Blogging Website using Django Framework

• Staff dashboard for this final year project with members, article pipeline, comments, inbox, queues, recent posts, and inquiries
• Brand and identity management with site name, tagline, logo, favicon, footer, contact email, phone, and address
• Member directory with search and filters
• Member profile and post viewing
• Member username, name, email, and active status editing
• Member activate/deactivate and delete controls
• Category CRUD with post counts
• Protected category delete when posts still use the category
• Article CRUD with moderation, published, featured, author, category, and search filters
• Article detail with body preview and workflow actions
• Approve, reject, publish toggle, and featured toggle actions
• Comment list with filters and search
• Comment approve, hold, edit text, and delete controls
• Contact inbox list and detail
• Auto-mark contact message as read on open
• Toggle read and delete inbox messages
• CMS page editing for About, Privacy, and Terms
• Staff profile update with name, email, and profile image
• Staff password change
• Sidebar context badges for pending posts, pending comments, and unread inbox
• Django admin access at /admin/

• Contributor registration in this final year project with name, username, email, and password
• Duplicate username and email validation
• Login using username or email
• Staff account redirection to staff sign-in when using member login
• Contributor dashboard under /blog/desk/
• Overview stats for live, pending, rejected articles, comments, and recent activity
• My articles list with status filters and search
• Create, read, update, and delete own posts
• Edited posts return to pending moderation and unpublish until approval
• My comments list with filters and search
• Edit own comments with moderation re-queue
• Delete own comments
• Profile summary with links to full profile and password change
• Password change and password reset
• Public blog browsing and post reading
• Comment submission on published posts
• Delete own comments where allowed

• Public landing page included in this final year project
• Public blog listing, category pages, search, and post detail
• Static About, Privacy, Terms, and Contact pages
• Contact form stored for staff inbox
• Featured and recent post surfacing on landing page
• Custom Django user model with unique email
• Local filesystem media uploads for profile images, blog images, and branding assets
• Console email backend for password reset in development
• Bootstrap 5 interface
• Pillow image handling
• Legacy redirect support for older blog dashboard paths
• seed_demo command for demo branding, CMS text, posts, comments, contact messages, and users
• Suitable for final year project demo, viva, source code review, and report preparation

• Open the final year project root folder containing manage.py.
• Create a virtual environment:
  python -m venv venv
• Activate the environment:
  • Windows PowerShell: .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
  • macOS/Linux: source venv/bin/activate
• Install dependencies:
  pip install -r requirements.txt
• Run database migrations:
  python manage.py migrate
• Optional: load demo data:
  python manage.py seed_demo
• Start the final year Django project:
  python manage.py runserver
• Open the application at:
  http://127.0.0.1:8000/
• Optional: create another superuser:
  python manage.py createsuperuser

Staff / Superuser

• Username: admin
• Password: Admin@12345
• Access: /console/ and /admin/

Reader / Contributor Accounts

• Username: sarahm
• Password: Reader@12345
• Username: davidk
• Password: Reader@12345
• Username: elenap
• Password: Reader@12345