldn't be working on the GSoC project before the actual GSoC program begins. You should be working on existing issues and your proposal. Remember, if you do the project now, there's no point in us hiring you for the summer.

[AnushkaPandit-21]

Thanks for the heads up, @willgearty! Those PRs came out of exploring the codebase to understand the email and onsite systems — figured I'd upstream what I found along the way rather than let it sit locally. Totally makes sense to save the project scope for the summer. Pivoting to existing issues and the proposal from here — just picked up #4906. Appreciate the guidance!