A modern, full-featured blog application built with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. Create, share, and engage with blog posts in a beautiful, responsive interface.

• User Registration with profile image upload
• Secure Login/Logout with JWT tokens
• Session Management with 24-hour token expiration
• Custom profile picture

• Create Blog Posts with rich text content
• Image Upload for blog cover images
• View All Blogs in a responsive card layout
• Blog Details with full content display
• Author Attribution with profile information

• Add Comments to blog posts (authenticated users only)
• Comment Threading with user avatars
• Author Badges for blog creators in comments
• Real-time Comment Count display

• Responsive Design for mobile, tablet, and desktop
• Modern UI with Bootstrap 5
• Image Preview during upload
• Error Handling with user-friendly messages
• Loading States and visual feedback

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• MongoDB (local or cloud instance)
• Git for version control

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/GitWitAnish/Blog-App.git
   cd Blog-App

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Set up MongoDB

   • Make sure MongoDB is running locally on mongodb://localhost:27017
   • Or update the connection string in index.js for your database

4. Create uploads directory

   mkdir -p public/uploads/profiles

5. Start the application

   # Development mode (with auto-restart)
   npm run dev
   
   # Production mode
   npm start

6. Open your browser

   • Visit http://localhost:8000
   • Start creating your blog!

Blog-App/
├── 📂 middlewares/
│   └── authentication.js       # JWT authentication middleware
├── 📂 models/
│   ├── blog.js                 # Blog post schema
│   ├── comment.js              # Comment schema (separate model)
│   └── user.js                 # User schema with authentication
├── 📂 public/
│   ├── 📂 images/
│   │   └── avatar.jpg          # Default user avatar
│   └── 📂 uploads/
│       └── 📂 profiles/        # User profile pictures
├── 📂 routes/
│   ├── blog.js                 # Blog and comment routes
│   └── user.js                 # Authentication routes
├── 📂 services/
│   └── authentication.js      # JWT token creation/verification
├── 📂 views/
│   ├── 📂 partials/
│   │   ├── head.ejs           # HTML head section
│   │   ├── nav.ejs            # Navigation bar
│   │   └── scripts.ejs        # JavaScript imports
│   ├── 404.ejs                # Error page
│   ├── addBlog.ejs           # Blog creation form
│   ├── blogDetails.ejs       # Blog post display
│   ├── home.ejs              # Homepage with blog list
│   ├── signin.ejs            # Login form
│   └── signup.ejs            # Registration form
├── .gitignore
├── index.js                   # Main application entry point
├── package.json
└── README.md

• Node.js - JavaScript runtime
• Express.js - Web application framework
• MongoDB - NoSQL database
• Mongoose - MongoDB object modeling
• JWT - JSON Web Token authentication
• Multer - File upload handling
• Cookie Parser - Cookie parsing middleware

• EJS - Embedded JavaScript templating
• Bootstrap 5 - CSS framework
• Vanilla JavaScript - Client-side interactions

• Password Hashing with crypto module
• File Upload Validation (size, type)
• XSS Protection with proper templating
• Session Management with JWT expiration
• Error Handling throughout the application

Create a .env file for production configurations:

# Database
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/blogify

# JWT
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-key-here

# Server
PORT=8000

# File Upload
MAX_FILE_SIZE=5242880  # 5MB in bytes

The app automatically creates the blogify database and required collections on first run.

• GET /user/signup - Registration page
• POST /user/signup - Create new user account
• GET /user/signin - Login page
• POST /user/signin - User authentication
• GET /user/logout - Logout and clear session

• GET / - Homepage with all blogs
• GET /blog/add - Create new blog page (auth required)
• POST /blog/add - Submit new blog post (auth required)
• GET /blog/:id - View specific blog post
• POST /blog/:id/delete - Delete blog post (author only)

• POST /blog/comment/:blogId - Add comment (auth required)

• ✅ View all blog posts
• ✅ Read full blog content and comments
• ✅ Register for new account
• ✅ Login to existing account

• ✅ All visitor features
• ✅ Create new blog posts with images
• ✅ Add comments to any blog post
• ✅ Upload custom profile picture
• ✅ See personalized navigation
• ✅ Delete own blog posts (future feature)

• ✅ Special "Author" badge in comments
• ✅ Author attribution on blog posts
• ✅ Profile display in blog details

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

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

• User Profiles - Dedicated profile pages
• Blog Editing - Edit existing blog posts
• Comment Replies - Nested comment threading
• Search & Filter - Find blogs by title, author, or content
• Categories & Tags - Organize blogs by topics
• Like System - Like blogs and comments
• Admin Dashboard - Manage users and content
• Email Notifications - Notify users of new comments
• Social Sharing - Share blogs on social media
• Rich Text Editor - WYSIWYG blog editor

This project is licensed under the ISC License.

Anish - @GitWitAnish