Gator CLI - Blog Aggregator

Gator CLI is a command-line tool for aggregating and managing RSS feeds. Users can log in, follow feeds, and browse posts from their favorite blogs.

Requirements

Before running the Gator CLI, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

PostgreSQL: The database used to store users, feeds, and posts.
Go: The programming language used to develop the Gator CLI.

Install PostgreSQL

Follow the official PostgreSQL installation guide for your operating system. Note your connection details (username, password, host, port, and database name) as they will be needed for configuration.

Install Go

Follow the official Go installation guide to install the latest version of Go.

Installation

To install the Gator CLI, use the following command in your terminal:

go install github.com/seanhuebl/blog_aggregator/cmd/gator@latest

This command will fetch, build, and install the CLI tool into your Go binary directory. Ensure the Go binary path is added to your system's PATH to use gator globally.

Configuration

To run the Gator CLI, you need to set up a configuration file. This file should be created in your home directory with the name .gatorconfig.json.

Example Configuration File

{
  "db_url": "connection_string_goes_here",
  "current_user_name": "username_goes_here"
}

Database Connection String Format

The db_url field must follow this format:

protocol://username:password@host:port/database?sslmode=disable

Replace protocol, username, password, host, port, and database with your PostgreSQL setup details.
Use sslmode=disable unless SSL is explicitly required for your database.

Example Connection String

"db_url": "postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/mydatabase?sslmode=disable"

Running the Program

Once the configuration file is set up, you can run the Gator CLI using:

gator <command> [arguments]

Available Commands

Login: Set the current user for the CLI.
```
gator login <username>
```
Register: Create a new user in the system.
```
gator register <username>
```
AddFeed: Add a new feed and follow it.
```
gator addfeed <feed_name> <feed_url>
```
Follow: Follow an existing feed.
```
gator follow <feed_url>
```
Unfollow: Unfollow a feed.
```
gator unfollow <feed_url>
```
Feeds: List all available feeds.
```
gator feeds
```
Following: List feeds you are currently following.
```
gator following
```
Browse: Browse posts from feeds you follow. Optionally specify the number of posts to retrieve.
```
gator browse [limit]
```
Reset: Delete all users and reset the system.
```
gator reset
```
Aggregate (Agg): Periodically fetch new posts from feeds.
```
gator agg <interval>
```
- <interval>: Time duration between fetches (e.g., 30s, 5m, 1h).

Example Workflow

Set up PostgreSQL and configure the connection string in .gatorconfig.json.
Run the CLI:
- Register a user: gator register user1
- Add and follow a feed: gator addfeed "Tech News" "https://example.com/rss"
- In a seperate terminal run: gator agg <interval>
- Browse posts: gator browse 5

My Learning Journey

This project was part of a guided learning experience with minimal pseudocode provided. It introduced me to several important concepts in building backend systems and working with databases, including:

Connecting to Databases: Using Go and PostgreSQL to manage data storage and retrieval. Managing Migrations: Using the goose library to handle database schema migrations seamlessly. Generating Go Code for Queries: Leveraging sqlc to generate type-safe Go code directly from SQL queries. Through this project, I’ve gained hands-on experience in integrating these tools and begun to understand the fundamentals of how full web applications are developed. It's an exciting step toward building more complex and feature-rich applications in the future!

Troubleshooting

Ensure PostgreSQL is running and accessible with the provided connection string.
Verify the configuration file exists and is correctly formatted.
Check that the gator binary is installed and accessible from your system PATH.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Enjoy using Gator CLI!

# README