CollabStudy v1

Real-time Study Collaboration Platform
Build meaningful connections, share knowledge, and grow together

📖 Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Getting Started
• Usage
• Screenshots
• Architecture
• Contributing
• License
• Contact

🎯 About

CollabStudy v1 is a sophisticated collaboration platform engineered for students, researchers, and developers to create focused study spaces, exchange ideas in real-time, and foster academic growth. Built as a production-ready Django monolith, it serves as the foundation for the upcoming v2 microservices architecture with AI-powered features.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
🔐 Secure Authentication	Google & GitHub OAuth sign-in (django-allauth) — no passwords
🏠 Study Rooms	Create, join, and manage topic-specific study rooms
💬 Real-time Messaging	Instant communication within study rooms
📊 Activity Feed	Stay updated with platform-wide discussions and activities
🏷️ Topic Discovery	Explore rooms by subjects and interests
🎨 Premium UI/UX	Modern dark theme with responsive design powered by Tailwind CSS
👥 User Profiles	Customizable profiles with bios and contribution tracking
🔧 Admin Dashboard	Full Django admin panel for platform management

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend

• Framework: Django 5.x
• Language: Python 3.x
• Database: PostgreSQL (Production) / SQLite (Development)
• API: Django REST Framework
• Security: Django's built-in authentication & CSRF protection

Frontend

• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Interactivity: Vanilla JavaScript
• Icons: Custom SVG icons
• Fonts: Inter Font Family

Deployment

• Hosting: Render
• WSGI Server: Gunicorn
• Static Files: Whitenoise
• HTTPS: Auto SSL via Let's Encrypt

Deployment (Render + Neon)

Live at https://collabstudy-rwqj.onrender.com

• Hosting: Render web service (free tier, auto-deploys from main)
• Database: Neon serverless PostgreSQL — free and never expires (unlike Render's 30-day free Postgres). DATABASE_URL is set manually in the Render service's Environment tab.
• Static files: collected during the build; migrations run at startup via render.sh

Required environment variables:

Variable	Example	Purpose
SECRET_KEY	<random 50+ chars>	Django signing/security key
DEBUG	false	Must be false in production
ALLOWED_HOSTS	.onrender.com	Allowed request hosts
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	https://*.onrender.com	HTTPS origins allowed for POST
DATABASE_URL	postgres://…@…neon.tech/…	Neon PostgreSQL connection
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	<from Google Cloud>	Google OAuth client ID
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	<from Google Cloud>	Google OAuth client secret
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID	<from GitHub>	GitHub OAuth client ID
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET	<from GitHub>	GitHub OAuth client secret

⚠️ Uploaded avatars live on the instance disk and are wiped on redeploys — for permanent storage, move uploads to Cloudinary/S3 (planned for v2).

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher
• pip package manager
• Git

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Hayredin950/CollabStudy-v1.git
   cd CollabStudy-v1

2. Set up virtual environment

   # Linux/macOS
   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   
   # Windows
   python -m venv venv
   .\venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure environment Create a .env file in the root directory:

   DEBUG=True
   SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
   ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1

5. Run database migrations

   python manage.py migrate

6. Create a superuser (optional but recommended)

   python manage.py createsuperuser

7. Start the development server

   python manage.py runserver

8. Open your browser Navigate to http://localhost:8000 to see the application!

📱 Usage

For Students

1. Sign In: Click Continue with Google or Continue with GitHub (your first sign-in auto-creates your account — no passwords)
2. Explore Rooms: Browse study rooms by topics or search
3. Join Discussions: Participate in real-time conversations
4. Create Rooms: Start your own study space for specific subjects

For Admins

1. Access the admin panel at http://localhost:8000/admin
2. Manage users, rooms, messages, and topics
3. Monitor platform activity and moderate content

📸 Screenshots

Coming Soon

🏗️ Architecture

CollabStudy v1 follows Django's classic Model-View-Template (MVT) architecture:

CollabStudy-v1/
├── base/                   # Main application
│   ├── api/               # REST API endpoints
│   ├── migrations/        # Database migrations
│   ├── templates/         # HTML templates
│   ├── admin.py           # Admin configuration
│   ├── models.py          # Database models
│   ├── views.py           # Request handlers
│   └── urls.py            # URL routing
├── static/                # Static files (CSS, JS, images)
├── staticfiles/           # Collected static files for production
├── manage.py              # Django management script
└── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies

Version 2 Preview

This v1 serves as a proof of concept. Version 2 will feature:

• Microservices: NestJS, FastAPI, and standalone services
• AI Integration: LangChain-powered study assistants
• Vector Search: Semantic search using pgvector
• Real-time: WebSocket-based communication
• Modern UI: Next.js with React

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make the open-source community such an amazing place! Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

📬 Contact

Hayredin - hayredin.950@gmail.com

Project Link: https://github.com/Hayredin950/CollabStudy-v1

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Built with ❤️ by Hayredin

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