This project is a social entrepreneurship network that allows for the exchange of business ideas –an online meeting point for entrepreneurs and funders-. It has been built with [Python] (https://www.python.org/) using [Django] (https://www.djangoproject.com/) and a relational database.

It was given to students a basic and plain skelenton of the project. The goal was using the elements learnt in the course (and any other which could add value) to get a full stack membership site with these components:

• Account management: sing up, log in, authentication, etc.
• A forum app
• A polls app
• A blog app with Disqus system
• A payment system for subscriptions
• A contact form
• An about section with maps

Account model, register and authentication

• This project includes a custom user model.
• The email acts as username -with email authentication.
• It contains custom attributes necessary to use Stripe (payment system) and there were also added other custom attributes to collect members' information. One of them is an optional profile picture.
• It is used Stripe payment system (for membership subscriptions). Once registered and/or logged in, the user accesses to the profile page which shows his/her basic account information and subscription details. You need to be registered and logged in to see most of the content.

Member list and an individual page for display the detailed information of each member

• Only members can access to the list of members and to each individual page with detailed data.
• Those details (first name, last name, education, city, etc.) come from the register form.
• The individual page with those details is linked to every post and blog-article they write and to every forum-thread they create.

Forum with polls

• Members can engage in discussion about different types of business topics within the membership community.
• There are several subjects (like finance, marketing, strategy, etc.). Only a superuser can create them. Non-members can see them but they can’t access to their content.
• Any member can create a thread in a subject.
• Each thread, in turns, contains a poll and posts. Again, only members can create, edit and delete a post, and vote on the poll.
• The poll is created by the owner of the thread. And it will only record a vote per member.
• Threads and posts show their author. It's possible to access to authors' detailed information clicking on the link/avatar.

About

• It explains useful information about the site and the company.
• It also includes Google maps with markers for showing where offices are located.

Contact

• A form that allows any member and/or potential member to ask any kind of question to the staff.

Blog

• This blog enables members to share articles where they can explain business ideas, experiences, etc.
• Any member can create an article and add a topic picture.
• Other members can contribute commenting those articles using Disqus system.
  • Note: If you see: “We were unable to load Disqus. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide.” This is normal and is nothing to be concerned about. Disqus commenting only works when the website URL and shortname match. So once the website is published online, you should find commenting works.
• Articles show their author with a link to access to their detailed information.

Training services list

• There is a list of training services (workshops, etc.) where users can purchase them by means of PayPal payment system.
• It also includes a link to another page (using flat page) which contains details about a summit (another project named [Fintopics] (https://github.com/abmist/Project_1)).

The aim was to create a totally responsive website which keeps a minimal and functional design focused on information. For that purpose it has been used a clean, sober and subtle style - with very few decorative elements-, keeping simplicity at all times.

• Relational database: MySQL/SQLite
• [Django] (https://www.djangoproject.com/)
• [Angular.js] (https://angularjs.org/)
• [Bootstrap] (https://www.http://getbootstrap.com//)
• Python
• JavaScript
• jQuery
• HTML5
• CSS3

This project is an exercise. The goal was just to put into practice some of the concepts learnt in the course. Below you can find some improvements that could be added:

• Message system between members
• Make possible to members to update their own information
• Make possible to sort/filter threads, members, etc.
• Display user name in the navbar
• Improve UI/UX
• Pagination
• Tooltips
• Summary of threads, posts, articles, etc. of a member

Open your terminal and use the git clone command:

git clone https://github.com/abmist/fintopicsnet.git

Once the project is cloned, enter in fintopicsnet directory:

cd fintopicsnet

It's recommended to use a virtual environment (to keep isolated the dependencies required by this project). If you don't have it installed, you can do it using pip:

pip install virtualenv

Here you have the instructions: [Virtual Environment - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python] (http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/)

Create a virtual environment for this project and activate it.

Install the dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Set the database:

python manage.py migrate

Run the project:

python manage.py runserver

Once the project is running, you can open up your browser and in the URL bar enter http://127.0.0.1:8000

To use the social network, follow the steps below:

Now you have to create a superuser:

python manage.py createsuperuser

Access to admin panel:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/

Go to Accounts/Users, select your the new user that you have created and add the rest of the details (first name, last name, education, profile picture...).

Go to Threads/Subjects so as to create subjects for the forum.

Note: In the event that you can't see the pages Fintopics Summit and Terms and Conditions, you'll need to configure the flat pages in the admin panel to run it locally:

• Go to Sites and add localhost as a site.
• You'll have to enter "localhost" in Domain name and Display name. Then click on Save.
• Go to Flat Pages.
• Click on "Add". Entering the following for the page Fintopics Summit:
  • URL: /pages/summit/
  • Title: Summit
  • Sites: localhost
  • Advance options (show) > Template name: flatpages/summit.html
  • Then click on Save.
• Click on "Add". Entering the following for the page Terms and Conditions:
  • URL: /pages/terms/
  • Title: Legal
  • Sites: localhost
  • Advance options (show) > Template name: flatpages/legal.html
  • Then click on Save.
• Make sure that the SITE_ID (an integer) used in fintopicsnet/settings.py and settings/base.py is the same as the one that appears in the browser toolbar when you added localhost as a site.
  • For example, if you see http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/sites/site/3/, the SITE_ID is 3.

If you want to test the register, use the following credit card data:

• Credit card number: 4242424242424242
• CVV: 123
• Expiration month: 9
• Expiration year: 2033

Deployed thanks to Heroku.

Fintopicsnet

Note: It's possible that you can't see images uploaded by users (profile/avatar pictures and blog photos). Once deployed, those images only last few hours. This happens because of Heroku's limits -it's ephemeral filesystem. All dynos are cycled every 24 hours.

In the event that Heroku couldn't display the website, below there are some screenshots:

Home (gif):

Profile (Note: The member showed on the screenshot is a superuser. If he was a normal user, a longer stripe id would appears and the subscription period wouldn't be 0 minutes.)

Member list:

Member detailed info:

Blog:

Blog article:

Subjects (forum):

Threads (forum/subject):

Thread (forum/subject/thread):

Posts (forum/subject/thread):

New thread (forum/subject/thread):