Forumly

Forumly is a modern forum/community platform inspired by Reddit, built with Next.js 15 and Sanity CMS. It allows users to create communities, share posts, engage in discussions, and more.

🌟 Features

• User Authentication: Secure user authentication powered by Clerk
• Community Creation: Create and manage communities with custom names, descriptions, and images
• Content Creation: Post text, images, and links to communities
• Comments & Replies: Engage in discussions with nested comments and replies
• Voting System: Upvote or downvote posts and comments
• Search Functionality: Search for posts, communities, and users
• Responsive Design: Fully responsive UI that works on all devices
• Dark Mode Support: Toggle between light and dark themes
• Content Moderation: Report inappropriate content
• AI Integration: AI-powered features using OpenAI for content moderation

🛠️ Technology Stack

Frontend

• Next.js 15: React framework with App Router
• React 19: UI library
• TypeScript: Type-safe JavaScript
• TailwindCSS 4: Utility-first CSS framework
• ShadCN: Accessible UI components
• Lucide React: Icon library
• Next Themes: Dark mode support

Backend & Data

• Sanity CMS: Headless CMS for content management
• Clerk: Authentication and user management
• GROQ: Query language for Sanity
• Vercel: Hosting and deployment

AI & Utilities

• AI SDK: Integration with OpenAI
• Zod: Schema validation
• React TimeAgo: Relative time formatting

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ installed
• pnpm package manager (recommended)
• Sanity account
• Clerk account

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mayurk224/forumly.git
cd forumly

2. Install dependencies:

pnpm install

3. Set up environment variables: Create a .env.local file in the root directory with the following variables:

# Sanity
NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID=your_sanity_project_id
NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET=production
SANITY_API_TOKEN=your_sanity_api_token

# Clerk
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=your_clerk_publishable_key
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=your_clerk_secret_key

# OpenAI (optional)
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key

4. Run the development server:

pnpm dev

5. Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result.

Sanity Studio

To access the Sanity Studio for content management:

1. Run the Sanity development server:

pnpm sanity

2. Or access it through the Next.js app at http://localhost:3000/studio

📦 Project Structure

forumly/
├── app/                  # Next.js App Router
│   ├── (admin)/          # Admin routes (Sanity Studio)
│   ├── (app)/            # Main application routes
│   └── api/              # API routes
├── components/           # React components
│   ├── comment/          # Comment-related components
│   ├── community/        # Community-related components
│   ├── header/           # Header components
│   ├── post/             # Post-related components
│   └── ui/               # UI components
├── public/               # Static assets
├── sanity/               # Sanity configuration
│   ├── lib/              # Sanity utility functions
│   └── schemaTypes/      # Sanity schema definitions
└── action/               # Server actions

🔄 Scripts

• pnpm dev: Run the development server
• pnpm build: Build the application for production
• pnpm start: Start the production server
• pnpm lint: Run ESLint
• pnpm typegen: Generate TypeScript types from Sanity schema
• pnpm sanity: Run Sanity Studio locally
• pnpm sanity-deploy: Deploy Sanity Studio

🌐 Deployment

The project is deployed on Vercel. You can view the live demo at:

https://forumly-lemon.vercel.app

To deploy your own instance:

vercel

For production deployment:

vercel --prod

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👥 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.