MyBlogs: A simple micro-blogging web app

Built with Express.js, Axios, and Sequelize. This project allows users to create, read, update, and delete blog posts.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Technologies Used
• Project Structure
• Getting Started
• API Endpoints

Features

• Create new blog posts
• Edit existing blog posts
• Delete blog posts
• View all blog posts

Technologies Used

• Node.js
• Express.js
• Axios
• Sequelize
• PostgreSQL
• EJS (Embedded JavaScript templating)

Project Structure

/MyBlogs
├── config
│   └── sequelize.config.js
├── models
│   └── blog.models.js
├── views
│   ├── form.ejs
│   └── index.ejs
├── node_modules
├── server.js
├── index.js
├── blogs.example.txt
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── .env
└── .gitignore

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following installed on your machine:

• Node.js (v14.x or higher): Required to run the server and client applications.
• npm (v6.x or higher) or yarn (v1.x or higher): Package managers to install dependencies.
• PostgreSQL: The database used for storing user information. Ensure you have it installed and set up locally or have access to a remote PostgreSQL instance.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/JuhilSavani/MyBlogs
cd MyBlogs

2. Install the dependencies

npm install

3. Database Setup
   This project uses PostgreSQL as its database management system. Follow the steps below to set up the database.

   • Open the terminal on your system.
   • Run the following Command to create a database

     psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE my_blogs_db;"

   • If you encounter a command not found error for psql, you may need to add PostgreSQL to your system’s PATH environment variable.

4. Configure a .env file

• Create a .env file in the root directory of the project
• Add the database connection string according to following format

  DB_URL="postgres://username:password@hostname:port/databasename

  For example,

  DB_URL="postgres://postgres:password123@localhost:5432/my_blogs_db"

5. Running the Application

Use the following command to start both servers concurrently:

npm start

This command will automatically run both the backend and frontend servers for you.

API Endpoints

Backend (Port 4000)

• GET / - Retrieve all blog posts.
• GET /:id - Retrieve a specific blog post by ID.
• POST / - Create a new blog post.
• PUT / - Update an existing blog post.
• DELETE /:id - Delete a blog post by ID.

Frontend (Port 3000)

• GET / - Render the homepage with all blog posts.
• GET /edit/:id - Render the edit form for a specific blog post.
• POST /edit/:id - Submit the updated blog post.
• GET /new - Render the form for creating a new blog post.
• POST /add - Submit the new blog post.
• GET /del/:id - Delete a blog post and redirect to the homepage.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute to this project, feel free to fork the repository and submit a pull request.

Thanks for checking out this project! Happy coding! 🚀

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