DataNews.co is a web application for posting and discussing data-oriented news.
Built with:
- Python/Flask
- SQLalchemy
- Backbone.js
- Require.js
- Twitter Bootstrap
- Post and discuss URLs or Text
- Vote up any post or comment
- Nested discussions
- Permalinks for every post or comment
- User pages
- Admin section
- API
- Submit via Twitter
The central part of DataNews is an item. There are several kinds of items: post, comment, page, external. Each item can be accessed at a specific url: /item/17, where 17 is the item id number.
Other notes:
- Every item has an owner, the user who created it.
- On the page for each item you can add comments, edit (if you are the owner), or upvote the item.
Posts and comments generally function the same. There is slightly different formatting and stying for Posts.
Every post has a Title and either a URL or Text. Comment consists of just text.
Pages and External links are used to add links to the footer (held in Flask's global object). A page is an internal DataNews page (e.g. About). An external link is used to link outside the site.
Only super admins can add pages.
Login is required for anything except viewing pages. A logged in user can submit posts, comments, and up vote items. Every user has a unique URL to view their information. They can also use this page to change their username, email, or twitter handle.
We use Flask-Security to handle most of user creation and authetication (with some modification).
There are three types of user roles:
| Role | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|
| user | The basic role given to all users. | Can submit posts and comment. |
| admin | Basic admin role for editing comments or posts. | Can access basic admin panel for Items and Votes. |
| super | Full-privilege admin to access the whole world. | Can access User, Role, and Twitter panels in admin area |
Currently votes are only positive. A vote includes the user who votes, the item voted for, the user who created the item, and the timestamp.
Users can submit via Twitter by adding their twitter handle to their user page (currently no verification). Then they tweet @DataNews.
There is a schedule process which checks for new mentions. If we have new mentions and we find a user with a handle then we begin the submission process. See background > twitter.py for full documentation.
DataNews uses Flask and several Flask extensions.
- Clone the repository
- Create and activate a virtual environment
- Install packages with
pip install -r requirements.txt - Create database with
python manage.py db_create. This will create a local sqlite database. - Run local webserver with
python manage.py runserver
There are several commands available in manage.py. Each can be run with python manage.py command.
| Command | Description | Options |
|---|---|---|
runserver |
Runs Flask's development server at localhost:5000. | |
db_create |
Drops all old tables and creates a new database. Will also create a super-admin user with un: admin and pw: password. This account is associated with the first admin listed in the config file. | |
db_migrate |
Creates a db migration script using Alembic | -m allows you to add a migration message. |
db_upgrade |
Upgrades db using most recent migration script. | |
build_js |
Builds the JS using r.js. Outputs a minified JS file to app.min.VERSION_NUMBER.js | -g allows you to gzip JS files (app.min.js and require.js). |
clear_cache |
Clears the application cache. | |
twitter |
Fetches posts submitted via twitter. Can be run as a background process. |
BSD license, Copyright (c) 2013 by Joe Hand. See license file for details.