TechNotes4U

TechNotes4U is a modern, full-featured blogging and knowledge-sharing platform designed for developers and tech enthusiasts. It combines a beautiful, responsive UI with robust backend features, advanced content management, and a secure, scalable architecture.

Key Features & How They Work

  • Authentication & User Management:
    • Sign up/sign in with email/password (with email verification) or Google OAuth for convenience and security.
    • Password recovery via email, profile management, and the ability to sign out from all devices.
    • Role-based access: Admins have elevated privileges for moderation and publishing.
  • Blog Creation & Publishing Workflow:
    • Rich text/MDX editor for creating blogs with tags, images, and SEO metadata.
    • Drafts are saved by default; users can preview, edit, and manage their drafts.
    • Non-admin users submit blogs for publication, which are reviewed and approved by admins.
    • Blog hierarchy allows organization in parent-child categories for better navigation.
  • Blog Interaction & Community Features:
    • Comment system with replies (up to 2 levels), edit/delete (with restrictions), and efficient loading.
    • Likes/dislikes: Users can like published blogs; dislike counts are visible only to admins and blog owners.
    • View counts for popularity metrics and distraction-free reading mode for focused reading.
  • Admin Panel & Moderation:
    • Admins can view, approve/reject, unpublish, and mark blogs as featured.
    • User management: View all users, their roles, blog counts, and comment activity.
    • Analytics: Chart shows view counts for a given time interval; tables for user and blog data.
    • Latest activity: See the latest comments and message notes across the platform.
  • Home, Explore, and Discovery:
    • Home page showcases featured, most viewed, and recent blogs.
    • Users can search, filter by tags, and sort blogs by various criteria (newest, most liked, etc.).
    • Dedicated explore page and blog cards with key info: title, description, owner, views, likes, and comments.
  • Additional Features:
    • SEO optimization for all blogs and pages, image uploads, user avatars, about/contact pages, and performance optimizations (caching, lazy loading, etc.).

Technologies Used

  • Next.js & React (frontend, SSR, SEO, UI)
  • Tailwind CSS (responsive styling, dark/light mode)
  • TypeScript (type safety)
  • Redux Toolkit (state management)
  • Node.js & Express (backend API, modular architecture)
  • Prisma ORM (database access, migrations)
  • JWT Authentication & Google OAuth (secure, stateless sessions, role-based access)

Security, Error Handling & Performance

  • JWT & OAuth authentication with role-based access control
  • Input validation and sanitization for all forms and uploads
  • Session management and token refresh/logout
  • Frontend: code splitting, lazy loading, memoization, debounced search
  • Caching (performance, reduced database load)
  • Comprehensive error handling:
  • - Duplicate email prevention
  • - Email verification
  • - Invalid credentials
  • - Password management
  • - Draft limits
  • - Content validation
  • - Publishing workflow
  • - Ownership protection
  • - Dependency checks
  • - Asset management
  • - Reply depth limitation
  • - Form validation
  • - Fallback handling
  • - Cache management