Blog App

Description

The Blog App is a feature-rich Django web application designed for creating, managing, and sharing blog posts. It offers a modern, user-friendly interface for writing posts, adding comments, sharing content via email, and discovering content through advanced search and tagging. Built with Django 5.0.11, Bootstrap 5, and PostgreSQL, the app features a responsive, dark-themed UI, secure email integration, and SEO optimization with sitemaps and RSS feeds.

Features

• Post Management:

  • Create, view, and share blog posts with a clean, card-based layout.
  • Create, edit, and view blog posts with a clean, card-based layout.
  • Dynamic post titles, publication dates, author attribution, and status (Draft/Published).
  • Tag posts for categorization using the taggit library.
  • Display similar posts based on shared tags for enhanced content discovery.
  • Paginated post lists (3 posts per page) for organized browsing.

• Comment System:

  • Add and display comments on individual posts with name, email, and body fields.
  • Admin interface to toggle comment visibility (active/inactive).
  • Comment count with pluralization (e.g., "1 comment" vs. "2 comments").

• Search Functionality:

  • Advanced search using PostgreSQL's trigram similarity for typo-tolerant searches.
  • Search posts by title with weighted results, filtering results with similarity > 0.1.
  • Responsive search form with a modern design, including a search icon and full-width button.

• Email Sharing:

  • Share posts via email using a custom form (EmailPostForm).
  • Secure Gmail SMTP integration with App Password authentication.
  • CSRF protection for secure form submissions.

• RSS Feed:

  • Subscribe to the latest 5 published posts via an RSS feed.
  • Includes post title, truncated HTML description (30 words), and publication date.

• SEO and Sitemap:

  • SEO-friendly sitemap for published posts with weekly change frequency and 0.9 priority.
  • Updated timestamps for posts to improve search engine indexing.

• Admin Interface:

  • Comprehensive admin panel for managing posts and comments.
  • Post management: Filter by status, author, and publish date; search by title/body; prepopulate slugs from titles.
  • Comment management: Filter by active status and dates; search by name, email, and body.
  • Date hierarchy navigation and facet display for efficient admin workflows.

• Responsive Design:

  • Built with Bootstrap 5 for a mobile-first, responsive experience.
  • Light theme with a clean sidebar for navigation, search, and post highlights.
  • Hover effects, Font Awesome icons, and consistent color scheme (#007bff for primary, #28a745 for accents).

• Security:

  • Environment variable management with python-decouple for sensitive data (e.g., email credentials, database settings).
  • CSRF protection for all forms.
  • Secure PostgreSQL database configuration via Docker.

Requirements

• Python 3.13+
• Django 5.0.11
• Docker and Docker Compose (for PostgreSQL)
• Bootstrap 5.3 (via CDN)
• Font Awesome 6.0 (via CDN)
• python-decouple for environment variables
• Required Python packages:
  • django
  • python-decouple
  • psycopg2-binary (for PostgreSQL)
  • django-taggit
  • markdown
• Install dependencies with:

pip install django python-decouple psycopg2-binary django-taggit markdown

Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

git clone https://github.com/Mohammed-Aljazzar/Blog-Application.git
cd Blog-Application

2. Set Up Virtual Environment:

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

3. Install Dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Install Docker
5. Set Up PostgreSQL with Docker:
   • Using Docker Command: Run a PostgreSQL container:

   docker run --name blog-postgres -e POSTGRES_USER=bloguser -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=blogpass -e 
   POSTGRES_DB=blogdb -p 5432:5432 -d postgres:12

6. Configure Environment Variables:

• Create a .env file in the project root:

DB_NAME=blogdb
DB_USER=bloguser
DB_PASSWORD=blogpass
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
EMAIL_HOST_USER=your-email@gmail.com
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=your-app-password
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL="Your Name <your-email@gmail.com>"

Generate an App Password from Google Account Settings if using Gmail SMTP.

7. Apply Migrations:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

8. Create a Superuser (for admin access):

python manage.py createsuperuser

9. Run the Server:

python manage.py runserver

• Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser.
• Access the admin panel at http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/.

Screenshots

Below are screenshots showcasing key features of the Blog App:

• Homepage

  
  

• Search Page

  
  

• Share Post

  
  

• Post Detail Page

  

Usage

Creating and Managing Posts

• Log in to the admin panel (/admin/) to create or edit posts.
• Set the post status to "Published" to make it visible on the blog.
• Add tags to categorize posts (e.g., "Django", "Python").

Searching Posts

• Navigate to /blog/search/ to use the search feature.
• Enter keywords to find posts by title, with typo-tolerant results (e.g., "yango" finds "Django").
• Results are displayed in cards with snippets and "Read more" links.

Commenting

• On a post’s detail page (/blog/YYYY/MM/DD/slug/), submit comments using the form.
• Admins can toggle comment visibility in the admin panel.

Sharing Posts

• Use the "Share" link on a post’s detail page to send it via email.
• Fill in the form with your name, email, recipient’s email, and optional comments.

RSS Feed

• Subscribe to the RSS feed at /blog/feed/ using an RSS reader.
• The feed includes the latest 5 published posts.

Viewing Sitemap

• Access the sitemap at /sitemap.xml for SEO purposes.
• It lists all published posts with their last modification dates.

License

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