📘 NoteSquare

NoteSquare is a PHP-based blogging system supporting user accounts, posts, comments, likes, favorites, and administrative tools. The application uses native PHP, MySQL (via PDO), and a simple routing structure.

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✨ Features

• User Accounts: Signup, login, logout; update profile; change password
• Roles: Admin, Editor, User with role-based access control
• Posts: Create, edit, delete; image uploads with validation; draft/published status; ownership checks; search
• Comments: Add, edit, delete with ownership checks
• Likes & Favorites: Like/dislike posts; add or remove favorites
• Admin Tools: Manage users (add, edit, delete, update role, change password); manage contact submissions; dashboard overview
• Contact Form: Submit messages; admin review and deletion

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🔐 Security

• CSRF protection for all POST requests
• Output escaping to prevent XSS
• Prepared statements for SQL queries
• Password hashing with password_hash()
• Role-based access control and ownership checks
• Secure image uploads:
  • Size limit
  • Allowed extensions
  • MIME validation
  • Random filenames
  • Old image removal
• .htaccess blocking PHP execution in uploads/

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🧰 Tech Stack

• PHP 8+
• MySQL / MariaDB (PDO)
• Bootstrap 5
• Apache (recommended)

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📦 Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Jia0705/NoteSquare.git
cd NoteSquare/blog

2. Import the database

• Create a MySQL database named blog.
• Import the blog.sql file included in the project.

3. Configure the database (edit config.php)

return [
    'db_host'     => 'localhost',
    'db_name'     => 'blog',
    'db_user'     => 'root',
    'db_password' => ''
];

4. Start the application

• Using PHP’s built-in server:

php -S localhost:8000

• Or run via XAMPP, WAMP, or MAMP.

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📁 Project Structure

blog/
├── .htaccess                 # Rewrite rules (if enabled)
├── blog.sql                  # Database schema and sample data
├── config.php                # Database configuration
├── index.php                 # Routing entry point
├── includes/                 # Backend logic and form processing
│   ├── auth/                 # Authentication handlers
│   ├── comment/              # Comment operations
│   ├── contact/              # Contact form processing
│   ├── like/                 # Like/dislike actions
│   ├── post/                 # Post CRUD logic
│   ├── user/                 # User/admin actions
│   └── functions.php         # Shared utilities: DB, CSRF, helpers
├── pages/                    # User-facing pages
│   ├── home.php              # Homepage and search
│   ├── login.php             # Login page
│   ├── signup.php            # Signup page
│   ├── post.php              # Single post view
│   ├── favorites.php         # Favorites list
│   ├── manage-users.php      # Admin user management
│   ├── manage-posts.php      # Post list and filters
│   ├── manage-contacts.php   # Contact review
│   └── ...
├── parts/                    # Shared layout components
│   ├── header.php            # Navigation + head
│   ├── footer.php            # Footer
│   ├── error_message.php     # Error display component
│   ├── success_message.php   # Success display component
│   └── ...
└── uploads/                  # Uploaded post images
    ├── .htaccess             # Blocks PHP execution
    └── <image files>

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📄 License

This project is created for academic and learning purposes.

👥 Contributors

Jia0705

🔗 Links

Repository: https://github.com/Jia0705/NoteSquare

Last Updated: November 23, 2025