Digital Library 📚

A modern web application for managing your book collection, built with Flask and SQLAlchemy.

Features

Core Features

• Book Management: Add/View books with ISBN, title, publication year, and ratings
• Author Management: Add/View authors with birth/death dates
• Search Functionality: Find books by title or author name
• Sorting: Organize books by title or author
• Responsive UI: Modern design with Tailwind CSS
• Cover Images: Automatic book covers via OpenLibrary API

Bonus Features

• 🎨 Modern UI Design
• 🔍 Detailed Book/Author Pages
• ❌ Cascade Author Deletion
• ⭐ Book Ratings (1-10)
• 🤖 AI Book Recommendations (OpenAI integration)

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• pip package manager
• SQLite database

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rtaran/book-alchemy.git
   cd book-alchemy

2. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

   SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key_here
   RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_rapidapi_key_here
   

   • SECRET_KEY: A random string used by Flask for session security. You can generate one with:

     python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(16))"

   • RAPIDAPI_KEY: Required for AI book recommendations. Get your key by:

     1. Sign up at RapidAPI
     2. Subscribe to the ChatGPT API
     3. Copy your API key from the dashboard

4. Initialize the database and run the application:

   python app.py

   The application will be available at http://localhost:5001

Usage

1. Home Page: Browse your book collection, search, and sort books
2. Add Author: Create new author profiles with biographical information
3. Add Book: Add new books to your library with details and ratings
4. Book Details: Click on any book title to view detailed information
5. AI Recommendations: Get personalized book recommendations based on your library

Troubleshooting

• Session Error: If you see "The session is unavailable because no secret key was set", make sure you've created the .env file with a SECRET_KEY as described in the setup instructions.
• Recommendation Error: If book recommendations don't work, verify your RAPIDAPI_KEY is correctly set in the .env file.