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Ders Forumu

An anonymous instructor & course review platform built for Sabancı University students. Students can anonymously write reviews for professors and courses, apply semester-based filters, and vote comments as helpful or not helpful.

🌐 Language: This page is in English. Click Türkçe above to read it in Turkish.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	FastAPI + SQLAlchemy + Alembic
Database	PostgreSQL 16
Frontend	React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS + Vite
Auth	JWT + email OTP (Gmail SMTP)
Container	Docker + Docker Compose
Cloud (AWS)	ECS Fargate, RDS, ElastiCache, CloudFront, Cognito, Terraform IaC

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Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone <repo-url>
cd CS436-Project

2. Create the .env file

cp .env.example .env

Then open .env and fill in the following fields:

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	Choose based on Scenario A/B (explained inside the file)
JWT_SECRET	Generate with openssl rand -hex 32
SMTP_USER	Your Gmail address
SMTP_PASSWORD	Gmail app password (not your regular password)
SMTP_FROM	Your Gmail address (can be the same as SMTP_USER)

How to get a Gmail app password? Google Account → Security → 2-Step Verification (must be enabled) → App passwords → Create new

What happens if SMTP is left empty? OTP codes are written to the terminal logs instead of being emailed. This is sufficient for a development environment.

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Running the App

Three different scenarios are supported. Pick one:

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Scenario A — Everything in Docker (easiest)

Backend + database run in Docker, frontend runs locally.

# 1) Start the containers
docker compose up -d

# 2) Apply migrations (on first setup and whenever a new migration arrives)
docker exec ders_forumu_api alembic upgrade head

# 3) Install frontend dependencies (on first setup)
cd frontend && npm install

# 4) Start the frontend
npm run dev

Service	URL
Frontend	http://localhost:5173
Backend API	http://localhost:8000
API Docs (Swagger)	http://localhost:8000/docs

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Scenario B — Only DB in Docker, backend local

If you want to quickly test code changes, you can run the backend locally.

# 1) In .env, point DATABASE_URL to localhost:
#    DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg2://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/ders_forumu

# 2) Start only the database in Docker
docker compose up -d db

# 3) Create a Python virtual environment (on first setup)
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate        # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4) Apply migrations (on first setup and whenever a new migration arrives)
alembic upgrade head

# 5) Start the backend
uvicorn app.main:app --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# 6) In a separate terminal, start the frontend
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

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Scenario C — Everything local (no Docker)

# Install and start PostgreSQL
brew install postgresql@16
brew services start postgresql@16
createdb ders_forumu

# DATABASE_URL in .env:
# DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg2://postgres@localhost:5432/ders_forumu

# Remaining steps are the same as Scenario B's steps 3–6

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First-Time Setup Summary (Scenario A)

git clone <repo-url> && cd CS436-Project
cp .env.example .env          # edit .env (JWT_SECRET + SMTP)
docker compose up -d
docker exec ders_forumu_api alembic upgrade head
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

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When a New Migration Arrives

If a teammate added a new migration and you ran git pull:

# Scenario A (Docker)
docker exec ders_forumu_api alembic upgrade head

# Scenario B/C (local backend)
alembic upgrade head

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Project Structure

CS436-Project/
├── app/
│   ├── main.py              # FastAPI entry point
│   ├── config.py            # Env settings
│   ├── database.py          # SQLAlchemy engine & session
│   ├── models/              # ORM models
│   ├── routes/              # API endpoints
│   ├── schemas/             # Pydantic request/response models
│   ├── auth/                # JWT & dependencies
│   └── utils/               # Helper functions
├── alembic/
│   └── versions/            # Migration files
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/           # Page components
│   │   ├── components/      # Reusable components
│   │   ├── api/             # Backend API calls
│   │   ├── contexts/        # React contexts (Auth, etc.)
│   │   └── types/           # TypeScript type definitions
│   └── package.json
├── infra/                   # Terraform infrastructure-as-code (AWS)
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── requirements.txt
├── .env.example             # Copy → .env, then fill in
└── .gitignore

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Commit Format

feat:     new feature
fix:      bug fix
refactor: code cleanup
docs:     documentation
chore:    dependency / configuration