Inktale

Inktale is a fully responsive blog application built with Express, MongoDB, and EJS. It features a mobile-first design, user authentication, and a variety of functionalities for managing blogs and user profiles.

Troubleshooting

• Server Not Responding: The Render free tier may cause slower response times if the server has been idle. Refresh the page or wait a few moments for it to start.

• Live Demo: Inktale Blog

Features

• Responsive Design: Designed with a mobile-first approach to ensure optimal viewing across all devices.

• User Authentication: Register and log in using sessions.

• Blog Management: Create, update, and delete blogs.

• Dashboard: View total visits, reactions, and published articles. Manage your blogs with options to edit or delete.

• Blog Interaction: See likes and bookmarks on each blog. Like and bookmark blogs.

• Bookmark Page: View and manage all the blogs you have bookmarked.

• Settings Page: Edit basic info including profile photo, full name, username, email, and short bio. Change your password or delete your account.

• Markdown Support: Create blogs with banner images and write content in Markdown format.

Technical Details

• Express Session: Used for managing user sessions. Sessions are cleared on logout.

• Image Validation: Implemented both client-side and server-side validation for image uploads.

• Mongoose: Utilized for interacting with MongoDB.

• Markdown Rendering: Blogs are rendered with Markdown using markdown-it and highlight.js.

• Performance Optimization: Improved performance with express-minify and compression.

• Cloudinary: Used for storing images.

• Route Security: Secured routes with middleware, requiring login for access to certain routes.

• CORS and Rate Limiting: Implemented CORS and rate limiting to enhance security.

• EJS Templating: Used EJS for rendering dynamic pages with reusable components like header, footer, and cards.

• MVC Architecture: Organized code with a good folder structure following the MVC pattern.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/billalben/inktale-blog.git

2. Navigate to the project directory

   cd inktale-blog

3. Install dependencies

   npm install

4. Create a .env file in the root directory and add the necessary environment variables:

   MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
   SESSION_SECRET=your_session_secret
   
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
   
   CORS_ORIGIN=your_website_link
   PORT=3000

5. Start the application:

   npm start

6. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000.

Contributing

Feel free to fork the repository and submit pull requests. Contributions are welcome!