Code Hunt's Research Site

Modern PHP blog type platform for publishing AI engineering content. The app ships with a public-facing guides index, a single-article reader, and a password-protected admin CMS for creating, editing, publishing, and deleting posts.

What It Does

• Public guides homepage with featured cards
• Markdown-powered article pages with syntax highlighting
• Admin dashboard with post stats and CRUD controls
• Draft and published post states
• Featured image upload support
• CSRF protection for admin actions
• Auto-generated unique slugs and reading-time estimates

Tech Stack

• PHP 8+
• MySQL / MariaDB
• Tailwind CSS via CDN
• EasyMDE for Markdown editing
• Parsedown for Markdown rendering
• Lucide icons
• Highlight.js for code blocks

Project Structure

index.php            Public guides homepage
post.php             Single post view
setup.php            One-time database bootstrap
config.php           Environment and database configuration
functions.php        Shared helpers and CRUD logic
admin/               Admin dashboard, auth, and post management
public/logo.png      Site favicon / logo

Features

Public site

• Grid-based guide listing
• Category, author, and reading-time metadata
• Article navigation to previous / next posts
• Markdown content rendering with safe mode enabled
• Code block highlighting

Admin CMS

• Secure login session handling
• Dashboard with total, published, and draft counts
• Create / edit / delete posts
• Publish or save as draft
• Featured image upload and replacement
• Inline Markdown editor with preview, autosave, and image upload

Setup

1. Configure the database

Update config.php or create a .env file in the project root with your database settings:

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_NAME=guide
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=root
SITE_NAME=Your Site Name
SITE_URL=http://localhost:8000
SESSION_NAME=your_site_name_admin_session

SITE_URL should match the URL where the project is hosted.

2. Run the bootstrap script

Open setup.php in your browser once after configuring the database.

It will:

• create the posts table
• create the admins table
• insert a default admin account
• add sample guide posts

Default admin credentials created by setup:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin123

Change these immediately after logging in.

Important: delete setup.php from the server after setup is complete.

3. Use the app

• Public site: index.php
• Admin login: admin/login.php
• Dashboard: admin/dashboard.php

Local Development

If you are running the project locally with PHP's built-in server:

php -S localhost:8000

Then open:

• http://localhost:8000/ for the site
• http://localhost:8000/setup.php for first-time setup

Uploads

Uploaded images are stored in uploads/ and served from /uploads/.

Supported formats:

• JPG
• PNG
• GIF
• WebP

Max upload size: 5 MB

Content Workflow

1. Log in to the admin panel
2. Create a new post
3. Write content in Markdown
4. Add metadata such as category, excerpt, author, and featured image
5. Save as draft or publish immediately

The app automatically generates:

• a unique slug from the title
• a reading-time estimate based on content length

Notes

• Markdown is rendered through Parsedown with safe mode enabled.
• CSRF tokens are enforced for create, edit, and delete actions.
• Featured images are deleted from disk when posts are removed or replaced.
• Posts with draft status do not appear on the public site.