🧶 I Built a Production-Ready Blogging Platform with Django, DRF & Supabase

Source: Dev.to

Overview

I wanted to go beyond a basic CRUD app, so I built StitchTales — a full‑stack blogging platform for creators to publish tutorials and stories. It includes authentication, REST APIs, image storage, and production deployment.

• Live demo: https://stitchtales.up.railway.app
• Source code: https://github.com/sneh1117/stitchtales

Tech Stack

• Django 5.2
• Django REST Framework
• PostgreSQL (Railway)
• Supabase Storage (custom Django storage backend)
• HTMX
• Whitenoise
• Token + session authentication

Core Features

• Full blog CRUD with draft → publish workflow
• Slug‑based URLs + SEO fields
• Categories, tags, view tracking
• Comment moderation + like system (HTMX)
• Profile system with avatars + social links
• Public REST API with permission control
• Production‑ready deployment on Railway

API Endpoints

GET    /api/posts/
GET    /api/posts//
POST   /api/posts/
PUT    /api/posts//
DELETE /api/posts//
POST   /api/auth/token/

Design Decisions

• Access control:

  • Public read access
  • Authenticated write access
  • Author‑only updates/deletes

• Slug‑based lookups instead of numeric IDs for cleaner URLs.

• Pagination enabled for list endpoints.

Supabase Storage Backend

Instead of using AWS, I built a custom Django storage backend for Supabase. This required:

• Understanding Django’s storage API
• Handling server‑side uploads securely
• Generating public CDN URLs
• Structuring bucket organization cleanly

The approach kept the stack simple while remaining production‑capable.

Frontend Choice

I intentionally avoided a heavy frontend framework. HTMX provided:

• Dynamic likes without page reloads
• Cleaner backend focus
• Simpler architecture
• Faster development

It proved to be the right tool for the project size.

Environment & Configuration

• Local: SQLite
• Production: PostgreSQL
• CSRF + trusted origins configured
• DEBUG=False in production
• Whitenoise for static files
• Sitemap & robots.txt for SEO

Production Enhancements

• Automated tests
• CI/CD pipeline
• Redis caching
• Rate limiting
• Social authentication
• Structured logging

Takeaways

This project demonstrates:

• Clean backend architecture
• Thoughtful API design
• External storage integration
• Production deployment awareness
• Full‑stack decision‑making

If you’re hiring for a backend or full‑stack role, I’d love your feedback.

— Sneha