Small update, but one that makes your account feel a little more yours: you can now upload a profile avatar.
How It Works
Head to your Profile page and you'll see your avatar front and centre - a large circle showing either your uploaded photo or your initials. Hover over it and a camera icon appears. Click it, pick an image, and it saves instantly. No extra "save" button needed.
You can also use the Change photo / Upload photo link below your name if the clickable avatar isn't obvious enough, and there's a Remove button if you want to go back to initials.
Supported Formats
- JPG, PNG, or WebP
- Max 512KB - this is a profile photo, not a portfolio piece
- Images are stored in WebMon's file storage and served directly
Where Your Avatar Appears
Once uploaded, your avatar shows up in a few places:
- Profile page - The big circle at the top of your profile card
- Navigation bar - A small avatar next to your name in the dropdown
- Blog posts - If you're a blog author, your avatar appears in the byline on both the blog listing and individual post pages
If you haven't uploaded an avatar, you'll see your initials in a coloured circle instead. No broken image placeholders, no generic silhouettes.
Why Bother?
Avatars are one of those features that seem trivial until you're staring at a list of users in an admin panel and every row looks identical. For a monitoring tool, personalisation isn't the core value prop - but it makes the experience feel less like a utility and more like your tool.
It also means blog posts have a bit more personality. When you read a post by someone with a face next to their name, it feels like a person wrote it. Because one did.
Technical Details (For the Curious)
- Uploads are processed via Livewire's
WithFileUploadstrait - When you select a file, the
updatedAvatar()lifecycle hook fires immediately - validates the file, deletes any existing avatar, stores the new one, and updates your user record - Old avatar files are cleaned up automatically when you upload a replacement or remove your photo - no orphaned files accumulating on disk
- Validation happens client-side (accept attribute) and server-side (mime type + size check)
What's Next
This was a quick win while we were building out some larger features (admin reporting, redirect change monitoring). Next up on the profile side, we're looking at:
- Notification preferences per monitor - Choose which alerts you want for each monitor instead of global settings
- Activity log - See a history of your account actions (monitor created, alert sent, settings changed)
Upload your avatar now: go to your profile and click the circle. Takes about 3 seconds.