YoshiBlog

A modern, scalable blog application built with Django, featuring user authentication, social logins, and serverless deployment on AWS Lambda.

🚀 Features

• User Management: Registration, login, and profile management with Django Allauth
• Social Authentication: Login with Google and GitHub
• Blog CRUD: Create, read, update, and delete blog posts with rich text support
• Comments & Likes: Interactive commenting system with like functionality
• Tagging System: Organize posts with tags for easy discovery
• Responsive Design: Mobile-first UI using Bootstrap 5
• Security: Input sanitization, CSRF protection, and secure password handling
• Serverless Deployment: AWS Lambda with API Gateway for scalable hosting

🌐 Live Demo

Check out the live version of YoshiBlog: https://k5tb26hid6.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

🛠 Tech Stack

• Backend: Django 5.1, Python 3.11
• Database: PostgreSQL (hosted on Neon)
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap 5, JavaScript (jQuery)
• Authentication: Django Allauth with social providers
• Deployment: AWS SAM, Lambda, API Gateway, S3
• Containerization: Docker
• Other: boto3 (AWS SDK), nh3 (HTML sanitization)

🏗 Architecture

YoshiBlog follows a serverless architecture for high scalability and low maintenance:

• Frontend: Static files served from S3
• Backend: Django app running on AWS Lambda
• Database: Managed PostgreSQL instance
• API: RESTful endpoints via API Gateway
• Security: Secrets managed in AWS SSM Parameter Store

📦 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• Docker
• AWS CLI configured
• PostgreSQL database (e.g., Neon)

Local Development

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone git@github.com:Frederick-Teye/YoshiBlog.git
   cd yoshiblog

2. Create virtual environment:

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set environment variables:

   export DJANGO_ENV=local
   export DATABASE_URL=your_postgres_url
   export SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
   # Add other vars as needed

5. Run migrations:

   python manage.py migrate

6. Collect static files:

   python manage.py collectstatic

7. Start development server:

   python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ to view the application.

🚀 Deployment

AWS Serverless Deployment

1. Install AWS SAM CLI
2. Configure AWS credentials
3. Build and deploy:

   sam build
   sam deploy --guided

The app will be deployed to AWS Lambda with API Gateway endpoints.

Environment Variables for Production

Set the following in AWS SSM Parameter Store:

• /yoshiblog/secret_key
• /yoshiblog/database_url
• /yoshiblog/admin_email
• /yoshiblog/admin_password
• Social auth credentials

📖 Usage

• Home: Browse latest blog posts
• Create Blog: Authenticated users can write and publish posts
• Tags: Filter posts by tags
• Comments: Engage with posts through comments and likes
• Admin Panel: Manage users and content at /admin/

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-name
3. Commit changes: git commit -am 'Add feature'
4. Push to branch: git push origin feature-name
5. Submit a pull request

👨‍💻 About the Author

I'm a Computer Science student with over 3 years of programming experience, specializing in web development and cloud technologies. I completed the AWS Cloud Practitioner (CCP) training through AmaliTech and hold the certification. Currently preparing for the AWS Developer Associate exam, I built YoshiBlog to demonstrate practical skills in full-stack development, serverless architecture, and DevOps practices.

Connect with me on LinkedIn or check out my other projects!