Laravel Instagram Clone

A Laravel-based Instagram clone project for learning and demonstration purposes. This project replicates the core functionalities of Instagram, allowing users to share images and interact with posts.

Table of Contents

• Description
• Technologies Used
• Main Features
• Project Setup
• Video Demo

Description

This Instagram clone project is built using the Laravel framework and incorporates several technologies and tools to provide a robust and feature-rich application.

Technologies Used

• Laravel: A powerful PHP framework for building web applications. Leveraged for its MVC architecture, routing system, ORM (Eloquent), and Blade templating engine.
• Laravel Breeze: A lightweight starter kit for Laravel authentication, providing simple authentication scaffolding using Blade views and Tailwind CSS.
• Bootstrap: Front-end framework for responsive and mobile-first design.
• Tailwind CSS: Used in conjunction with Laravel Breeze for styling the authentication views and components.
• MySQL: Database management system for storing user data, posts, likes, comments, and other application data.
• JavaScript: Used for client-side interactions, form validation, AJAX requests, and dynamic content loading.
• Cloudinary: Cloud-based image and video management platform used for image uploads, storage, transformations, and delivery.

Main Features

1. User Authentication:

   • Leveraged Laravel Breeze for quick setup of user authentication features.
   • Customized authentication views using Tailwind CSS and Blade templates.

2. Image and video Posting:

   • Utilized Cloudinary for cloud-based image and video storage, transformations, and delivery.
   • Implemented Intervention Image for additional image processing tasks within the application.

3. Interactions:

   • Enabled users to like and comment on posts using AJAX requests for seamless interactions.
   • Implemented real-time notifications using Pusher Channels for immediate feedback.

4. User Profiles:

   • Developed user profile pages with customizable avatars, bios, and posts listing.
   • Implemented followers/following and blocking functionality for social connections.

5. Feed and Explore:

   • Personalized feed based on followed users' posts, utilizing Laravel's Eloquent ORM for efficient data retrieval.
   • Explore page to discover new users and trending content, implemented with dynamic content loading.
   • Adding hashtag functionality for organizing and categorizing posts.
   • Enhancing search functionality for users and posts using Laravel Scout for full-text search capabilities.

Project Setup

Follow the installation steps mentioned below to set up the project locally. Ensure you have the necessary software dependencies installed, including PHP, Composer, and a web server environment.

Installation

1. Clone the repository: Start by cloning the repository to your local machine using the following command:

   git clone https://github.com/mostafaroshdy1/instagram-laravel.git

2. Navigate to the project directory: Move into the project directory after cloning:

   cd instagram-laravel

3. Install Redis and PHP Redis extension: Use the following commands to install Redis and the PHP Redis extension:

   sudo dnf install redis php-pecl-redis

4. Start Redis service: Start the Redis service using systemd:

   sudo systemctl start redis

5. Install Composer dependencies: Use Composer to install the project dependencies:

   composer install

6. Dump Autoload: Run Composer's autoload dump command:

   composer dump-autoload

7. Install npm dependencies: Install the Node.js dependencies using npm:

   npm install

8. Build assets: Build the assets using npm:

   npm run build

9. Run database migrations: Set up the database by running the migrations:

   php artisan migrate

10. Start the development server: Launch the Laravel development server using Artisan:

    php artisan serve

Video Demo

Check out a video demonstration of the Laravel Instagram Clone:

Click the image above to watch the video.