Build a Blog Project

About this project

This project is part of my Udacity FullStack NanoDegree. The scope is to build a blog that meets the following:

User Requirements

• Front page that lists entries [v1]
• Form to submit new entries [v1]
• Permalink page for entries [v1]
• User sign-up [v2]
• User log-in [v2]
• User log-out [v2]
• Users can comment on posts [v3]
• Users can edit/delete their own comments [v3]
• Users can like/unlike posts [v3]
• Authors can edit/delete their own posts [v3]

Build Requirements

• Python
• Framework: Google App Engine and Datastore
• Jinja2 templates

Status

• Version 1, 2 and 3: Complete
• Udacity code review: Meets Specifications

Demo

Live at app.spot. Screenshots also included below.

Screenshots

Home Page

Sign Up

Login

Edit Post Page

Delete Post Page

Like a Post

One Like is Enough

You can't like your own post

Comment on a Post Page

Edit Comment

How to install and run

macOS instructions:

• cd to the project folder e.g. projects/fsnd-blog
• In the command line run $ dev_appserver.py . (Or run my ohmyzsh alias = dev)
• The app will load in http://localhost:8080
• To view the local datastore: http://localhost:8000/datastore
• To deploy, use the command line: gcloud app deploy

Prerequisites are: Python (2.7) and Google Cloud SDK.

Google Cloud links:

• SDK Documentation
• Quickstart for Python App Engine Standard Environment

Project Structure

A few words on the project/repo structure. The structure is based on best practices (source: several articles on Python best practices link, link, link and link).

To recap (remind myself when coming back to this later on), here's what it means:

/project_root
	/env 
	/myapp
		/handlers
		/models
		/tools
	/static
	/templates
	.gitignore
	LICENSE.txt
	README.md
	app.yaml
	main.py
	requirements.txt

Let's look at each of these in detail.

/env

Virtual environment for managing Python packages and dependencies. Include env in your gitignore file.

/myapp

Includes the following:

• __init__.py - This file can be empty and basically enables files to be importred. For a more detailed and techical explanation, read this and this.
• /models - This includes Model classes i.e. all database related stuff split into modules e.g. user.py.
• /views - This includes all the handlers, split into modules e.g. basehandler.py and editpost.py.
• /tools - This includes decorators and all helper functions.
• I also include other helper function files in this folder.

/static

This includes all static files, for this project it is only CSS style sheets but for other projects separate sub-folders for images and javascript could be included.

/templates

All Jinja HTML templates are included in here.

Project files in the root directory

• app.yaml - This is needed for Google App Engine (GAE).
• main.py - In the case of GAE, this file includes the app start info, i.e. webapp2.WSGIApplication and the routing info for page to view handler.

Documentation

All good projects should include a license and a readme.

Chore files

• The .gitignore helps to manage git and so only the files you want are pushed to your remote (Github in this case).
• A requirements.txt allows someone else to quickly understand what packages (and versions) are required to install/run the project on a different machine.