Alpha Blog is a blogging website that features basic blogging capabilities - including creating, editing, and deleting blog posts - and allows users to comment on and rate posts.

Click here to see a live example of the site.

Alpha Blog was built with Python 2.7.12, the webapp2 Python web framework, and Google App Engine. User account information and blog post information, including blog content, ratings, and comments, are stored using the Google Datastore NDB Client Library.

To run the website locally:

1. Fork or download the code from GitHub

2. Download and install Google App Engine SDK

3. Navigate to the directory containing Alpha Blog's yaml file and run the command dev_appserver.py ./

> cd my_path/.../alpha-blog
> dev_appserver.py ./

4. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080

Alpha Blog was designed to be run on the Google Cloud Platform. See this link for information on developing and deploying projects using the Google App Engine Python Standard Environment.

To create an account, click the "Signup" button on Alpha Blog's home page and enter the requested information. Usernames and passwords must be at least three characters long, and can contain letters, numbers, dashses (-), and underscores (_).

To log in to your account, click the "Login" button on the home page and enter your account information. Once you've successfully logged in, you will be redirected to your home page.

When you are logged in, your username will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. When you are looking at someone's blog, the author's name will appear on the left hand side of the blog's navigation bar.

To create, edit, or delete blog posts, log in to your account and use the "New Post", "Edit", and "Delete" buttons. The "New Post" button is located on your home page, and the "Edit" and "Delete" buttons appear when you click on an individual post.

Note that you can only edit and delete your own posts!

You can comment on any blog post - including your own - but you must be logged in first. You also must be logged in to edit and delete your own comments.

Caution - Currently, when the owner of a blog post deletes the post, all of the associated comments are also deleted, so be aware that your comments can disappear at any time!

Click on the Like or Dislike buttons below an individual blog post to rate the post. As of right now, you can't change the rating that you give a post, so use your rating powers carefully! When you like a post, the word Like turns blue. When you dislike a post, the word Dislike turns red. You must be logged in to the site to rate a post, and you can't rate any of your own posts.

This project is released under the MIT License.