NestBlog

🎓 School Project – Blogging Service built with Flask (Python) and Postgres, featuring a frontend built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript served via Flask templates.
📖 Course: UUY-CSC222 🏫 Department: Computer Science 👥 Group: 2 🎓 Series: 022/023

Web-based blogging platform built on a monolithic architecture that allows users to create, edit and publish blog posts.

🚀 Features

• Flask backend with Postgres database
• Frontend served from Flask templates with static assets
• API endpoints for post & category creation, deletion and editing

---

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Python 3.x, Flask
• Postgres database
• HTML, CSS, JavaScript served via Flask templates and static folders

---

🔧 Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Faculty-of-Computing/uuycsc22blogproject.git
cd uuycsc22blogproject

2. Create and activate a Python virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

To set it up and run on local, get a free PostgreSQL server online. From Supabase for example, or you can just setup PostgreSQL on your PC at once

DB_NAME=databasename
DB_USER=yourusername
DB_PASSWORD=12345678
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key

4. Run the Flask application

python app.py

The app will be available at:

http://localhost:5000

---

/ Function: index() Purpose: Show all published (non-draft) posts, with optional search and category filtering. SQL:

Selects post info, author username, category name, and comment count for each post. Filters by draft status, search term, and category if provided. Orders posts by timestamp (newest first). /category/int:category_id Function: category_view(category_id) Purpose: Show all published posts in a specific category. SQL:

Selects posts with matching category, author username, category name, and comment count. Orders by timestamp. /createpost Function: createpost() Purpose: Allow logged-in users to create a new post (with optional image and category). SQL:

Inserts a new post into the post table with title, body, draft status, user, category, and image. /editpost/int:post_id Function: editpost(post_id) Purpose: Allow the post's author to edit an existing post. SQL:

Updates the post's title, body, draft status, category, and image in the post table. /delete_post/int:post_id Function: delete_post(post_id) Purpose: Allow the post's author to delete a post. SQL:

Deletes all comments for the post. Deletes the post itself. /post/int:post_id Function: view_post(post_id) Purpose: Show a single post and its comments. SQL:

Selects post info, author username, and category name. Selects all comments for the post, with commenter username. /post/int:post_id/comment Function: add_comment(post_id) Purpose: Add a comment to a post (must be logged in). SQL:

Inserts a new comment into the comment table with post, user, text, and timestamp. /signup Function: signup() Purpose: Register a new user. SQL:

Inserts a new user into the user table with username, email, and password. /login Function: login() Purpose: Log in a user. SQL:

Selects a user from the user table matching the provided username and password. /logout Function: logout() Purpose: Log out the current user (clear session).

/add-category Function: add_category() Purpose: Add a new category (must be logged in). SQL:

Inserts a new category into the category table. Utility Functions get_db() Purpose: Get a database connection from Flask's g context.

close_connection(exception) Purpose: Close the database connection after request.

init_db() Purpose: Initialize the database using the schema in schema.sql.

login_required(f) Purpose: Decorator to require login for certain endpoints.

load_logged_in_user() Purpose: Load the current user into Flask's g context before each request.

inject_user() Purpose: Make the current user available in Jinja templates.

inject_csrf_token() Purpose: Make the CSRF token available in Jinja templates.

set_csrf_token() Purpose: Set a CSRF token in the session before each request.

get_post_by_id(post_id) Purpose: Utility to fetch a post by ID, including author and category info.

SQL Query Meanings SELECT … FROM post JOIN "user" … LEFT JOIN category … Fetches posts with author and category info.

INSERT INTO post … Adds a new blog post.

UPDATE post SET … WHERE id = … Edits an existing post.

DELETE FROM post WHERE id = … Removes a post.

DELETE FROM comment WHERE post_id = … Removes all comments for a post.

INSERT INTO comment … Adds a new comment.

SELECT * FROM "user" WHERE … Fetches user info for login or session.

INSERT INTO "user" … Registers a new user.

INSERT INTO category … Adds a new category.