KnowBase Application

This demo app is built with 4D Qodly Pro and is meant to inspire you or help you kickstart your own project.

🎯 Purpose of the Application

This application serves as a complete blogging platform allowing users to create, read, interact with, and manage blog posts. It includes role-based access, user interaction features (likes and comments), and automated notifications to authors.

🏠 Main Features

• Interactive Datatable to browse blog posts

• Dedicated blog post pages (full content view)

• CRUD workflows for writing, editing, and publishing posts

• Ability to read, write, like, and comment on blog posts

• Automatic email notifications sent to the blog owner when their post receives a like or comment

• Built-in notification settings allowing each user to enable/disable alerts

• Public users can read blogs

• Secure role-based access management

🚀 How to run

Pre-requisites (4D Software):

• Download the 4D version 21 LTS or later (the minimum required version 4D 21 LTS): Product Download
• Or the latest Beta version: Beta Program
• Follow activation steps: Installation Guide

Steps to Run the Project

• Clone or download this repository to your local machine. Need help? See Using GitHub with 4D.
• Open the project in 4D: Go to File > Open Project (More details here: Open a Project)
• Open Qodly Studio: Go to Design > Qodly Studio menu
• Run the application: Click Run to start the server and preview the app in your browser

Configuration & Credentials

This section explains exactly how to wire credentials and test the app (what to create, where to place files, and what the app already provides).

Do I need to create external accounts?

• Mailing: Yes — if you want emails to be sent (approvals, notifications) you should create an SMTP-capable account (or SMTP-compatible API service such as SendGrid SMTP).
  • Example (SendGrid SMTP):
    • Host: smtp.sendgrid.net
    • Port: 587 (or 465 for SSL)
    • User: apikey (SendGrid uses apikey as username)
    • Password: <your SendGrid API key>

Where does the app read credentials?

• Credentials are configured via the Settings page inside the application.
• External service keys and secrets are stored and accessed through the database.

How to test email sending locally

Provide SendGrid/SMTP credentials as above, then trigger an action that sends mail (e.g., blog like that calls Mailer.4dm:send).

Test accounts and sample data

• The app includes a data generator Project/Sources/Merhods/initDB.4dm which creates sample users with known emails and passwords. You can call it from the UI (index.WebForm) or run ds.generateData() in the server console.
• To test the login, you can use the following credentials:
  • Email: admin@4d.com
  • Password: 123456

Where to find the code for each feature

If you want to change the behavior or appearance of a specific feature, edit the files listed below.

• Authentication / Login

  • UI: Project/Sources/WebForms/login.WebForm.
  • Server: Project/Sources/Classes/DataStore.4dm (method: authentify) — handles login, session privileges and landing page routing.

• Dashboard (balances)

  • UI: Project/Sources/WebForms/userEngagment.WebForm.

  • Server: Project/Sources/Classes/User.4dm (userPieChart : Active vs inactive users distribution for dashboard pie chart. topUsers : Top 20 users ranked by engagement (articles or comments, depending on role)).

  • UI: Project/Sources/WebForms/ArticlePerformance.WebForm.

  • Server: Project/Sources/Classes/Article.4dm (articlePieChart(): Distribution of published vs draft articles for dashboard pie chart. articleMostLikes(): Top 10 articles ranked by number of likes.)