DevSocialApp

DevSocialApp is a social media platform designed for developers to share posts, interact with each other through likes and comments, and follow their peers.

Why this stack?

I wanted to build a full-featured social platform while learning Django's ecosystem end-to-end. Using Django for both backend and frontend allowed me to understand how this framework handles everything from database models to template rendering. I chose Bootstrap 5 for the frontend to focus on backend logic rather than CSS, and SQLite made development fast without the overhead of setting up a separate database server.

The project taught me:

• How Django's ORM handles complex relationships (users, posts, comments, follows)
• Managing user authentication and permissions in Django
• Working with Django's template system and how it differs from separate frontend frameworks
• Structuring a Django project with multiple apps for separation of concerns
• Handling image uploads and media files with Pillow
• The importance of proper form validation and model constraints

Features

• User Authentication: Secure login and user registration.
• User Profiles: Customizable profiles with bios and profile pictures.
• Post Management: Create and view posts from people you follow.
• Interactions:
  • Like and unlike posts.
  • Comment on posts.
  • Follow and unfollow other users.
• Search: Search for other developers on the platform.

Technology Stack

• Backend: Django (Python)
• Frontend: Django Templates, Bootstrap 5
• Database: SQLite (default)
• Testing:
  • Pytest-Django: For robust integration testing.
  • Model Bakery: For efficient test data generation and relationship handling.

Project Structure

.
├── .github/workflows
│   └── django-tests.yml     # Config file for GitHub Actions
│    
├── backend/
│   ├── apps/
│   │   ├── interactions/    # Likes, comments, and follow system
│   │   ├── posts/           # Post creation and feed logic
│   │   ├── users/           # User management, profiles, and authentication
│   │   └── conftest.py      # Config file for fixtures
│   │
│   └── config/
│       ├── settings.py      # Django settings
│       ├── urls.py          # URL routing
│       └── wsgi.py          # WSGI configuration
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── static/
│   │   ├── css/             # Stylesheets
│   │   ├── images/          # Static images
│   │   ├── js/              # JavaScript files
│   │   ├── posts/           # Post-related static files
│   │   └── users/           # User-related static files
│   └── templates/
│       ├── layouts/         # Base templates
│       ├── partials/        # Reusable template components
│       ├── posts/           # Post-related templates
│       └── users/           # User-related templates
│
├── pytest.ini               # Pytest configuration file
├── manage.py                # Django's command-line utility
├── requirements.txt         # Python dependencies
├── .env.example             # Environment variables template
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

Testing & Quality Assurance

To ensure the reliability of the social interactions and data integrity, the project includes an automated test suite:

• Integration Tests: Built with Pytest, covering core logic like user creation, post publishing, and interactions.
• Data Factories: Uses Model Bakery to handle complex relationships.
• Data Integrity: Includes tests for database-level constraints, such as:
  • Uniqueness: Preventing duplicate likes/follows.
  • Business Logic: Using CheckConstraints to prevent users from following themselves.
• CI/CD Pipeline: Fully automated testing via GitHub Actions. Every push and pull request triggers the test suite, including database migrations and coverage reporting.

To run tests locally with coverage:

pytest --cov=backend/apps --cov-report=term-missing

All test files are located in app's folders.

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• pip (Python package installer)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/NoobCoder12/DevSocial.git
cd DevSocial

2. Create a Virtual Environment

It is recommended to use a virtual environment to manage dependencies:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install Dependencies

Install the required Python packages using requirements.txt:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory based on the .env.example file:

cp .env.example .env

Open the .env file and set your DJANGO_SECRET_KEY. You can generate a secret key using:

python -c "from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())"

5. Database Migrations

Run the following commands to set up your database:

python manage.py migrate

6. Create a Superuser (Optional)

To access the Django admin interface:

python manage.py createsuperuser

7. Run the Development Server

Start the server using:

python manage.py runserver

The application will be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Future Improvements

Things I'd add if I continue this project:

• Detailed view of other users' profiles
• Notifications about interactions with your post or profile
• Direct messages system
• Hashtag system for post discovery
• API endpoints
• PostgreSQL for production deployment

License

MIT

---

Feel free to use this as a reference or starting point for your own projects.