A modern, full-stack blogging platform built with the MERN stack

Features • Screenshots • Tech Stack • Getting Started • API Reference • Contributing

Content Creation

• 📝 MDX Editor with live preview and syntax highlighting
• 🖼️ Cover image support for posts
• 🏷️ Categories and tags organization
• 📱 Fully responsive design

User Experience

• 🔐 Secure JWT authentication with refresh tokens
• 👤 User profiles with bio and avatar
• 👥 Follow/unfollow system
• ❤️ Like and comment on posts
• 💬 Nested comment replies
• 🔍 Full-text search

Analytics & Admin

• 📊 Performance dashboard with views, likes, and engagement metrics
• 👑 Admin panel for content management
• 📈 Post analytics and insights

Developer Experience

• ⚡ Vite for lightning-fast development
• 🎨 Styled Components with theme support
• 🌙 Light/Dark mode
• 🔄 React Query for efficient data fetching

• Node.js v18 or higher
• MongoDB (local installation or MongoDB Atlas)
• npm or yarn

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Purvesh-PJ/blogging_platform.git
cd blogging_platform

2. Install dependencies

# Install backend dependencies
cd backend
npm install

# Install frontend dependencies
cd ../client
npm install

3. Environment Setup

Create .env file in the backend directory:

DB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/bloghub
PORT=5000
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_jwt_key_here

Create .env file in the client directory:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000

4. Seed Database (Recommended)

Populate the database with sample data for testing:

cd backend
npm run seed

This creates:

• 15 users with profiles
• 22 posts across 10 categories
• 99 comments and 177 likes
• Analytics data for dashboard

Test Accounts:

Start the backend server:

cd backend
npm run dev

Server runs on http://localhost:5000

Start the frontend (new terminal):

cd client
npm run dev

App runs on http://localhost:5173

blogging_platform/
│
├── backend/
│   ├── config/              # Database configuration
│   ├── controllers/         # Request handlers
│   ├── middlewares/         # Auth & validation middleware
│   ├── models/              # Mongoose schemas
│   ├── routes/              # API route definitions
│   ├── services/            # Business logic layer
│   ├── index.js             # Server entry point
│   └── seed.js              # Database seeder
│
├── client/
│   ├── public/
│   │   └── screenshots/     # App screenshots
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/      # Reusable UI components
│   │   │   ├── common/      # Shared components
│   │   │   └── layout/      # Layout components
│   │   ├── config/          # API configuration
│   │   ├── context/         # React Context providers
│   │   ├── pages/           # Page components
│   │   ├── services/        # API service functions
│   │   ├── styles/          # Theme and global styles
│   │   ├── App.jsx          # Root component
│   │   └── main.jsx         # Entry point
│   ├── index.html
│   └── vite.config.js
│
└── README.md

npm start        # Start production server
npm run dev      # Start development server (nodemon)
npm run seed     # Seed database with sample data
npm run lint     # Run ESLint
npm run format   # Format with Prettier

npm run dev      # Start development server
npm run build    # Build for production
npm run preview  # Preview production build
npm run lint     # Run ESLint
npm run format   # Format with Prettier

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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

Made with ❤️ by Purvesh