Writivity

Description

Writivity is an innovative platform designed to foster creativity through writing challenges. Users can participate in various writing contests, submit their texts, and engage with a community of writers. The platform allows users to create challenges, manage submissions, and interact with other writers.

Features

• User Registration and Login:

  • Users can create accounts and log in to access their profiles and submitted texts.
  • If a user does not have an account, they can click the Register button to navigate to the sign-up page.

• Homepage:

  • Displays ongoing challenges on the left side and closed challenges on the right, allowing users to navigate easily.

• Challenge Management:

  • Users can create new challenges by filling out a form that includes the challenge name, prerequisites, and word limit.
  • Users can view details of existing challenges, including name, description, conditions, word limits, and submission deadlines.

• Profile Management:

  • Users can manage their profiles, view their submissions and their statuses, and send feedback to the Writivity Team.

• Text Submission:

  • Users can submit their written texts for challenges, requiring a title and the body of the text.

• Community Engagement:

  • Users can comment on and rate submitted texts, fostering interaction within the community.
  • Users can report inappropriate content if necessary.

• Admin Features:

  • Admin users can manage user accounts, oversee challenges and submissions, and handle reported content and user disputes.

Project Architecture

1. Project Structure

The Writivity project is structured to separate concerns, making it easier to manage and develop. The main components include:

• Controllers: Handle incoming requests, process user input, and return responses.
• Models: Represent the data structure of the application, including entities like Users, Challenges, Texts, Comments, etc.
• Repositories: Interface with the database to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on the models.
• Templates: HTML files that define the user interface, using Thymeleaf for dynamic content rendering.
• Static Resources: CSS and JavaScript files that enhance the user interface and experience.

2. Key Components and Their Connections

• Controllers: Manage user interactions and data flow between the models and views.

  • BaseController: Manages the home page and redirects users based on their login status.
  • LoginController: Handles user login and registration.
  • ChallengeController: Manages challenge-related actions.
  • TextController: Handles text submissions and ratings.

• Models: Represent the core data entities.

  • Users: Represents user data and their submissions.
  • Challenge: Represents writing challenges.
  • Text: Represents submitted texts.
  • Comment: Represents comments on texts.
  • Rate: Represents ratings given to texts.

• Repositories: Provide methods to interact with the database for each model.

3. Database Interaction

• The project uses JPA (Java Persistence API) to interact with the database, with each model mapped to a corresponding database table.
• Repositories extend JpaRepository, providing built-in methods for common database operations.

4. Database Structure

The Writivity project utilizes a relational database to store its data. The main tables include:

• Users Table:

  • Stores user information such as id, username, email, and password.
  • Each user can have multiple submissions associated with them.

• Challenges Table:

  • Contains details about each writing challenge, including id, name, description, conditions, word_limit, start_date, and end_date.
  • Each challenge can have multiple texts submitted by different users.

• Texts Table:

  • Stores submitted texts with attributes like id, title, body, submission_date, and status.
  • Each text is linked to a specific user and a challenge.

• Comments Table:

  • Contains comments made by users on submitted texts, with fields such as id, text_id, user_id, and content.

• Rates Table:

  • Stores ratings given to texts, including id, text_id, user_id, and rating_value.

This relational structure allows for efficient querying and management of data, ensuring that users can easily access and interact with challenges and submissions.

5. User Interaction Flow

1. User Registration/Login: Users register or log in through the LoginController.
2. Homepage Navigation: Upon successful login, users are redirected to the homepage managed by BaseController.
3. Challenge Participation: Users can click on a challenge to view details, managed by ChallengeController.
4. Text Submission: Users submit texts for challenges through the TextController.
5. Community Engagement: Users can comment on and rate texts.

6. Frontend Interaction

• The frontend is built using Thymeleaf templates, which dynamically render content based on the data provided by the controllers.
• Static resources (CSS, images) enhance the user interface.

Installation Instructions

To set up the Writivity project locally, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository.
2. Install dependencies: Ensure you have Maven installed.
3. Link a Database: We use Docker to store our database using PostgreSQL. Create a database named "writivity" and add the access info in application.properties.
4. Run the application.
5. Access the application: Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080.

Usage

• User Registration: Navigate to the signup page to create a new account.
• Login: Use your credentials to log in and access your profile.
• Participate in Challenges: View available challenges on the homepage and click to participate.
• Submit Texts: Fill out the submission form for the challenge you are participating in.