Blogging Web Application

This is a blogging web application developed using Flask, a Python web framework. It showcases various skills and technologies, including:

• Flask framework for building web applications.
• Flask-Bootstrap for responsive and user-friendly frontend design.
• Flask-WTF for handling forms and form validation.
• Flask-CKEditor for integrating a rich text editor in the application.
• Flask-SQLAlchemy for working with the SQLite database.
• Flask-Login for user authentication and session management.
• Flask-Gravatar for displaying user avatars based on email addresses.
• Python's Werkzeug library for password hashing and verification.
• SQLite database for data storage and retrieval.
• HTML templates for rendering dynamic web pages.
• CSS for styling and layout.
• JavaScript for client-side interactions.

Features

• User registration and authentication system.
• User-friendly forms for creating and editing blog posts.
• Rich text editor for writing blog content using CKEditor.
• Commenting system for users to engage in discussions.
• Access control with admin-only features.
• Responsive design using Bootstrap framework.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/MirelaManta/blog-upgrated.git
   cd blog-upgrated

2. Create a virtual environment (optional but recommended):

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up environment variables:

   • Create a .env file in the project root directory.
   • Add the following variables to the .env file:
     • SECRET_KEY: Secret key for the Flask application.
     • Any other configuration variables required.

5. Run the application:

   python app.py

6. Open your web browser and visit http://localhost:5000 to see the application in action.

Usage

• Register a new account or log in with an existing account to start using the application.
• Only the admin user (user with ID 1) can create new blog posts.
• Other users can view all existing posts on the homepage.
• Click on a post to view its full content and comments.
• Leave comments on posts when logged in.
• Edit or delete posts (admin-only functionality).
• Log out when done using the application.

File Structure

• app.py: Main Flask application file containing route definitions, application setup and database models using SQLAlchemy ORM.
• forms.py: Contains FlaskForm classes for various forms used in the application.
• templates/: Directory containing HTML templates for different views.
• static/: Directory containing static assets such as CSS, JavaScript, and images.
• instance/blog.db: SQLite database file (automatically created on first run).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions for improvement, please open an issue or submit a pull request.