Published on 2025-04-14 10:27 by Kevin Coyle

Let’s get social and FAST

I made a couple architecture decisions that might hurt me in the future. I also made an update to the Open Graph social content which probably won’t hurt anyone (and makes sharing more cool).

Backend Let’s Gooooooo

I wrote the backend with FastAPI. I did this because like a true analytics nerd, I have some vague notions that the future might contain some sort of analytics on these pages? I don’t know why. Maybe it’s my data science training. I also set up some databases - I’m AWS as my cloud provider so I’ve got S3 for the video content stuff, Postgres for the relational stuff, and Lambda for some one off jobs.

I hope I don’t stay up late at night regretting this and every other life decision I’ve ever made.

First devopsy stuff

I technically started by containerizing a bunch of stuff. However, I added that.

I’m teaching a class on AWS and Terraform with Caltech rn and we’re using Localstack to mock AWS services. I really am loving this as a pattern, so I’ll keep this up.

Now with Community

You might recall that a major reason for this whole project is building community. I’m still working through my textbook Community Building on the Web which is definitely dated but has some gems and evergreen ideas in it.

What shipped

• Full backend scaffold (FastAPI)
  • New backend/ service with API routes: community, lessons, progress, users
  • Core modules for config, Postgres and DynamoDB access, data models, and services
  • Entrypoints for local server and AWS Lambda
  • Test scaffolding and health check
• Local dev + infra
  • docker-compose.yml to run backend locally alongside the Next.js app
  • SQL migrations (migrations/001_create_tables.sql)
  • Backend packaging (pyproject.toml, requirements.txt, Dockerfile)
• App APIs and UI
  • Next.js API routes to mirror backend areas:
    • src/app/api/community/{questions,answers,votes}/route.ts
    • src/app/api/lessons/[lessonId]/route.ts, src/app/api/lessons/route.ts
  • Community screens and Q&A components
  • Trails filter sidebar and layout upgrades
• Metadata polish
  • Continued refinement of Open Graph/Twitter metadata on pages like about, module, trails, and dynamic badge pages

Scope and size

• All in all, I changed 50 files!
• Major areas touched:
  • Backend: APIs, core, services, tests
  • Frontend: Next.js API routes, community UI, trails filter
  • Migrations and app wiring

Why it matters

• Real backend: Move from mock data toward production-ready services (Postgres, DynamoDB/S3 options, LocalStack for dev).
• End-to-end Q&A: Community flows backed by database and API endpoints.
• Sharable content: Stronger OG/Twitter metadata for clean previews on social.

Notable files

• Backend
  • backend/app/api/v1/{community,lessons,progress,users}.py
  • backend/app/core/{config,db_postgres,db_dynamo,models}.py
  • backend/app/{main.py,lambda_handler.py}
  • backend/requirements.txt, backend/pyproject.toml, backend/Dockerfile
  • backend/tests/{conftest.py,test_health.py}
• Frontend/API
  • src/app/api/community/{questions,answers,votes}/route.ts
  • src/app/api/lessons/[lessonId]/route.ts, src/app/api/lessons/route.ts
  • src/components/community/{QuestionForm,AnswerForm,AnswerList,VoteButton}.tsx
  • src/components/ui/{sidebar,trails-filter-sidebar}.tsx
  • src/app/trails/{layout.tsx,page.tsx}
  • src/app/community/{page.tsx,[questionId]/page.tsx}
  • src/app/badge/[badgeId]/page.tsx, src/app/module/[moduleId]/page.tsx, src/app/layout.tsx

Better logo!

Last, but most visible to this blog… ChatGPT has a new image model and it is leaps and bounds better than the last model. The new cover image is the result of this!

Written by Kevin Coyle