📝 Blog Application

A clean, beginner-friendly PHP web app that allows users to view blog posts, sign up, log in, search content, and explore posts by category.
Built using PHP & MySQL with simple routing and form handling.

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🔧 Features

✅ Public Pages

• View all blog posts (homepage)
• Search posts by keyword
• Filter posts by category
• Read full blog posts with details
• About, Services, and Contact pages

✅ User Authentication

• User sign up and log in forms
• Session-based authentication
• Secure logout with session destruction

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📁 Project Structure

Blog_application/
├── about.php
├── blog.php
├── category-post.php
├── contact.php
├── index.php
├── logout.php
├── post.php
├── search.php
├── services.php
├── signin.php
├── signup.php
├── signin-data.php
├── signup-data.php
├── admin/
│   ├── add-category.php
│   ├── add-category-data.php
│   ├── add-post.php
│   ├── add-post-data.php
│   ├── add-user.php
│   ├── add-user-data.php
│   ├── dashboard.php
│   ├── delete-category.php
│   ├── delete-post.php
│   ├── delete-user.php
│   ├── edit-category.php
│   ├── edit-category-data.php
│   ├── edit-post.php
│   ├── edit-post-data.php
│   ├── edit-user.php
│   ├── edit-user-data.php
│   ├── manage-categories.php
│   ├── manage-users.php
│   └── partial/
│       └── header.php
├── config/
│   ├── constants.php
│   └── database.php
├── css/
│   └── style.css
├── js/
│   └── main.js
├── images/
│   └── [avatar images...]
├── partial/
│   ├── header.php
│   └── footer.php
└── .git/     

💡 You can improve this structure by using includes for header/footer and creating a config file for database connection.

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🛠️ Getting Started

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/soksreng/Blog_application.git

2. Move to XAMPP htdocs

Place the entire folder in:

C:/xampp/htdocs/Blog_application

3. Start Apache & MySQL using XAMPP

4. Set up the database

• Go to phpMyAdmin
• Create a new database (e.g. Blog_application)
• Import Blog_application.sql, or manually create:
  • users table
  • posts table
  • categories table

5. Update database connection

In signin-data.php, signup-data.php, and any other DB files:

$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "", "blog_app");

6. Run the app

Visit:

http://localhost/Blog_application/

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🧰 Tech Stack

• Backend: PHP 7+
• Database: MySQL
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JS
• Local Server: Apache via XAMPP

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🌐 URLs

• Main Site: http://localhost/Blog_application/
• Login: http://localhost/Blog_application/signin.php
• Register: http://localhost/Blog_application/signup.php

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✨ Optional Future Features

• Admin dashboard for creating/editing posts
• Image upload for posts
• Password hashing for better security
• Pagination for post lists

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👨‍💻 Author

Sok Sreng(Jack) Chan – CS Student @ Fort Hays & AUPP

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📄 License

This project is for learning purposes and personal development.
Feel free to modify and expand it!