Blog Hut

A modern, maintainable PHP blog platform built as a University of Moratuwa IN2120 web programming project. Designed for easy local development, clear separation of concerns, and safe deployment practices.

Table of contents

• Summary
• Features
• Technology stack
• Prerequisites
• Installation — Local (XAMPP)
• Configuration
• Database
• Running the app
• Project structure
• Security & secrets
• Contributing
• License
• Author

Summary

Blog Hut is a full-featured blogging application with user authentication, CRUD for posts, comments, reactions, categories, and an admin dashboard. It is intended for learning and demonstration purposes.

Features

• User registration, login, logout, and password recovery
• Create / edit / delete posts with image uploads
• AJAX comments and reaction system
• Categories and search
• Admin panel for content and user management
• Profile pages and avatars
• Responsive UI with light/dark support

Technology stack

• PHP 8+
• MySQL 8+
• Apache (XAMPP)
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (ES6), Bootstrap 5
• Optional: Composer for PHP dependencies

Prerequisites

• XAMPP (Apache + MySQL + PHP) or equivalent environment
• Git (for version control)
• Composer (if using external PHP packages)

Installation — Local (XAMPP)

1. Clone or copy the project into XAMPP's htdocs:
   • C:\xampp\htdocs\BLOG_APP
2. Start Apache and MySQL in the XAMPP control panel.
3. Import database:
   • Open phpMyAdmin -> Create database blog_hut -> Import database.sql.
4. Configure environment (see next section).
5. Ensure upload folders are writable:
   • uploads/avatars/ and uploads/posts/

Configuration

Create a local environment file (.env) or update config/database.php with your database credentials. Example .env:

Database

• Schema and sample data are provided in database.sql.
• Main tables: users, blogPost, comments, reactions, categories, badges, user_badges.

Running the app

Open your browser and navigate to: http://localhost/BLOG_APP

Project structure (high level)

• admin/ — Admin pages
• auth/ — Authentication pages
• config/ — Database and constants (do not commit secrets)
• includes/ — Shared components and helpers
• posts/, profile/ — Public and user content pages
• uploads/ — User uploaded files (do not commit)
• css/, js/, images/ — Static assets

Security & secrets

• Add .env, config/database.php, and uploads/ to .gitignore.
• Use config/database.php.example or .env.example in the repo for reference without real credentials.
• If secrets were accidentally committed, remove them from the git index and rotate credentials:
  • git rm --cached .env
  • git commit -m "Remove sensitive files"
  • git push

Contributing

• Fork the repository, create a feature branch, test locally, and open a PR with a clear description.
• Keep commits focused and include migration or config notes if needed.

License

MIT — see LICENSE file for details.

Author

University of Moratuwa — IN2120 Web Programming Project (2025)