...some of them just look dynamic. Very convincingly so. Even have documentation on "backend framework", etc.
I learned that this week. Twice over. The first frontend template, which I spent chose for its appearance and flexibility (in terms of frontend components), has zero documentation. Zero. So I threw that out the window because I need some sort of backend foundation to start with.
After another long search, I finally found this template. Not only is it beautiful (and open source!) but it also has a fair amount of documentation on how to get it up and running and how to build in a "backend framework." The demo website even has features that appear to be dynamic. 4 hours and 5 AWS EC2 instances later, after I tried repeatedly to (in a containerized environment!) re-route the dev version of the website hosted locally to my EC2's public DNS, I finally figured out it isn't. Long story short, the dev part is dynamic---you run a local instance and the site updates automatically when you make changes---but the production process is not. You compile all the Javascript/Typescript into HTML/CSS/etc and upload your static site to a server.
Now, after more searching, the template I'm using is this one, a hackathon starter template that includes both a configurable backend and a nice-looking (though less fancy) frontend. I've been able to install it on an EC2 instance and get it routed to the EC2's DNS, so it's definitely a step in the right direction.
My laundry list of development tasks for next week includes configuring the template backend to my liking (read: RESTful communication with the Flask server I built earlier) and building a functional button on the page where a user can enter a URL. Also, on a completely different note, writing an abstract about my project for GW Research Days, which I am contractually obligated to do.