Connectly

Connectly is a full-featured social media platform built with Django. It provides a real-time, interactive experience for users to connect, share content, and communicate. The application includes a dynamic feed, user profiles, notifications, and a real-time chat system powered by Django Channels and WebSockets.

Features

• User Authentication: Secure user signup, login, and logout functionality.
• Social Feed: A central feed displaying posts from all users in chronological order, with infinite scrolling.
• Posts, Likes, and Comments: Create text-based posts, and interact with them by liking and commenting.
• User Profiles: View user profiles, see their posts, and check follower/following counts.
• Follow System: Follow and unfollow other users to customize your social graph.
• Real-time Notifications: Receive instant notifications for new likes, comments, and follows.
• Live Chat: Engage in one-on-one real-time messaging with other users.
• REST API: Exposes endpoints for authentication and fetching the feed, secured with token authentication.
• Dark Mode: A sleek, user-toggleable dark mode for comfortable viewing.
• Responsive Design: A clean and responsive user interface that works across different screen sizes.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Python, Django
• API: Django REST Framework
• Real-time Communication: Django Channels, WebSockets
• Database: SQLite (default), configured with dj-database-url for easy switching.
• Message Broker: Redis (for Django Channels)
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (Vanilla)
• Deployment: Gunicorn, Uvicorn, Whitenoise

Setup and Installation

To run this project locally, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rifatsh3ikh/Connectly.git
   cd Connectly

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

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

3. Install dependencies: The project relies on several Python packages. Install them using pip:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up environment variables: Create a .env file in the root directory and add the following variables.

   SECRET_KEY='your-secret-django-key'
   REDIS_URL='redis://127.0.0.1:6379'

5. Start Redis Server: Ensure you have a Redis server instance running on the default port (6379). You can download and run it from the official Redis website.

6. Apply database migrations:

   python manage.py migrate

7. Run the development server:

   python manage.py runserver

The application will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

API Endpoints

The application provides the following REST API endpoints:

Login

• Endpoint: POST /api/login/
• Description: Authenticates a user and returns an authentication token.
• Body:

  {
      "username": "your_username",
      "password": "your_password"
  }

• Response:

  {
      "token": "your_auth_token"
  }

Feed

• Endpoint: GET /api/feed/
• Description: Retrieves the latest 20 posts from the feed. Requires authentication.
• Headers:

  Authorization: Token your_auth_token
  

• Response: An array of post objects.

  [
      {
          "id": 1,
          "author": {
              "id": 1,
              "username": "testuser"
          },
          "content": "This is my first post on Connectly!",
          "created_at": "2024-01-01T12:00:00Z"
      },
      ...
  ]
  

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To contribute:

Fork the project

Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your‑idea)

Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add feature")

Push to your branch (git push)

Open a Pull Request

📬 Contact

Maintained by rifatsh3ikh