FastAPI Social API

A production-ready RESTful social media backend API built with FastAPI, PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy, and JWT authentication. The application is deployed on Render and uses a cloud PostgreSQL database hosted on Neon.

This project allows users to register, authenticate using JWT tokens, create posts, vote on posts, and interact with a PostgreSQL database.

Live API

🔗 https://fastapi-social-api-11q7.onrender.com

Swagger Documentation

📖 https://fastapi-social-api-11q7.onrender.com/docs

🚀 Quick Start Guide

To test the API through Swagger UI, follow these steps:

1. Create a User Account

Use the POST /users endpoint to create a new user account.

2. Authorize

Click the Authorize button at the top of the Swagger UI.

Enter:

• username: your email address
• password: your password

Then click Authorize.

Swagger will automatically obtain and use a JWT access token for all protected endpoints.

3. Test Protected Endpoints

After authorization, you can access protected endpoints such as:

• Create Post
• Update Post
• Delete Post
• Vote on Posts

All protected endpoints require authentication.

Features

• User registration
• JWT Authentication
• Login system
• Create, update and delete posts
• Vote system
• Ownership protection
• PostgreSQL database
• SQLAlchemy ORM
• Alembic migrations
• CORS support
• Environment variable configuration

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• 🐍 Python
• ⚡ FastAPI
• 🐘 PostgreSQL
• 🗄️ SQLAlchemy
• 🔄 Alembic
• 🔐 JWT Authentication
• ✅ Pydantic
• 🚀 Uvicorn
• ☁️ Neon Database
• 🌐 Render

☁️ Deployment

• Backend deployed on Render
• PostgreSQL database hosted on Neon
• Database schema managed with Alembic migrations
• Interactive API documentation available via Swagger/OpenAPI

Live API: https://fastapi-social-api-11q7.onrender.com

Swagger Docs: https://fastapi-social-api-11q7.onrender.com/docs

Production Deployment

• Backend deployed on Render
• PostgreSQL database hosted on Neon
• Environment variables managed securely through Render
• Database migrations managed using Alembic
• Interactive API documentation generated with Swagger/OpenAPI

🔒 Security Features

• JWT-based authentication

• Password hashing using Argon2

• Protected routes with token validation

• Ownership checks for post updates and deletions

• Environment variables for sensitive configuration

  🏗️ Architecture

Client ↓ FastAPI ↓ SQLAlchemy ORM ↓ PostgreSQL (Neon)

Project Structure

FastAPI_Social_API/
│
├── app/
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.py
│   │   ├── posts.py
│   │   ├── users.py
│   │   └── votes.py
│   │
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── schemas.py
│   ├── oauth2.py
│   ├── config.py
│   ├── utils.py
│   ├── database.py
│   └── main.py
│
├── alembic/
├── requirements.txt
├── .gitignore
├── .env.example
└── README.md

📸 Screenshots

Swagger UI Overview

API Endpoints

JWT Authentication

Create Post

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/VladM-Sashev/FastAPI_Social_API.git
cd FastAPI_Social_API

2. Create and activate a virtual environment

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

DATABASE_HOSTNAME=localhost
DATABASE_PORT=5432
DATABASE_NAME=fastapi_2026
DATABASE_USERNAME=postgres
DATABASE_PASSWORD=your_password

SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
ALGORITHM=HS256
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=30

⚠️ These are example values for local development only.

For production deployment, environment variables are managed securely through Render and the PostgreSQL database is hosted on Neon.

### 6. Start the application

```bash
uvicorn app.main:app --reload

7. Open API Documentation

http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs

Database Migrations

This project uses Alembic for database version control.

To apply all migrations:

alembic upgrade head

To create a new migration:

alembic revision --autogenerate -m "migration description"

To apply the new migration:

alembic upgrade head

API Documentation

Swagger UI:

http://localhost:8000/docs

---

Authentication

Protected routes require JWT token:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

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What I Learned

Through this project I gained practical experience with:

• Building RESTful APIs using FastAPI

• Implementing JWT authentication and authorization

• Designing relational database schemas with PostgreSQL

• Managing database migrations using Alembic

• Using SQLAlchemy ORM for database operations

• Deploying production applications on Render

• Managing cloud databases with Neon

• Working with environment variables and secret management

• Publishing API documentation with Swagger/OpenAPI

  Project Purpose

This project was developed as part of my backend software engineering portfolio to demonstrate practical experience with:

• API development
• Authentication and authorization
• Database design
• Cloud deployment
• Production configuration

Future Improvements

• Comments system
• Docker support
• WebSockets
• Redis caching
• React frontend
• Testing

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Author

Vladimir Merdzhanov