ReaderSphere is a social media platform built for book lovers — a space to connect, share, and chat about your favorite reads. Whether you're looking to discuss novels, make friends with similar interests, or explore new book recommendations, ReaderSphere has something for every reader.
User profile view and editing (bio, profile pic, DOB).
Search books using metadata (scraped with BeautifulSoup).
Real-time 1-on-1 messaging using WebSockets.
Create spaces to discuss books with like-minded readers.
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👤 User Authentication & Profile Creation
Secure login, registration, and profile setup. -
📚 Books Section (Metadata Search)
Search for books using online metadata (scraped via BeautifulSoup + Google API). -
💬 Real-Time Messaging
1-on-1 messaging using WebSockets for instant communication. -
🤝 Friend Requests
Send/receive friend requests, also powered by WebSockets. -
🔎 User Search
Search users by username to connect with fellow readers easily. -
🧠 Friend Suggestions (NEW!)
Get personalized friend recommendations based on shared book genre preferences using a cosine similarity engine over user genre vectors. -
📝 Profile Editing
Update your bio, profile picture, and date of birth. -
👥 Group Chats
Users can create groups and add their friends to spark discussions around shared genres, authors, or interests. -
⭐ Book Ratings
Rate books you’ve read and explore community ratings on each book page. -
🏆 Leaderboard
Discover the most active users and top-rated books across the platform. -
☁️ Cloud Storage (S3)
Profile pictures are stored on AWS S3 for reliability and performance. -
🔒 AES-Encrypted Messages (NEW!)
All private and group messages are encrypted at rest using AES encryption to enhance user privacy and prevent data leakage even in the event of a database breach.
ReaderSphere is designed with a modular architecture and is deployed using Render, with AWS used for media storage.
- Flask-based REST API backend
- Templated HTML/CSS/JS frontend (Jinja2)
- WebSocket support via Flask-SocketIO
- Book metadata scraping via BeautifulSoup + Google Books API
- Genre normalization using Google Gemini API + JSON schema validation
- Cosine similarity engine for friend recommendations
- Render: Hosts the full-stack web app
- Free PostgreSQL Hosting: Stores users, messages, books, ratings, groups, suggestions, etc.
- AWS S3: Manages profile picture uploads
- GitHub Actions: CI/CD for code deployment and testing
| Category | Tech Stack |
|---|---|
| Backend | Flask, Flask-SocketIO, RESTful APIs |
| Frontend | HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Jinja2 Templates |
| Database | PostgreSQL (Free cloud DB provider) |
| Web Scraping | BeautifulSoup, Google Books API |
| ML/NLP | Google Gemini (for genre classification) |
| Friend Engine | Cosine Similarity (via NumPy + scikit-learn) |
| Cloud Platform | Render (App Hosting), AWS S3 (Media Storage) |
| CI/CD | GitHub Actions |
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Clone the Repository
git clone https://github.com/2003HARSH/Readersphere.git cd Readersphere -
Create a Virtual Environment
python -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
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Install Dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
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Run the App
python app.py
The app will be live at:
http://localhost:5000/
- ✅ Real-time 1-on-1 chat
- ✅ Book metadata scraping + search
- ✅ User profile creation and editing
- ✅ Group chat creation and management
- ✅ Book rating system
- ✅ Leaderboard
- ✅ Friend suggestion system
- ✅ User search functionality
- ✅ Render + S3 deployment
- 🚧 Book reviews and community discussions
- 🚧 Personalized book recommendation engine
- 🚧 Mobile-first responsive redesign
Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, open an issue first to discuss what you’d like to improve or add.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
For suggestions, queries, or collaborations, feel free to reach out.
Made with ☕, frustration, and websockets by Harsh Gupta
GitHub: @2003HARSH