Quill - Role-Based Blogging Platform

Overview

Quill is a PHP + MySQL blogging platform with role-based workflows for viewer, author, and admin users. It demonstrates end-to-end web engineering fundamentals: authentication, content lifecycle management, media handling, and dashboard-oriented operations.

Problem Statement

Most beginner blog projects only cover basic CRUD and miss role separation, moderation workflows, and operational readiness. Quill addresses this by implementing a multi-role publishing workflow with clean separation between public browsing and protected author/admin operations.

Solution Overview

Quill uses server-rendered PHP views backed by MySQL (PDO). Authentication and authorization gates users into role-specific modules. Authors create and manage posts, admins oversee users/content, and viewers consume published content.

Features

• Role-based access control (viewer, author, admin)
• Authentication and session-based authorization
• Author workflows: create, edit, publish/draft posts
• Admin workflows: dashboard and user/content oversight
• Tagging and featured image support
• Public viewer pages for published articles

Architecture

Application modules are organized by role and shared includes:

• index.php: entry and route switching
• src/auth: login/auth handling
• src/author: author dashboards and post operations
• src/admin: admin management dashboards
• src/viewer: public content pages
• includes/config.php: environment and DB bootstrap
• includes/functions.php: shared utilities/data access helpers

Tech Stack

• PHP 8+
• MySQL 8+ (PDO)
• HTML/CSS/Bootstrap-style UI
• Apache/XAMPP local runtime

Architecture Diagram

flowchart LR
    V[Viewer Browser] --> A[Apache + PHP App]
    AU[Author/Admin Browser] --> A
    A --> AUTH[Auth + Session Layer]
    A --> MOD[Role Modules in src/]
    MOD --> DAL[Data Access Helpers]
    DAL --> DB[(MySQL)]
    MOD --> FS[(uploads/ + assets/)]

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Setup Instructions

1. Clone repository into XAMPP htdocs.
2. Copy .env.example to .env and set DB values.
3. Create database and import docs/schema.sql.
4. Start Apache and MySQL from XAMPP.
5. Open http://localhost/quill.

Usage

• Sign in via auth flow.
• Create/edit posts from author dashboard.
• Manage users/content from admin dashboard.
• Review published posts from viewer pages.

API / Data Layer Notes

Quill is server-rendered and does not expose a standalone REST API. Data operations are centralized in PHP utility functions under includes/functions.php.

Screenshots

• docs/screenshots/home.png (placeholder)
• docs/screenshots/author-dashboard.png (placeholder)
• docs/screenshots/admin-dashboard.png (placeholder)

Deployment

See docs/DEPLOYMENT.md for local and production deployment steps.

Future Improvements

• CSRF middleware across all state-changing routes
• Form request validation abstraction
• Unit/integration tests for auth and publishing workflows
• Structured logging and audit trails
• Optional REST API for headless clients

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development workflow and quality expectations.

License

MIT