📝 Core Blog Platform - v2.0.0

A modern, production-ready full-stack blogging platform built with Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and React, designed for developers and content creators.

Supports authentication, markdown blogging, categories, comments, and CDN-backed media uploads, with a clean, scalable architecture.

🚀 Live Demo

• Frontend: https://blog-frontend-steel-three.vercel.app
• Backend API: https://blog-backend-3laz.onrender.com

⚠️ First request may be slow due to free-tier cold starts.

📦 Tech Stack

Frontend

• React (Vite)
• React Router
• Tailwind CSS
• Axios
• Markdown rendering + syntax highlighting

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• MongoDB Atlas
• Mongoose
• JWT Authentication
• Multer (memory uploads)
• Cloudinary (image storage & CDN)
• Redis (Upstash – caching)
• Helmet, CORS, Rate Limiting

Deployment

• Frontend: Vercel
• Backend: Render
• Database: MongoDB Atlas
• Media: Cloudinary CDN

✨ Features

🔐 Authentication

• User signup & login
• JWT-based auth flow
• Protected routes
• Secure token handling

👤 User Profiles

• View & edit profile
• Avatar upload with live preview
• Cloudinary-hosted avatars
• Automatic image replacement & cleanup
• Secure ownership checks

📝 Blog System

• Create, edit, delete blogs
• Draft & publish workflow
• Markdown editor support
• Optional cover image upload
• Cloudinary-hosted blog covers
• SEO-friendly slugs
• Estimated reading time calculation

🏷️ Categories

• Category-based blog organization
• Slug-based category routing
• Admin-protected category management

💬 Comments

• Auth-protected commenting
• Real-time comment updates
• Comment deletion (owner-only)

🌐 Routing & UX

• SPA routing with deep-link support
• Skeleton loaders
• Graceful loading & error states
• No unnecessary re-renders or console noise

🧪 Tested & Stable

• Auth & protected routes
• Profile updates & avatar uploads
• Blog CRUD (with & without covers)
• Markdown rendering
• Categories & comments
• Cache invalidation (Redis)
• Route refresh & deep linking
• Cloudinary image persistence across restarts

⚠️ Known Limitations

• Free-tier hosting causes cold starts
• No email notifications yet

📌 Versioning

• Frontend: v2.0.0
• Backend: v2.5.0

v2 introduces Cloudinary-based media storage, improved schema design, and production-safe image handling.

🛠️ Local Development

Backend

git clone https://github.com/CoreTech7704/blog-backend.git
cd blog-backend
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend

git clone https://github.com/CoreTech7704/Blog-frontend.git
cd Blog-frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Create .env files for both frontend and backend as required.

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:8000

🤝 Contributing

This project is actively evolving. Feedback, bug reports, and feature suggestions are welcome.

👨‍💻 Author

Sarvam Patel GitHub: https://github.com/CoreTech7704