Socipoki — Open-Source Social Media Platform

An Instagram-inspired social media web application built with Django. Share photos, follow people, discover content through hashtags, and engage with a community.

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Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Screenshots
• Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Environment Variables
  • Running the App
• Project Structure
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• Author

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About

Socipoki is a full-stack social media web application that replicates the core experience of photo-sharing platforms. Users can create accounts, upload posts with images, follow each other, interact through likes/saves/comments, and discover new content through hashtags and an algorithm-ranked explore page.

This project is built with Django and is intended as both a functional MVP and a learning resource for developers interested in social media application architecture.

Note: This repository is being prepared for public release. Some sections — such as screenshots, deployment guides, and final environment variable documentation — may need project-specific updates before your first public launch.

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Features

User Accounts

• Register, log in, and log out
• Edit profile (name, username, email, bio, website URL)
• Upload and auto-resize profile avatar (200×200 px)
• Change password securely

Social Graph

• Follow / unfollow other users
• Follow request system with accept/decline flow
• View followers and following lists per profile

Posts

• Create posts with image uploads
• Automatic multi-resolution image generation (1500×, 500×, 250×, original)
• Unique permalink per post via hashed ID
• Like and save posts
• View liked and saved posts per profile

Comments

• Comment on posts
• Nested replies (sub-comments)
• Delete your own comments

Discovery

• Home feed of posts from followed users
• Explore page with weighted ranking (likes × 0.5 + saves × 0.8 + tag count × 0.2)
• Hashtag extraction from post descriptions
• Tag detail pages listing all tagged posts
• Search across users, posts, and tags

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Python 3.12
Framework	Django 4.1
Frontend	Django Templates, HTML5, Custom CSS
Image Processing	Pillow
URL slugs	unicode-slugify
Static Files	WhiteNoise
WSGI Server	Gunicorn
Database (dev)	SQLite
Database (prod)	PostgreSQL (via DATABASE_URL)
Deployment	Heroku
Env Config	python-dotenv

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Screenshots

Login	Home Feed

User Profile	Post Detail with Comments

Explore

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• pip
• Git
• (Optional) A virtual environment tool such as venv or conda

Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ofcskn/SocialMediaApp.git
cd SocialMediaApp

# 2. Create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate      # macOS / Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate       # Windows

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4. Copy the example environment file and fill in your values
cp .env.example .env

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root (copy .env.example as a starting point):

Variable	Description	Default
SECRET_KEY	Django secret key (generate a new one for production)	—
DEBUG	Enable debug mode (True / False)	False
ALLOWED_HOSTS	Comma-separated list of allowed hostnames	127.0.0.1,localhost
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string (optional; SQLite used if absent)	—

Security: Never commit your .env file. It is listed in .gitignore.

To generate a new SECRET_KEY:

python -c "from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())"

Running the App

# Apply database migrations
python manage.py migrate

# (Optional) Create an admin superuser
python manage.py createsuperuser

# Start the development server
python manage.py runserver

The app will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

Production only: Run python manage.py collectstatic --noinput before deploying. Static files are served automatically by Django in development (DEBUG=True).

Admin Panel

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin and log in with your superuser credentials.

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Project Structure

SocialMediaApp/
├── account/              # User authentication, profiles, follow system
│   ├── models.py         #   User, UserFollower
│   ├── views.py
│   └── forms.py
├── post/                 # Posts, likes, saves, comments
│   ├── models.py         #   Post, PostAction, PostComment
│   ├── views.py
│   └── forms.py
├── comment/              # Comment creation and deletion
├── tag/                  # Hashtag extraction and tag pages
│   └── models.py         #   Tag
├── core/                 # Home feed, explore, search
│   └── views.py
├── layouts/              # Base HTML templates and shared partials
├── static/               # CSS, images, static assets
├── media/                # User-uploaded files (excluded from git)
├── social_media_basic/   # Django project config (settings, urls, wsgi)
│   ├── settings.py
│   └── urls.py
├── requirements.txt
├── Procfile              # Heroku deployment
├── manage.py
└── .env.example

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Roadmap

The items below represent planned or in-progress features. Contributions are welcome on any open item.

Feature	Status
User profiles with followers/following	Done
Post image upload with multi-resolution output	Done
Post likes and saves	Done
Hashtag system	Done
Explore page with engagement ranking	Done
Nested comment replies	Done
Follow request / accept flow	Done
Search (users, posts, tags)	Done
Post delete and edit	Planned
Email confirmation on signup	Planned
Explore page AI recommendations	Planned
Stories	Planned
Tagging users in posts (@mention)	Planned
Infinite scroll / pagination	Planned
Follower notifications	Planned
Password reset via email link	Planned
Multiple image uploads per post	Planned
Private accounts	Planned
Post image crop on upload	Planned
Comment likes and deep replies	Planned

See roadmap.txt for the full tracking list including known bugs.

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Contributing

Contributions of all kinds are welcome — bug fixes, features, documentation, and design improvements.

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting a pull request.

Quick summary:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/your-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m "feat: add your feature"
4. Push and open a Pull Request against master

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Author

Ömer Faruk Coşkun

• GitHub: @ofcskn
• Email: omer@chainabit.com

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Built with Django. Made open-source to help developers learn and build on top of social media patterns.