DotnetBlog

A modern full-stack blogging platform built with ASP.NET Core Blazor Server featuring authentication, role-based authorization, rich text editing, image uploads, nested comments, and responsive UI design.

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🚀 Features

Authentication & Authorization

• User registration and login
• Email confirmation
• Password reset & recovery
• Two-factor authentication (2FA)
• ASP.NET Core Identity integration
• Role-based access control

Roles

• Admin
• Author
• Reader

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📝 Blogging System

Posts

• Create, update, and delete blog posts
• Rich text editor using Quill.js
• Upload images with Cloudinary
• Category-based organization
• Pagination support
• Search and filtering

Comments

• Nested/threaded comments
• Replies to comments
• Edit & delete comments
• Recursive comment handling

Categories

• Browse posts by category
• Multiple pre-seeded categories
• Category filtering

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👨‍💻 Author Features

• Become an author workflow
• Personal posts dashboard
• Manage created posts
• Search and filter personal content

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☁️ Cloud Integrations

Cloudinary

Used for:

• Image uploads
• Image hosting
• Image deletion

SendGrid

Used for:

• Email confirmation
• Password reset emails
• Identity notifications

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🎨 UI/UX Features

• Responsive design
• MudBlazor components
• Modern card-based layouts
• Loading skeletons
• Snackbar notifications
• Mobile-friendly interface

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Technology	Purpose
ASP.NET Core Blazor Server	Frontend + Backend
Entity Framework Core	ORM
PostgreSQL	Database
ASP.NET Identity	Authentication
MudBlazor	UI Components
Cloudinary	Image Hosting
SendGrid	Email Services
SignalR	Real-time Communication
Quill.js	Rich Text Editor

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🗂️ Project Structure

Components/
 ├── Pages/
 ├── Shared/
 ├── Layout/
 └── Account/

Data/
 ├── ApplicationDbContext
 └── Models

Services/
 ├── PostService
 ├── CommentsService
 ├── ImageUploadService
 └── EmailSender

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🔐 Security Features

• Secure authentication cookies
• HTTPS & HSTS support
• Role-based route protection
• Transaction-safe deletions
• Token expiration handling

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📦 Main Functionalities

Readers Can

• Register accounts
• Browse posts
• Search articles
• Filter by category
• Comment on posts
• Become authors

Authors Can

• Create blog posts
• Upload images
• Edit/delete posts
• Manage personal dashboard
• Interact with comments

Admins Can

• Access protected routes
• Manage content
• Moderate platform features

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⚙️ Installation

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK
• PostgreSQL
• Cloudinary account
• SendGrid account

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Clone Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd DotnetBlog

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Configure App Settings

Update appsettings.json:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "YOUR_CONNECTION_STRING"
  },

  "CloudinarySettings": {
    "CloudName": "YOUR_CLOUD_NAME",
    "ApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "ApiSecret": "YOUR_API_SECRET"
  },

  "SendGrid": {
    "ApiKey": "YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY"
  }
}

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Apply Migrations

dotnet ef database update

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Run Application

dotnet run

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🌟 Future Improvements

• Like/Dislike system
• Bookmarks
• Draft posts
• Notifications
• Tags system
• Analytics dashboard
• Docker deployment
• CI/CD pipeline

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