🎬 Minitube-Youtube-Clone

A Simplified YouTube Clone Built with PHP & MySQL

A database-driven video sharing platform inspired by YouTube

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📖 Overview

MiniTube is a full-stack web application developed as a database systems project.

The platform allows users to:

• Authenticate and access a personalized feed
• Browse subscribed channels
• Watch videos
• View and create comment threads
• Subscribe and unsubscribe from channels
• Track video popularity through dynamic badges
• Explore channel statistics and uploaded content

The project focuses heavily on database design, SQL querying, and relational data modeling while maintaining a clean YouTube-inspired user interface.

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✨ Features

👤 User System

• User authentication
• Profile information
• Personalized feed

📺 Video Feed

• Displays videos from subscribed channels
• Ordered by upload date
• Thumbnail previews
• Direct navigation to video pages

🎥 Video Page

• Embedded YouTube player
• View counter (increments automatically)
• Popularity badge generation via SQL CASE expression
• Video metadata display
• Comment system

💬 Comment Threads

• Top-level comments
• Nested replies
• Self-referencing database design
• Thread rendering using SQL self-joins

📡 Channel Page

• Channel information
• Subscriber count
• Subscribe / Unsubscribe functionality
• Uploaded video listing
• Missing description handling

📊 Dynamic Statistics

• Top channels sidebar
• View counts
• Subscriber counts
• Popularity classification

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🗄️ Database Design

The system is designed according to relational database principles and normalized structure.

Main Entities

• USERS
• CHANNELS
• VIDEOS
• COMMENTS
• SUBSCRIPTIONS

Design Principles

✔ Third Normal Form (3NF)

✔ Elimination of repeating groups

✔ Separation of concerns between entities

✔ Many-to-many relationships handled through junction tables

✔ Self-referencing hierarchy for comment threads

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🏗️ Entity Relationship Model

USERS

Stores user profiles and authentication information.

CHANNELS

Represents content creators and channel metadata.

VIDEOS

Stores video information and statistics.

COMMENTS

Supports hierarchical discussions through:

parent_comment_id

allowing YouTube-style reply threads.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Handles the many-to-many relationship between:

User ↔ Channel

where:

• One user can subscribe to many channels
• One channel can have many subscribers

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⚙️ Technologies Used

Technology	Purpose
PHP	Backend Logic
MySQL	Relational Database
HTML5	Structure
CSS3	Styling
SQL	Data Management

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📂 Project Structure

MiniTube/
│
├── channel.php
├── watch.php
├── feed.php
├── login.php
├── install.php
│
├── database.php
├── _nav.php
│
├── seed.sql
├── generate_data.php
│
├── style.css
│
└── README.md

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🚀 Installation

1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/minitube.git

2. Configure Database

Edit:

database.php

and update your MySQL credentials.

3. Run Installation Script

Navigate to:

http://localhost/minitube/install.php

This will:

• Create the database
• Create tables
• Insert seed data

4. Login

Open:

http://localhost/minitube/login.html

and sign in using one of the generated demo accounts.

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🔄 Application Flow

User Login
      │
      ▼
Load Feed
      │
      ▼
Select Video
      │
      ▼
Increment View Count
      │
      ▼
Load Comment Thread
      │
      ▼
Add Comment
      │
      ▼
Reload Video Page
      │
      ▼
Visit Channel
      │
      ▼
Subscribe / Unsubscribe
      │
      ▼
Update Subscriber Count

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🎯 Learning Outcomes

This project demonstrates:

• Relational database modeling
• SQL joins
• SQL self-joins
• Aggregate queries
• Database normalization
• PHP backend development
• Dynamic content rendering
• Session management
• CRUD operations

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🚀 Built as a Database Systems Project

MiniTube demonstrates how relational database concepts power modern content platforms.