CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Blog Platform

First off, thanks for taking the time to contribute! Your help is greatly appreciated.

How Can You Contribute?

There are several ways you can help make this project better:

1. Reporting bugs.
2. Suggesting new features or enhancements.
3. Writing code for new features or bug fixes.
4. Improving documentation.
5. Reviewing pull requests and offering feedback.

Getting Started

Fork and Clone the Repository

1. Fork the repository by clicking the "Fork" button on the GitHub page.
2. Clone your fork to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/blog_platform.git
   cd blog_platform

Set Up Your Development Environment

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use `venv\Scripts\activate`

2. Install the dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Set up the environment variables. Create a .env file in the project root and add your configuration:

   FLASK_APP=manage.py
   FLASK_ENV=development
   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/blog_platform

4. Set up the database:

   flask db upgrade

Running the Application

To run the application locally:

flask run