MyBlog's requirements document [final draft]

[gbowne1]

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Blog Application – Requirements Specification

Project: MyBlog
Version: 1.0
Date: 2025-11-02

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1. Document Purpose

Define functional, non-functional, data, security, UI/UX, and deployment requirements for a personal blogging platform built with ASP.NET Core 8.0, Identity, Entity Framework Core, and MVC.

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2. Scope

In-Scope	Out-of-Scope
User registration / login (email+password)	Social login (Google, GitHub)
Create / edit / delete blog posts	Multi-author collaboration
Rich-text editing (Markdown or TinyMCE)	Comment threading / moderation
Tag / category taxonomy	RSS/Atom feed generation
Post scheduling (future publish)	SEO auto-sitemap
Responsive UI (Bootstrap)	Analytics integration
In-memory DB for dev, SQL Server for prod	Mobile native app

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3. Stakeholders

Role	Name	Responsibility
Owner / Author	You	Content creation, admin
Developer	You	Implementation, CI/CD
End-user	Visitors	Read posts, search, browse tags

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4. Functional Requirements

ID	Requirement	Priority
FR-01	User Management – Register, login, logout, password reset (email not required for dev)	High
FR-02	Post CRUD – Create, read, update, delete blog posts (title, slug, body, excerpt, featured image, publish date, status: Draft/Published)	High
FR-03	Rich Text Editor – WYSIWYG or Markdown editor for post body	High
FR-04	Tagging & Categorization – Assign multiple tags & one category per post; filter posts by tag/category	High
FR-05	Post Scheduling – Set future publish date; post auto-publishes at that time	Medium
FR-06	Search – Full-text search on title + body	Medium
FR-07	Pagination – List posts with 10 per page	High
FR-08	Archive – Monthly archive widget	Low
FR-09	Static Pages – About, Contact (markdown or HTML)	Medium
FR-10	Admin Dashboard – Overview of posts, draft count, recent activity	Medium

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5. Non-Functional Requirements

ID	Requirement	Acceptance Criteria
NFR-01	Performance – Page load < 2 s (cold cache)	Measured with Lighthouse
NFR-02	Security – HTTPS, CSRF protection, password hashing (Identity default)	OWASP ASVS Level 1
NFR-03	Scalability – Support 1 000 concurrent readers	Load test with k6
NFR-04	Availability – 99.9 % uptime (dev: local only)	Monitoring via HealthChecks
NFR-05	Responsive Design – Mobile-first, works on ≥ 320 px width	BrowserStack tests
NFR-06	Accessibility – WCAG 2.1 AA	axe-core audit
NFR-07	Maintainability – Clean Architecture, DI, unit-testable	80 % code coverage

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6. Data Model (EF Core)

public class ApplicationUser : IdentityUser { }

public class Post
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [Required, MaxLength(200)] public string Title { get; set; }
    [Required, MaxLength(200)] public string Slug { get; set; }   // URL friendly
    public string Excerpt { get; set; }                         // 160 chars
    [Required] public string Body { get; set; }                 // Markdown/HTML
    public string FeaturedImageUrl { get; set; }
    public DateTime PublishDate { get; set; } = DateTime.UtcNow;
    public DateTime? ScheduledPublishDate { get; set; }
    public PostStatus Status { get; set; } = PostStatus.Draft;

    // Navigation
    public string AuthorId { get; set; }
    public ApplicationUser Author { get; set; }

    public int? CategoryId { get; set; }
    public Category Category { get; set; }

    public ICollection<PostTag> PostTags { get; set; } = new List<PostTag>();
}

public class Category
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    [Required, MaxLength(100)] public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Slug { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Post> Posts { get; set; }
}

public class Tag
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    [Required, MaxLength(50)] public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Slug { get; set; }
    public ICollection<PostTag> PostTags { get; set; }
}

public class PostTag
{
    public int PostId { get; set; }
    public Post Post { get; set; }
    public int TagId { get; set; }
    public Tag Tag { get; set; }
}

public enum PostStatus { Draft, Published }

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7. Security & Authorization

Feature	Implementation
Authentication	AddDefaultIdentity<IdentityUser> (cookie-based)
Authorization	[Authorize] on PostsController (Create/Edit/Delete)
Role-based	Admin role (seed on first run)
Anti-CSRF	Built-in ValidateAntiForgeryToken
Password policy	Default Identity options (configurable)
Rate limiting	AddRateLimiter (optional for prod)

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8. UI / UX Requirements

Page	Key Elements
Home	Latest 5 posts, pagination, hero banner
Post Detail	Title, publish date, author, featured image, body, tags, share buttons
Archive	Year/Month tree
Tag / Category	Filtered post list
Admin > Posts	Grid with Edit / Delete / Publish / Draft buttons
Editor	TinyMCE or Markdown-it + live preview
Login / Register	Identity UI pages (customizable)

Styling: Bootstrap 5 + custom CSS (dark mode toggle optional).

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9. Technical Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	.NET 8.0
Web Framework	ASP.NET Core MVC
Auth	ASP.NET Core Identity + EF Stores
DB (Dev)	InMemoryDatabase
DB (Prod)	SQL Server (DefaultConnection)
ORM	Entity Framework Core 8
DI	Built-in IServiceCollection
Logging	ILogger (Serilog optional)
Frontend	Razor Views, Bootstrap 5, TinyMCE
Tools	EF Core Migrations, VS 2022+

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10. Deployment & Environments

Environment	DB	URL	Notes
Development	In-Memory	https://localhost:7xxx	Hot-reload
Staging	SQL Server (Docker)	https://staging.myblog.com	Feature branch
Production	SQL Server (Azure/AWS)	https://myblog.com	SSL, CI/CD

CI/CD: GitHub Actions → build → test → publish → Azure App Service / Docker.

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11. Acceptance Criteria (Sample)

FR	Acceptance Test
FR-02	Author can create a post → appears on home page when published
FR-04	Click tag “C#” → only posts with that tag shown
FR-05	Schedule post for tomorrow → not visible until date passes
NFR-01	Load home page → Lighthouse performance score ≥ 90

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12. Risks & Mitigations

Risk	Mitigation
In-memory DB data loss on restart	Document that dev DB is ephemeral; use SQL for any persistent demo
Slug collisions	Auto-append -2, -3 on duplicate
Large images slow page	Enforce max 2 MB upload, resize on server

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13. Glossary

Term	Definition
Slug	URL-friendly version of title (my-first-post)
Excerpt	Short teaser shown in listings
Post Status	Draft = hidden, Published = public

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End of Document

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Next Steps

1. Create EF Core migration from the model above.
2. Scaffold Identity UI (IdentityHostBuilderExtensions.AddIdentityUI).
3. Implement PostsController with [Authorize] actions.
4. Add TinyMCE to Create.cshtml / Edit.cshtml.