Rendezvous

A Django-based social content platform that provides a Pinterest-like interface for sharing articles, organizing projects, and building communities through subscriptions and comments.

Overview

Rendezvous is a web application built with Django that allows users to create and share articles, organize them into projects, and interact through comments and subscriptions. The platform features a modular architecture with six main Django applications handling different aspects of functionality.

Features

Core Functionality

• Article Management: Create, read, update, and delete articles with rich text editing
• Project Organization: Group articles into themed projects
• User Authentication: Complete user registration, login, and profile management
• Comments System: Interactive commenting on articles
• Subscription System: Follow projects of interest

User Interface

• Pinterest-like grid layout for browsing content
• Responsive design with Bootstrap 5.2.3 integration
• Clean navigation with authentication-aware UI elements

Technology Stack

• Backend: Django 5.1+ with Python
• Frontend: Bootstrap 5.2.3, Google Fonts (Material Icons, Antonio, Karla)
• Database: SQLite (development), MySQL/MariaDB (production)
• Static Assets: Django static files system
• Rich Text Editing: Medium Editor integration

Project Structure

The application follows Django's modular app architecture:

• accountapp/ - User authentication and account management
• profileapp/ - Extended user profiles
• articleapp/ - Article creation and management
• projectapp/ - Project organization
• commentapp/ - Comment system
• subscribeapp/ - Subscription functionality

Getting Started

1. Setup Environment: Configure Django settings using the modular settings system
2. Install Dependencies: Bootstrap4, Django, and other requirements
3. Database Migration: Run Django migrations for all apps
4. Static Files: Collect static files for production deployment
5. Run Server: Use python manage.py runserver for development

Rendezvous AWS EC2 Deployment

Django social platform deployed on AWS EC2 using Docker Compose with automated builds from GitHub.

Architecture

• Nginx: Serves static/media files, proxies to Django on port 80
• Django + Gunicorn: Auto-built from GitHub repo esunn0412/rendezvous
• MariaDB: Database with persistent storage on port 3306

Process

Create Docker secrets on the EC2 instance:

echo "your-django-secret-key" | docker secret create DJANGO_SECRET_KEY -  
echo "mysql-password" | docker secret create MYSQL_PASSWORD -  
echo "root-password" | docker secret create MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD -

Deployment

# Build Django image  
docker build -t django_test_image:5 .  
  
# Deploy stack  
docker-compose up -d  
  
# Check status  
docker-compose ps

Configuration Details

The Dockerfile automatically:

• Clones the latest code from GitHub
• Installs dependencies including gunicorn and mysqlclient
• Runs collectstatic and migrate with production settings
• Starts Gunicorn on port 8000

Note

• The production settings read Docker secrets and connect to MariaDB using the service name mariadb.
• Nginx serves static files from /data/static/ and media from /data/media/ with proper MIME types.
• Django uses the MySQL database backend to connect to MariaDB. MariaDB is a MySQL-compatible database, so Django treats it as MySQL from a driver perspective.

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