Community

A web application built with Flask that allows users to create accounts, manage their profiles and publish posts.

The project was developed as a practical exercise in web development, database integration, authentication, file storage and containerization.

Features

• User registration and authentication
• Login and logout
• User profiles
• Profile editing
• Profile image upload
• Automatic image resizing
• Post creation
• Post editing
• Post deletion
• User listing
• Contact page

Tech Stack

• Python
• Flask
• Flask-SQLAlchemy
• Flask-Login
• Flask-Bcrypt
• Flask-WTF
• PostgreSQL
• MinIO
• boto3
• Pillow
• Docker
• Docker Compose

Architecture

The application runs in containers using Docker Compose.

                         ┌───────────────┐
                         │    Browser    │
                         └───────┬───────┘
                                 │
                                 ▼
                         ┌───────────────┐
                         │     Flask     │
                         │      app      │
                         └───────┬───────┘
                                 │
                    ┌────────────┴────────────┐
                    │                         │
                    ▼                         ▼
             ┌───────────────┐        ┌───────────────┐
             │  PostgreSQL   │        │     MinIO     │
             │    database   │        │ object store  │
             └───────────────┘        └───────┬───────┘
                                              │
                                              ▼
                                       ┌───────────────┐
                                       │    Bucket     │
                                       └───────────────┘

Services

The docker-compose.yaml defines four containers:

app

Runs the Flask application.

The application is built from the Dockerfile located at:

app/Dockerfile

The application is exposed on port 5000.

db

Runs PostgreSQL 18 and stores the application's relational data.

PostgreSQL data is persisted using the postgres_data Docker volume.

minio

Runs MinIO as an S3-compatible object storage service.

It is used to store uploaded files such as profile images.

MinIO data is persisted using the minio_data Docker volume.

The MinIO API is exposed on port 9000 and its web console on port 9001.

minio-init

Initializes the MinIO environment after the MinIO server becomes healthy.

The initialization script:

minio/init_minio.sh

is responsible for configuring the bucket and its initial contents.

This container is an initialization container rather than part of the application's runtime.

File Storage

Profile images are stored in MinIO instead of being stored directly in the Flask container.

The application communicates with MinIO through the S3 API using boto3.

User
  │
  │ uploads image
  ▼
Flask
  │
  │ Pillow
  │ resize/process image
  ▼
boto3
  │
  │ S3 API
  ▼
MinIO
  │
  ▼
Bucket

This separates uploaded files from the application container and provides an S3-compatible storage layer.

Docker Environment

The entire development environment can be started with Docker Compose.

The project uses named Docker volumes to persist data:

postgres_data
minio_data

Therefore, stopping the containers does not remove the database or stored objects.

Requirements

To run the project locally, you need:

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Git

No local PostgreSQL or MinIO installation is required.

Running the Project

Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd community

Environment Configuration

Create the environment file with the variables required by the application:

POSTGRES_DB=community
POSTGRES_USER=community
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=change-me

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://community:change-me@db:5432/community

SECRET_KEY=change-me

MINIO_ROOT_USER=minioadmin
MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=change-me
MINIO_ENDPOINT=http://minio:9000
MINIO_BUCKET=profile-images

Then start the project with:

make

This runs:

docker compose up -d --build

The application will be available at:

http://localhost:5000

Useful commands

Start the application:

make up

Stop the containers:

make down

Remove containers and locally built images:

make clean

Remove containers, images, volumes and orphan containers:

make fclean

make fclean removes the Docker volumes containing PostgreSQL and MinIO data.

Project Structure

community/
├── app/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── forms.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── routes.py
│   ├── static/
│   │   ├── main.css
│   │   └── profile_imgs/
│   │       └── default.jpg
│   └── templates/
│       ├── base.html
│       ├── contact.html
│       ├── create_post.html
│       ├── edit_profile.html
│       ├── home.html
│       ├── login.html
│       ├── navbar.html
│       ├── post.html
│       ├── profile.html
│       └── users.html
│
├── images/
│   ├── 01.png
│   ├── 02.png
│   ├── 03.png
│   └── 04.png
│
├── minio/
│   └── init_minio.sh
│
├── docker-compose.yaml
├── .env.example
├── LICENSE
├── main.py
├── Makefile
├── README.md
└── requirements.txt

Environment Configuration

The application uses environment variables for configuration and credentials.

The following services require environment configuration:

• Flask
• PostgreSQL
• MinIO

Sensitive values such as passwords and secret keys should not be committed to the repository.

Development Goals

This project was built to practice the development of a complete web application, including:

• Flask application development
• User authentication
• Database modeling with SQLAlchemy
• Form handling
• File uploads
• Image processing
• S3-compatible object storage
• Docker containerization
• Service orchestration with Docker Compose
• Persistent storage using Docker volumes

Roadmap

Future improvements may include:

• Production deployment
• Automated tests
• CI/CD
• Improved error handling
• Additional user interactions
• Production-ready configuration
• HTTPS

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the license included in this repository.

Live Demo

The application is deployed on Railway and available online:

https://community-production-932f.up.railway.app/

Screenshots

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