BlogAlchemy

A modern, feature-rich blogging platform built with Spring Boot and PostgreSQL. Create, manage, and publish blog posts with advanced features like post scheduling, nested comments, multi-image uploads, and full-text search.

Features

• Content Management: Create, edit, and delete blog posts with rich content support
• Post Scheduling: Schedule posts for future publication
• Multi-Image Upload: Attach multiple images to posts (10MB max per image)
• Nested Comments: Threaded comment system with reply functionality
• Featured Posts: Mark important posts as featured
• Search: Full-text search across post titles and content
• User Authentication: Secure login with role-based access control
• Draft Mode: Save posts as drafts before publishing

Tech Stack

• Backend: Java 17, Spring Boot 3.3.2, Spring Security, Spring Data JPA
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Frontend: Thymeleaf, HTML/CSS/JavaScript
• Build Tool: Maven

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Java 17 or higher
• Maven 3.6+
• PostgreSQL 12+

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/BlogAlchemy.git
cd BlogAlchemy/blogalchemy

2. Create a PostgreSQL database:

CREATE DATABASE blogalchemy;

3. Update database credentials in src/main/resources/application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/blogalchemy
spring.datasource.username=your_username
spring.datasource.password=your_password

4. Build and run:

mvn clean install
mvn spring-boot:run

5. Open your browser and navigate to:

http://localhost:8080

Usage

Creating a Post

1. Log in to your account
2. Click "New Post"
3. Enter title and content
4. Upload images (optional)
5. Choose to publish immediately or schedule for later
6. Click "Submit"

Managing Posts

• Search: Use the search bar to find posts by keywords
• Edit: Click the edit button on your posts to modify them
• Delete: Remove posts you no longer need
• Feature: Admins can mark posts as featured
• Schedule: Set a future publication date and time

Comments

• View any post to see its comments
• Add new comments at the bottom of the post
• Reply to existing comments to create threaded discussions

Project Structure

blogalchemy/
├── src/
│   ├── main/
│   │   ├── java/com/example/blogalchemy/
│   │   │   ├── config/        # Security and MVC configuration
│   │   │   ├── controller/    # Request handlers
│   │   │   ├── model/         # Entity classes
│   │   │   ├── repository/    # Data access layer
│   │   │   └── service/       # Business logic
│   │   └── resources/
│   │       ├── templates/     # Thymeleaf HTML templates
│   │       ├── static/        # CSS, JS, images
│   │       └── application.properties
│   └── test/
├── uploads/                   # Image storage directory
└── pom.xml                    # Maven configuration

Configuration

Database

Configure your database connection in application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/blogalchemy
spring.datasource.username=postgres
spring.datasource.password=yourpassword
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update

File Uploads

Adjust file upload limits if needed:

spring.servlet.multipart.max-file-size=10MB
spring.servlet.multipart.max-request-size=10MB
upload.dir=./uploads

Security

The application uses Spring Security with:

• BCrypt password encryption
• Role-based access control (USER, ADMIN)
• Session-based authentication
• CSRF protection

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/posts	List all posts
GET	/posts/{id}	View single post
GET	/posts/new	New post form
POST	/posts	Create post
GET	/posts/{id}/edit	Edit post form
POST	/posts/{id}	Update post
GET	/posts/{id}/delete	Delete post
POST	/posts/{postId}/comments	Add comment
POST	/posts/{postId}/comments/{parentId}/reply	Reply to comment

Development

Running Tests

mvn test

Building for Production

mvn clean package
java -jar target/blogalchemy-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Development Mode

The application includes Spring Boot DevTools for automatic restart and live reload during development.

Documentation

For more detailed information, see PROJECT.md which includes:

• Complete architecture overview
• Detailed data models
• Security implementation details
• Troubleshooting guide
• Future enhancement roadmap

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/YourFeature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add YourFeature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/YourFeature
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Vidya Sagar Reddy Desu

Acknowledgments

• Spring Boot team for the excellent framework
• PostgreSQL community
• All contributors and users

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Version: 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT Status: Active Development