BloggingProject 📝

A lightweight Spring Boot blogging application that demonstrates a full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) flow for articles. This project uses Spring Data JPA, Thymeleaf templates, and UUID primary keys stored as BINARY(16).

This is a learning project showcasing best practices in Spring Boot development.

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🚀 Live Link: BlogSpace

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Java 25 (LTS)
• Spring Boot 4.0.1 (Web, Thymeleaf, Data JPA, Validation)
• Maven (Build tool)
• MySQL 8.0 (JDBC-compatible database)
• Thymeleaf (Server-side HTML templates)
• Docker & Docker Compose (Containerization)

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✨ Key Features

• Complete CRUD Operations: Create, read, update, and delete articles through an intuitive web interface.
• UUID Primary Keys: Uses Java UUID with Hibernate's GenerationType.UUID strategy, optimized as BINARY(16) storage for database performance.
• Input Validation: Client-side and server-side validation using Jakarta validation annotations (@NotBlank, @Size).
• Automatic Timestamps: Tracks article creation and modification times with @CreationTimestamp and @UpdateTimestamp.
• Server-Side Rendering: Built with Spring MVC and Thymeleaf templates for dynamic HTML generation.
• Exception Handling: Global exception handler for graceful error management and user feedback.
• Profile-Based Configuration: Separate environment configurations for development and production.
• Production Keep-Alive Service: Scheduled pinging mechanism to keep the app alive on free hosting platforms (production profile only).

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📂 Project Structure

src/
├── main/
│   ├── java/
│   │   └── com/blog/project/
│   │       ├── BloggingProjectApplication.java  (Application entry point)
│   │       ├── controller/
│   │       │   └── BlogController.java          (Spring MVC controller for web requests)
│   │       ├── model/
│   │       │   └── Article.java                 (JPA entity with UUID ID and timestamps)
│   │       ├── repository/
│   │       │   └── BlogRepository.java          (Spring Data JPA repository)
│   │       ├── service/
│   │       │   └── KeepAliveService.java        (Scheduled task for production)
│   │       └── exception/
│   │           ├── ArticleNotFoundException.java (Custom exception)
│   │           └── GlobalExceptionHandler.java  (Centralized error handling)
│   │
│   └── resources/
│       ├── application.properties             (Main configuration)
│       ├── application-dev.properties         (Development overrides)
│       ├── application-prod.properties        (Production overrides)
│       ├── static/
│       │   └── validation.js                  (Client-side validation scripts)
│       └── templates/                         (Thymeleaf templates)
│           ├── index.html                     (Article list view)
│           ├── add.html                       (Create article form)
│           ├── update.html                    (Edit article form)
│           ├── fragments/
│           │   ├── fragment.html              (Reusable UI components)
│           │   └── layout.html                (Base layout template)
│           └── error/
│               └── error-message.html         (Error page template)
└── test/
    └── java/
        └── com/blog/project/
            └── BloggingProjectApplicationTests.java

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🔧 Setup Instructions

Option 1: Run with Docker (Recommended)

If you have Docker installed, you can spin up the Application and Database instantly.

docker-compose up --build

The app will be available at http://localhost:8080.

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Option 2: Run Manually

⚙️ Configuration

The application uses environment variables for database credentials and profile-specific configuration.

1. Set Environment Variables

   Create a .env file in the project root or set these environment variables in your system:

SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=dev
DB_URL=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/blogdb?useSSL=false&serverTimezone=UTC
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=your_secret_password

2. Database Schema This project does not automatically create the schema by default (as spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto is set to none). You must create the articles table in your database first.

CREATE DATABASE blogdb;

CREATE TABLE articles (
    id BINARY(16) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    content TEXT NOT NULL,
    author VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP,
    updated_at TIMESTAMP
);

Note: If you want Hibernate to automatically create or update the schema for you (e.g., during development), you can change the spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto property in application-dev.properties to update.

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Build the Project

From the project root, build the application using the Maven wrapper.

On Windows (cmd.exe):

mvnw.cmd clean package

On macOS / Linux:

./mvnw clean package

2. Run the Application

Run with the Spring Boot plugin (development):

On Windows (cmd.exe):

mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

On macOS / Linux:

./mvnw spring-boot:run

Or run the compiled jar after building:

java -jar target/project-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

The application will be available at http://localhost:8080 (unless you changed the port in application.properties).

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🧪 Testing

Run tests with the wrapper:

mvnw.cmd test

Or on macOS / Linux:

./mvnw test

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Developed and Maintained by Pranjal Singh