Valley Blog Platform

A full-featured blogging platform with authentication, post management, and advanced search capabilities.

Features

Core Functionality

• User Authentication: Signup, login, and logout
• User Profiles:
  • View user profiles
  • Edit profile information: bio and profile picture
• Post Management:
  • Create, edit, and delete posts
  • Draft vs. published status
  • Reading time estimation
• Comments:
  • Authenticated users can comment
  • Admin-approved comment system

Search

• Search across:
  • Post titles
  • Content
  • Author names (username)
• Smart visibility:
  • Only shows published posts

Engagement Features

• Post likes
• View counters

Technical Stack

• Backend: Django 5.1
• Frontend:
  • CSS
  • Bootstrap 5
  • Font Awesome 6
• Database: SQLite (default)
• Deployment: Ready for production (WSGI compatible)

Installation

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/lumpy72006/blog-project.git
cd blog-project

# Set up virtual environment (recommended)
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Linux/Mac
# OR
venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Migrate database
python manage.py migrate

# Create superuser (optional)
python manage.py createsuperuser

# Run development server
python manage.py runserver