Proposal: migrate the Open Front End (OFE) from Bootstrap 4 to Bootstrap 5

[manumishra12]

Proposal: migrate the Open Front End (OFE) from Bootstrap 4 to Bootstrap 5

Current state

The OFE web app currently has a mixed Bootstrap setup:

• community/front-end/ofe/website/ghpcfe/templates/base_generic.html loads Bootstrap 4.6.0 (CSS + JS bundle) and jQuery 3.5.1 from a CDN.
• requirements.txt already pins crispy-bootstrap5 (and django-crispy-forms), so crispy-rendered forms are being generated for Bootstrap 5 markup while the page itself ships Bootstrap 4.

This mismatch means crispy form output and the base layout target different Bootstrap major versions, and the templates rely on Bootstrap 4 JS behaviors (data-toggle, data-target) that were renamed in Bootstrap 5 (data-bs-toggle, data-bs-target).

Why it's worth doing

• Consistency: align the base template with the crispy-bootstrap5 forms that are already in use.
• Maintenance: Bootstrap 4 is in maintenance-only status upstream; BS5 drops the jQuery dependency for Bootstrap's own JS.
• Correctness: removes the latent BS4/BS5 markup mismatch.

Rough scope

• Update the CDN links in base_generic.html to Bootstrap 5.3.x (and review whether jQuery is still needed — several templates still use it directly, e.g. jquery.cookie.js, so jQuery may need to stay for now).
• Rename data-toggle/data-target → data-bs-toggle/data-bs-target and update dropdown/collapse markup across the ~14 templates that use them.
• Adjust utility-class renames (e.g. ml-auto → ms-auto, *-left/right → *-start/end).
• Verify forms still render correctly via crispy-bootstrap5.

Questions for maintainers before I start

1. Is a BS4 → BS5 migration something you'd accept as a community PR, or is the OFE's frontend stack intentionally frozen?
2. Would you prefer it as one PR or split per concern (CDN bump, attribute renames, utility-class renames)?
3. Any browser-support or visual-regression constraints I should keep in mind?

I'm happy to do the work and keep the PR(s) self-contained and review-friendly — just want to confirm direction before investing in it. Thanks!