Mathify - Full Stack Django Web Application

Live version of this project: Live Server

Mathify is a full-stack application developed using Python Django to help users collaborate on math problems. Users can log in, participate in discussions, and use various math calculators to enhance their understanding of mathematics. The tools I used were Python Django, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Features:

• User authentication (sign up, log in, and log out).
• Discussion forums for math topics.
• Built-in calculators.
• Responsive and user-friendly interface.

Development vs. Production

Feature	Local Development	Production
Static Files	Served locally (static/)	Stored on S3
Media Files	Served locally (media/)	Stored on S3
Database	Local SQLite/PostgreSQL database	Managed PostgreSQL on Heroku

This repository is designed for local development purposes, where the application utilizes static files for serving assets like CSS, JavaScript, and images. The production version of this application is on a private repository and hosted on Heroku. I also integrated Amazon S3 storage for handling static and media files.

Table of Contents

1. Setup
2. How to Run the Project
3. Usage
4. Future Improvements

Setup

Clone the Repository

1. Create a folder for the project.

2. Clone the repository into the folder:

   git clone https://github.com/Ryan11c/mathify.git

Create a Virtual Environment

1. Navigate to the folder.

2. Create and activate a virtual environment: Make sure to use python version 3.12.3 when creating this virtual environment. This ensures all packages will work.

   On Windows:

   python -m venv venv
   . venv/Scripts/activate

   On macOS/Linux:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Notice the virtual environment is in the root directory of the folder, not inside mathify.

Install Dependencies

1. Navigate into the mathify folder:

   cd mathify

2. Install required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Configure the Project for SQLite

1. In the settings.py file in mathify/myProject/settings.py, ensure the DATABASES section is configured for SQLite3 as the default database.

2. Also make sure to create your secret key and put it in the .env file inmathify/myProject/.env:

   SECRET_KEY=*******
   

3. If you intend to switch to a PostgreSQL database, you can uncomment the PostgreSQL configuration and replace the placeholder values with your actual credentials. The PostgreSQL configuration is already commented out in the default Django settings file for convenience:

   DATABASES = {
      'default': {
         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
         'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
         # 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
         # 'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_NAME_PG'),
         # 'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER_PG'),
         # 'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASSWORD_PG'),
         # 'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST_PG'),
         # 'PORT': os.environ.get('DB_PORT_PG'),
      }
   }

4. For PostgreSQL database, you put the following variables in the .env file, replacing ******* with your own data:

   DB_NAME_PG=*******
   DB_USER_PG=*******
   DB_HOST_PG=*******
   DB_PORT_PG=*******
   DB_PASSWORD_PG=*******
   

How to Run the Project

1. Apply migrations:

   python manage.py makemigrations
   python manage.py migrate

2. Create new superuser:

   python manage.py createsuperuser
   Username: admin
   Email address: admin@example.com
   Password: **********
   Password (again): *********
   Superuser created successfully.

3. Start the development server:

   python manage.py runserver

4. Open your web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/ to explore the application.

5. Tip: The superuser will be the admin, meaning you can log into the admin section of Django.

Usage

• Log in or sign up to start using Mathify:

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• Access the discussion forums to collaborate on math problems:

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• Comment feature:

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• Built-in calculators:

Future Improvements

• Better authentication such as google or email/phone validator. The issue right now is that any email can be used. In future versions, I hope to implement a email or phone validator so the email used is legitimate.
• More calculators such as matrix multiplication, inverse, determinant, and more. Can also include other math subjects such as discrete math, algebra, and geometry.
• Better comment section. In this current version, the comment section is pretty simple only being able to reply to a dicussion post. Some improvements can be comment likes/replies and filtration system.

This project was very fun to make! I hope you guys enjoy it too