MiniBlog - Beautiful Blogging Platform

A modern, full-featured blogging platform built with Python Flask and beautiful UI design.

Features

🎨 Beautiful UI

• Modern, responsive design with Tailwind CSS
• Gradient backgrounds and smooth animations
• Mobile-first approach
• Dark/light theme support

👤 User Management

• User registration and login
• JWT-based authentication
• User profiles with avatars and bios
• Role-based access control (User/Admin)

📝 Blog Features

• Create, edit, and delete posts
• Rich text content with markdown support
• Post categories and tags
• Featured images
• Post drafts and publishing
• View count tracking

💬 Social Features

• Like posts and comments
• Comment system with replies
• Real-time notifications
• Share posts functionality

🔧 Admin Panel

• User management
• Post moderation
• Comment approval system
• Analytics dashboard
• Content management

🚀 Additional Features

• Search functionality
• Responsive design
• SEO-friendly URLs
• Image upload support
• Email notifications (coming soon)

Technology Stack

• Backend: Python Flask
• Database: SQLite (development) / PostgreSQL (production)
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Tailwind CSS
• Authentication: JWT tokens
• Icons: Font Awesome
• Deployment: Gunicorn + Nginx

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• pip (Python package installer)

Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd miniblog

2. Create virtual environment

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set environment variables

   export SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key-here"
   export JWT_SECRET_KEY="your-jwt-secret-here"
   export DATABASE_URL="sqlite:///miniblog.db"

5. Run the application

   python app.py

The application will be available at http://localhost:5000

Usage

Getting Started

1. Register an account at /register
2. Login at /login
3. Create your first post from the dashboard
4. Explore other users' posts on the homepage

Admin Access

To create an admin user, you can modify the database directly or use the Flask shell:

from app import app, db
from models import User

with app.app_context():
    admin_user = User(username='admin', email='your-admin-email@example.com', role='admin')
    admin_user.set_password('your-secure-password')
    db.session.add(admin_user)
    db.session.commit()

API Endpoints

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/register - Register new user
• POST /api/auth/login - User login
• POST /api/auth/logout - User logout
• GET /api/auth/me - Get current user info

Posts

• GET /api/posts/ - Get all posts (with pagination)
• GET /api/posts/<id> - Get specific post
• POST /api/posts/ - Create new post
• PUT /api/posts/<id> - Update post
• DELETE /api/posts/<id> - Delete post
• POST /api/posts/<id>/like - Like/unlike post

Comments

• GET /api/comments/post/<post_id> - Get post comments
• POST /api/comments/ - Create comment
• POST /api/comments/<id>/like - Like/unlike comment

Admin

• GET /api/admin/users - Get all users
• GET /api/admin/posts - Get all posts
• GET /api/admin/comments - Get all comments

Project Structure

miniblog/
├── app.py                 # Main Flask application
├── models.py              # Database models
├── routes.py              # API routes and blueprints
├── database.py            # Database configuration
├── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies
├── templates/             # HTML templates
│   ├── base.html         # Base template
│   ├── index.html        # Homepage
│   ├── dashboard.html    # User dashboard
│   ├── create_post.html  # Post creation form
│   ├── edit_post.html    # Post editing form
│   ├── post_detail.html  # Post view page
│   ├── auth/             # Authentication templates
│   └── admin/            # Admin panel templates
├── instance/              # Database files
└── README.md             # This file

Styling

The UI uses Bootstrap 5. Customize by editing templates and the small custom styles in templates/base.html.

Database

The application uses SQLAlchemy ORM. You can:

• Switch to PostgreSQL for production
• Add new models in models.py
• Modify existing models and run migrations

Features

To add new features:

1. Create new routes in routes.py
2. Add corresponding templates
3. Update the navigation in base.html
4. Add new API endpoints as needed

Deployment

Production Setup

1. Use a production WSGI server

   pip install gunicorn
   gunicorn -w 4 -b 0.0.0.0:5000 app:app

2. Set up a reverse proxy (Nginx)

   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name your-domain.com;
       
       location / {
           proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000;
           proxy_set_header Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
       }
   }

3. Use environment variables for production

   export FLASK_ENV=production
   export SECRET_KEY="your-production-secret-key"
   export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost/miniblog"

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

License

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

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check the documentation
2. Search existing issues
3. Create a new issue with detailed information

Roadmap

• Email notifications
• Image upload functionality
• Advanced search filters
• Post scheduling
• User following system
• Dark mode toggle
• Mobile app (React Native)
• API rate limiting
• Content moderation tools
• Analytics dashboard

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