LiCMS

LiCMS (Li Xin (Justin Lee) Content Management System) is a content management system used for blogging, implemented with Flask.

Requirements

• Python `3.14.0'
• Docker 28.5.2
• DataBase depending on deployment method (default in config.py, can be edited as you wish)
• Heroku: mysql (shifting to postgresql)
• Docker: mysql
• Unix: mysql
• Test Env: sqlite

Tech Reviews

• LiCMS is an all-in-one content management solution developed with the MVC design pattern, providing usage and management for posts, comments, and users.
• For the front-end, we provide both the RESTful-API solution and website solution (based on Bootstrap).
• For the back-end, we provide a Flask and Docker-based, automatic deployed and self-sustained solution with continuous-integration provided by Jenkins or Travis-CI.
• For database management, I used SQLAlchemy to simplify the complex SQL queries into object operations, which provided me with an object-oriented interface for all CRUD operations.
• For continuous integration, I integrated this project with Travis-CI and Jenkins.
• For auto-deploying and self-sustaining, thanks to docker. I achieved these with docker compose and a self-implemented flask CLI extension.
• For Tow Step Verification or 2FA, it's implemented via the TOTP (Time-based One-time Password) algorithm.
• For unexpected errors, LiCMS will email the LICMS_ADMIN configured in .env-licms.
• For enhanced performance and let python use multiple CPUs, we enabled gunicorn WSGI HTTP server for multiprocessing, it takes (2 * physical_cpus + 1) CPUs by default, (hyper-thread is assumed to be enabled).

Platform Compatibility (Front-end)

• iOS
• iPadOS
• macOS
• Linux
• Windows

Platform Compatibility (Back-end)

• macOS
• Linux
• Unix
• Heroku
• Docker
• Windows (Supported via Docker)

Deployment Guide (Docker-Ubuntu)

If you would like to deploy LiCMS via other methods, you could refer to this guide

All Contents in the <> should math in each file

Example:
If you replaced <db_host> with example.com in .env-licms, you should replace <db_host> with example.com everywhere.

1. First thing first, clone this project.

   git clone https://github.com/realJustinLee/LiCMS.git

2. First thing first, you should compose a dot-env file named .env-licms.

   cat>.env-licms<<EOF
   DB_USERNAME=<db_username>
   DB_PASSWORD=<db_password>
   DB_HOST=<db_host>
   DB_PORT=<db_port>
   DB_DATABASE=<db_database>
   SECRET_KEY=<a_super_strong_key>
   LICMS_ADMIN=<your@email.com>
   LICMS_POSTS_PER_PAGE=20
   LICMS_USERS_PER_PAGE=50
   LICMS_PASTES_PER_PAGE=40
   LICMS_COMMENTS_PER_PAGE=30
   LICMS_SLOW_DB_QUERY_TIME=0.5
   MAIL_SERVER=smtp.googlemail.com
   MAIL_PORT=587
   MAIL_USE_TLS=true
   MAIL_USERNAME=<your_separate_gmail_account>
   MAIL_PASSWORD=<your_separate_gmail_application_password>
   FLASK_APP=app.py
   FLASK_CONFIG=docker
   PREFERRED_URL_SCHEME=https
   EOF

3. Then you will need to compose another dot-env file named .env-mysql.

   cat>.env-mysql<<EOF
   MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=yes
   MYSQL_DATABASE=<db_database>
   MYSQL_USER=<db_username>
   MYSQL_PASSWORD=<db_password>     
   EOF

4. After words, replace all the licms.example.com with your own host like some-host.someone.com. In the Following file:
   • .conf/nginx/app.conf
   • init_letsencrypt.sh

     please replace <your@email.com> in this file with the email you replaced <your@email.com> in .env-licms with.

5. Run the following code to deploy the project.

   # install docker-ce for ubuntu
   ./init_ubuntu_dokcer_ce.sh
   reboot
   cd /path/to/LiCMS
   ./init_letsencrypt.sh
   ./post_reboot.sh

RESTful API auth flow

1. POST https://your.host/api/v1/tokens/ with HTTP Basic Auth:

   Username:<email>    
   Password:<password>
   

2. It will return a JSON body with token and expiration like this:

   {
       "expiration": 600,
       "token": "<token>"
   }

3. Before the token expires, you could visit other apis with HTTP Basic Auth via the token you requested.

   The token takes the place of Username and leave Password empty.

   Username:<token>    
   Password:
   

DB Migrations !!! Caution !!!

If you wanna maintain your own impl of database, or you've altered the db models, you need to do db migrations or db inits.

1. DB init:

   flask db init

2. DB upgrade:

   flask db upgrade

3. DB migrate:

   flask db migrate

Dev Hacks

If you run LiCMS in development mode, and you would like to fake some users, posts, comments, etc. Do the following.

1. First enter Flask Shell:

   flask shell

2. Fake some dev data

   # Import fake form app_core:
   from app_core import fake
      
   # Fake 100 random Users:
   fake.users(100)
   
   # Fake 100 random Users:
   fake.posts(100)
   
   # Fake 100 random Comments for random Posts by random Users:
   fake.comments(100)
   
   # Fake 100 random Follows for random Users followed by random Users:
   fake.follows(100)
   
   # Fake 100 random Pastes by random Users:
   fake.pastes(100)

Screen Shots

The Screenshot

TODO

• Paste bin for Academic use.
• OAuth Sign In (Sign In with X/Meta/Google/Apple).
• Support for Physical Security Keys.
• User banning/blocking, post banning etc.

Made with ❤ by Justin Lee!

™ and © 1997-2025 Justin Lee. All Rights Reserved. License Agreement