🎓 CuratED: Educational Content Platform

CuratED is an educational content curation and learning management system designed to help users discover, organize, and track their learning journey using educational videos from YouTube.

🌟 Key Features

• Smart Video Search: Find educational content with advanced filtering and relevance ranking
• Learning Playlists: Create, share, and organize educational content in custom playlists
• Progress Tracking: Track video watch history and completion status
• Feedback System: Rate and comment on educational videos
• Secure Authentication: Email verification, OTP authentication, and password management

🛠️ Technology Stack

Backend

• Framework: Django 5.2 + Django REST Framework
• Authentication: JWT with token rotation (Simple JWT)
• Database: PostgreSQL (Production) / SQLite (Development)
• Caching: Redis for production, Local Memory Cache for development
• API Documentation: Swagger/OpenAPI (drf-yasg)
• Email: SMTP with Gmail integration
• External APIs: YouTube Data API v3

Core Libraries

• django-cors-headers: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
• python-decouple: Environment configuration
• Pillow: Image processing
• django-redis: Redis cache integration
• psycopg2: PostgreSQL adapter
• requests: HTTP library for API calls
• whitenoise: Static file serving

🏗️ System Architecture

Component Organization

• accounts/: User authentication, registration, password management
• api/: YouTube integration, video search, history tracking
• playlists/: Playlist CRUD, sharing, item management
• backend/: Core settings and configuration
• templates/: Email templates for auth flows

Data Models Overview

• CustomUser: Email-based authentication with OTP support
• Playlist: User-created collections of educational videos
• PlaylistItem: Videos within playlists with ordering support
• WatchedVideo: User watch history
• VideoProgress: Tracking view progress of videos
• VideoFeedback: User ratings and comments

🚀 Installation Guide

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• pip and virtualenv
• YouTube API Key
• Gmail account (for email notifications)
• PostgreSQL (for production)
• Redis (optional, for production caching)

Development Setup

1. Clone & Setup Virtual Environment

git clone https://github.com/Techies-Collab-and-Upskill-Live-Project/CuratED.git
cd CuratED
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Linux/Mac
venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Environment Configuration

cp .env.example .env
# Generate a secure key with: python keygen.py
# Add your YouTube API key and other settings to .env

3. Database Setup

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

4. Run Development Server

python manage.py runserver

📚 Core Functionality

Authentication System

• Registration: Email-based with OTP verification
• Login: JWT token authentication
• Password Management: Reset and change workflows
• Token Security: Rotation, blacklisting, and short expiry

Video Search & Recommendation

• Smart Search: Educational content filtering
• Relevance Ranking: Algorithm to prioritize educational videos
• Metadata Enhancement: Video duration, engagement metrics
• Caching: Performance optimization for repeated searches

Playlist Management

• Creation & Organization: Personal collections of videos
• Video Management: Add, remove, reorder
• Sharing: Share with other users or make public
• Access Control: Private, shared, or public status

Learning Progress

• Watch History: Track viewed videos
• Progress Tracking: Current position in videos
• Completion Status: Calculate watch percentage

🔑 API Reference

Detailed API documentation is available via Swagger UI at /swagger/ or ReDoc at /redoc/ when running the server.

Authentication Endpoints

POST /api/v1/users/register/             # Register new user
POST /api/v1/users/verify-otp/           # Verify email with OTP
POST /api/v1/users/resend-verification/  # Resend OTP
POST /api/v1/login/                      # Obtain JWT tokens
POST /api/v1/token/refresh/              # Refresh access token
POST /api/v1/users/password-reset/       # Request password reset
POST /api/v1/users/password-reset/confirm/ # Confirm password reset
PUT  /api/v1/users/password/change/      # Change password (authenticated)

Content & Search Endpoints

GET  /api/v1/search/                     # Search educational videos
POST /api/v1/progress/mark/              # Mark video as watched
GET  /api/v1/progress/list/              # Get watch history
POST /api/v1/feedback/                   # Submit video feedback
GET  /api/v1/feedback/{video_id}/        # Get video feedback
PUT  /api/v1/videos/{video_id}/progress/ # Update video progress

Playlist Management Endpoints

GET    /api/v1/playlists/                # List user playlists
POST   /api/v1/playlists/                # Create playlist
GET    /api/v1/playlists/{id}/           # Get playlist details
PUT    /api/v1/playlists/{id}/           # Update playlist
DELETE /api/v1/playlists/{id}/           # Delete playlist
POST   /api/v1/playlists/{id}/items/     # Add video to playlist
DELETE /api/v1/playlists/{id}/items/{item_id}/ # Remove video from playlist
PATCH  /api/v1/playlists/{id}/reorder-items/ # Reorder playlist items
POST   /api/v1/playlists/{id}/share/     # Share playlist with user
POST   /api/v1/playlists/{id}/make_public/ # Make playlist public

📊 Environment Variables

The following environment variables are required in your .env file:

# Security
SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key_here

# Debug
DEBUG=True

# Allowed Hosts
ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1

# Database
DATABASE_URL=postgres://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME

# Redis
REDIS_URL=redis://:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/0

# Email
EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_USE_TLS=True
[email protected]
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=your_email_password

# YouTube API
YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_youtube_api_key_here

🧪 Testing

The project includes comprehensive test suites:

# Run all tests
python manage.py test

# Run specific test categories
python manage.py test accounts
python manage.py test api
python manage.py test playlists

# Run with coverage
coverage run --source='.' manage.py test
coverage report

🔧 Development Guidelines

Code Organization

• Models: Define data structures
• Serializers: Handle data validation and conversion
• Views: Implement API endpoints
• URLs: Define routing

Best Practices

• Create thorough tests for new features
• Use meaningful docstrings and comments
• Follow PEP 8 style guidelines
• Validate all user input with serializers
• Implement proper error handling
• Use descriptive commit messages

Common Tasks

• Adding a new endpoint: Create serializer, view, and add to urls.py
• Model changes: Make migrations with python manage.py makemigrations
• Schema updates: API docs auto-update from DRF views

🚢 Deployment

Production Considerations

• Use PostgreSQL for the database
• Enable Redis for caching
• Set DEBUG=False in production
• Use a proper WSGI server (Gunicorn)
• Set up proper static file serving
• Configure proper email backend
• Set strong SECRET_KEY
• Review and tighten CORS settings

Security Features

• JWT with short lifetimes
• Token rotation and blacklisting
• Rate limiting to prevent abuse
• Email verification for registration
• Password complexity requirements
• CORS protection

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👥 Contributors

This project is maintained by the CuratED team as part of the Techies Collab and Upskill Live Project initiative.