ReviewNet

A community-focused book discovery and discussion platform built with Flask. ReviewNet lets readers share reviews, comment on other users' thoughts, host book club-style discussions, manage a shopping cart, and receive personalized book recommendations from OpenAI.

Features

• User authentication with registration, login, logout, and profile management (including favourite books and profile picture uploads).
• Comment and review system that supports threaded replies tied to each book entry.
• Dedicated discussion board for new book topics, with admin moderation tools for discussions, comments, and users.
• Shopping cart and order management with customer checkout flow plus admin order overview/status updates.
• OpenAI-powered recommendation API that logs history for authenticated users.
• Contact form and newsletter capture for visitor outreach.

Tech stack

• Python 3.11+ (Flask application)
• Flask extensions: Flask-MySQLdb, python-dotenv
• MySQL database (schema includes accounts, reviews, comments, discussions, cart/order tables, newsletter subscribers, recommendation logs)
• OpenAI gpt-3.5-turbo for recommendations
• JavaScript/HTML templates under templates/ with static assets under static/

Getting started

1. Install Python dependencies (preferably inside a virtual environment):

   python -m venv .venv
   .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1   # PowerShell on Windows
   pip install flask flask_mysqldb mysqlclient openai python-dotenv

2. Copy .env.example (create if missing) to .env and populate the runtime secrets and credentials:

   FLASK_SECRET_KEY=some-long-random-string
   OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxx
   MYSQL_HOST=localhost
   MYSQL_USER=root
   MYSQL_PASSWORD=PASSWORD
   MYSQL_DB=geeklogin
   

3. Ensure MySQL is running, create the geeklogin database, and load the schema script:

   mysql -u root -p geeklogin < schema.sql

4. Activate the virtual environment, install dependencies, and run the server:

   .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
   python app.py

Database schema hints

The app assumes the following tables (columns shown are primary expectations; adapt as needed):

• accounts(id PK, username, password, email, is_admin BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE, favourite_books TEXT, profile_pic TEXT)
• reviews(id PK, user_id FK accounts.id, content, created_at)
• comments(id, review_id FK reviews.id, user_id FK accounts.id, content, parent_id NULLABLE, created_at)
• discussions(id, user_id, title, brief, book_name, banner_image, created_at)
• discussion_comments(id, discussion_id, user_id, content, created_at)
• cart_items(id, user_id, book_title, book_author, price DECIMAL, book_image, quantity)
• orders(id, user_id, total_amount DECIMAL, payment_method, shipping_address, phone, status, created_at)
• order_items(id, order_id FK orders.id, book_title, book_author, book_image, price, quantity)
• recommendation_history(id, user_id, genre, book_read, preferences, recommendations JSON/TEXT, created_at)
• contact_messages(id, name, email, subject, message, created_at)
• newsletter_subscribers(id, email UNIQUE)

The included schema.sql file provisions the tables shown below; adapt it if you add new features. Add indexes/FKs as needed and ensure the MySQL user defined in .env has CRUD access.

Configuration

• The Flask app now reads FLASK_SECRET_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, and MYSQL_{HOST,USER,PASSWORD,DB} from the environment; keep those values out of version control and rotate them before production deploys.
• Uploads land in static/uploads (and static/uploads/discussions/). Keep that directory writable and add it to .gitignore if needed.

Running the app

.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python app.py

The server launches on http://127.0.0.1:5000 by default. Access the admin panel via /setup_admin to bootstraps a single admin user (uses key reviewnet_setup_2025).

API endpoints

• POST /api/get_recommendations: Payload { "genre": "", "book_read": "", "preferences": "" } returns OpenAI recommendations and logs history.
• Cart management routes (/api/add-to-cart, /api/get-cart, /api/remove-from-cart, /api/update-cart, /api/clear-cart, /api/get-cart-count) require authentication via session cookie.
• Order flow (/place_order, /order_success/<id>, /my_orders, /order_details/<id>) plus admin order management routes under /admin/orders, /admin/update_order_status, /admin/delete_order.

Testing & utilities

• python test_api.py exercises the OpenAI client (requires OPENAI_API_KEY in .env).
• python check_env.py confirms the environment key is loading correctly.

Directory structure

• app.py: Flask routes, OpenAI integration, carts, orders, reviews/discussions, admin features.
• books_data.py: Sample book metadata helpers.
• templates/: HTML templates (home, book pages, discussion views, admin, cart, etc.).
• static/: CSS/JS/assets; uploads saved under static/uploads.

Notes

• Secure the secret key and database credentials before deploying.
• Batch your MySQL migrations/schemas in SQL scripts if sharing the project.
• Review /static/uploads for large binary files before committing.

Let me know if you need help adding automated tests, Dockerization, or translating this README to Markdown for GitHub.

Visual previews

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•