📝feat: add branch icons

[SteelCrab]

Currently, Gition aims to replicate as many of Notion's features as possible. One feature I'm particularly inspired by is the ability to assign icons to pages.

When branches expand horizontally, it's easier for users to identify pages by their symbolic icons rather than reading and parsing text context.

To implement this, we first need to understand the database flow and the current React implementation approach.

Our team strongly supports the use of AI in Gition.

With great power comes great responsibility—contributors are encouraged to use clear, easy-to-understand language and commit by hunk to help reviewers provide faster feedback.

Questions are always welcome. Lots of questions mean genuine interest in the contribution, and I'll do my best to respond within 24 hours. :)

[EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson]

Hi! is there already a planned structure/direction for how pages are stored and rendered?

[SteelCrab]

Hi @EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson! First of all, thank you for your interest in this issue.

Yes, we do have a general direction outlined in our roadmap. Currently, we are using MySQL for page storage, but we are considering alternative storage solutions in the future to optimize performance.

As for rendering, it currently only displays raw text, and the actual rendering implementation is still a work in progress.

[EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson]

@SteelCrab Thank you for answering!

Looking at the current schema, it seems that branch_pages already includes a metadata JSON field.
One possible approach could be to store page icons as part of this metadata (e.g. { "icon": "📘" }), which would avoid early schema changes while keeping the model flexible for future page-related attributes.

What do you think?

[SteelCrab]

@EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson
That sounds like a great approach! :)

Using the JSON structure definitely seems better for flexibility and future scalability.

Please feel free to submit a PR with a simple implementation whenever you are ready. I'll make sure to provide a prompt review.

I've assigned this issue to you. Happy coding!

[EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson]

@SteelCrab
Just to make sure I understand the current state correctly: is the branch_pages table already wired into the backend in any way, or is it still only defined at the schema level?

If it’s not yet integrated, would you prefer that I start by preparing support for metadata (e.g. documenting or structuring it), or should I introduce something like a dedicated metadata.json as an initial step?

[SteelCrab]

@EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson

Actually, the schema for branch_pages is already defined in our database. You can see the table definition, including the meta_json column, in the init.sql file here:

gition/mysql/init.sql

Lines 88 to 106 in eb4f279

	-- Branch Pages table for storing Notion-style pages per branch
	-- Currently stored as JSON files in .gition/pages/, but can migrate to DB
	CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS branch_pages (
	id CHAR(36) PRIMARY KEY, -- UUID
	user_id INT NOT NULL,
	repo_id INT NOT NULL,
	branch_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
	title VARCHAR(500) DEFAULT '',
	content LONGTEXT,
	metadata JSON,
	created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
	updated_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
	FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
	FOREIGN KEY (repo_id) REFERENCES repositories(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
	UNIQUE KEY unique_user_repo_branch (user_id, repo_id, branch_name),
	INDEX idx_user_id (user_id),
	INDEX idx_repo_id (repo_id),
	INDEX idx_branch_name (branch_name)
	) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Since the meta_json column already exists, we can utilize it directly instead of creating a separate dedicated JSON structure.

Regarding the backend integration, please refer to backend/page_ops.py. Logic involving meta_json is currently implemented there, so checking that file should give you a good idea of how it's wired up.

Let me know if you need more details on the backend logic!

[SteelCrab]

@EduardoInfantedeCastroThompson
I think it would be easier for me to give you specific feedback if you start by implementing a simple feature and submitting a PR for it. :)