🚀 Full-Stack Blog System

A modern, scalable blog system with a REST API backend and two separate frontend applications. This project demonstrates proficiency in full-stack development, API design, and authentication implementation.

🌟 Features

• RESTful API: Built with Express.js and Prisma ORM
• Authentication: Secure JWT-based authentication system
• Dual Frontend:
  • Public blog for readers
  • Admin dashboard for content management
• Database: PostgreSQL for robust data storage
• Rich Text Editing: Integrated TinyMCE for a superior writing experience
• Responsive Design: Mobile-friendly interfaces for both frontends

🛠️ Technologies Used

Backend

• Node.js

• Express.js

• Prisma ORM

• PostgreSQL

• JSON Web Tokens (JWT)

Frontend

• React.js
• React Router
• Axios
• TinyMCE

DevOps

• Docker
• GitHub Actions (CI/CD)

📐 Architecture

This project follows a microservices architecture:

1. API Server: Handles all database operations and serves data to both frontends
2. Public Blog Frontend: Displays published posts and allows comments
3. Admin Dashboard: Provides full CRUD functionality for posts and user management

📊 Database Schema

The following Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) represents the database structure of our blog system:

This diagram illustrates the relationships between the main entities in our system:

• User: Represents both blog authors and commenters. Each user can write multiple posts and comments.
• Post: Represents blog posts. Each post is written by one user (author) and can have multiple comments.
• Comment: Represents comments on blog posts. Each comment is associated with one post and one user (commenter).

The use of foreign keys (FK) ensures referential integrity in our database, while the inclusion of createdAt and updatedAt fields allows for efficient tracking of data changes over time.

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14+)
• PostgreSQL
• Docker (optional)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/obre-bjorn/full-stack-blog-system.git
   

2. Install dependencies

   cd full-stack-blog-system
   npm install
   

3. Set up environment variables

   cp .env.example .env
   

   Edit the .env file with your database credentials and JWT secret

4. Run database migrations

   npx prisma migrate dev
   

5. Start the development server

   npm run dev
   

Visit http://localhost:3000 for the public blog and http://localhost:3001 for the admin dashboard.

🧪 Testing

Run the test suite with:

npm test

📚 API Documentation

API documentation is available at /api-docs when running the server.

🔐 Security

• JWT authentication for protected routes
• Passwords hashed using bcrypt
• CORS configured for frontend origins
• Rate limiting on API endpoints

🚢 Deployment

This project is set up for easy deployment to cloud platforms:

• Backend: Heroku
• Frontend: Netlify
• Database: Heroku Postgres

Detailed deployment instructions are available in DEPLOYMENT.md.

🛣️ Roadmap

• Implement real-time comments with WebSockets
• Add social media sharing functionality
• Integrate an email newsletter system

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct and the process for submitting pull requests.

📜 License