LinkUp - Social Media Platform (Backend)

LinkUp is a modern social media platform backend built with Django REST Framework, providing robust APIs for user authentication, posts, and social interactions.

Features

• JWT Authentication (Register, Login, Logout)
• User Profiles with profile pictures
• Post Management (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
• Media Uploads (Images/Videos)
• Follow/Unfollow functionality
• CORS Support for frontend integration
• PostgreSQL database support

Project Structure

backend/ 
├── core/ # Main Django project
│ ├── settings.py # Project configuration
│ ├── urls.py # Main URL routing
│ └── ...
├── accounts/ # User authentication app
│ ├── models.py # Custom User model
│ ├── serializers.py # User serializers
│ └── ...
├── post/ # Posts functionality
│ ├── models.py # Post model
│ ├── views.py # Post viewsets
│ └── ...
├── manage.py # Django management script
└── requirements.txt # Python dependencies

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• PostgreSQL 13+
• pip 20+

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/emmanuelronoh/LinkUp-backend.git
   cd LinkUp-backend/backend

2. Set up virtual environment:

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

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Configure environment variables

1. Create .env file in backend/core/ with:

 DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/linkup
 SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
 DEBUG=True

2. Run migrations:

 python manage.py migrate

3. Create superuser:

 python manage.py createsuperuser

4. Running the Server

  python manage.py runserver

The API will be available at http://localhost:8000/api/

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/auth/register/	POST	User registration
/api/auth/login/	POST	User login (JWT tokens)
/api/auth/logout/	POST	User logout
/api/posts/	GET	List all posts
/api/posts/	POST	Create new post
/api/posts/<id>/	GET	Retrieve specific post
/api/users/	GET	List all users
/api/users/<id>/	GET	Retrieve specific user profile

Configuration

Edit core/settings.py to configure:

Database Settings

# Database
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': os.getenv('DB_NAME'),
        'USER': os.getenv('DB_USER'),
        'PASSWORD': os.getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
        'HOST': os.getenv('DB_HOST'),
        'PORT': os.getenv('DB_PORT'),
    }
}

# Security
DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.com', 'api.yourdomain.com']

# CORS
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS = [
    "https://yourfrontend.com",
    "https://www.yourfrontend.com"
]

Deployment

Production Checklist

1. Environment Configuration:

   # In your .env file
   DEBUG=False
   SECRET_KEY=your-production-secret-key
   ALLOWED_HOSTS=yourdomain.com,api.yourdomain.com
   DATABASE_URL=postgres://prod_user:strongpassword@prod-db-host:5432/prod_db

Contributing

1. Fork the repository

2. Create your feature branch

   git checkout -b feature/fooBar

3. Commit your changes

   git commit -am 'Add some fooBar'

4. Push to the branch

   git push origin feature/fooBar

5. Create a new Pull Request