Community Hub - A Local Social Networking Platform (application of design patterns)

About This Project:

This project is a social networking website developed using Flask, a micro web framework written in Python. The highlights of this project include various design patterns implemented to ensure a robust and maintainable application architecture.

Key Design Patterns:

1. Singleton Pattern:

   • Implemented through SingletonMeta to ensure a single instance of the DatabaseConnection class, managing a unique database connection efficiently.

2. Model-View-Controller (MVC) Pattern:

   • Model: The classes User, Post, and Relationship form the data model layer, managing users, posts, and relationships within the application.
   • The MVC pattern is implied here, focusing on the model aspect to separate data handling from presentation and control logic.

3. Object-Relational Mapping (ORM):

   • Utilizes the Peewee ORM to map Python classes (User, Post, Relationship) to database tables, abstracting database operations into object-oriented code for cleaner and more maintainable application logic.

4. Active Record Pattern:

   • Each model class (User, Post, Relationship) extends Model, representing database rows with instances. This pattern provides methods for database operations like creation, reading, and querying directly on the model objects.

5. Foreign Key Relationships:

   • Establishes relationships between database tables using foreign keys. For example, Post links to User, and Relationship links users to one another, enforcing referential integrity.

6. Transaction Management:

   • Handles database operations within transactions to maintain data integrity. This is especially evident in the create_user method, where database.transaction() is used to ensure consistent database states.

7. Query Filtering:

   • Uses filtering and query chaining to retrieve specific subsets of data. Methods such as get_posts, following, and followers demonstrate efficient data retrieval based on user-specific queries.

8. Indexing and Constraints:

   • Uses unique constraints and indexes in the Relationship model to enforce data integrity and optimize query performance.

Prerequisites:

Before you begin, ensure you have the following requirements installed:

• Python version 2.7 or above
• Flask
• Peewee
• Flask-Login
• Flask-Bcrypt
• Flask-WTF

This is compatible with Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

Installation:

Follow these steps to get your development environment running:

1. Clone the repository (if you haven't already):

   git clone https://github.com/aninda20/Community_Hub..git
   cd Community_Hub
   
   

Run in terminal to install required dependencies

  pip install -r requirements.txt

Then run the following to start the server

  python app.py

Open browser and go to

  localhost:8000

Screenshot: