Building RecipeHub: My Experience Developing and Deploying a Modern Recipe Sharing Platform with Django

As part of my learning journey with Django, I wanted to build a project that would challenge me beyond the basics. I decided to create RecipeHub, a web application where users can create, manage, and share recipes while exploring recipes from other users. The project started from a Django starter template, but I customized it by adding new features, redesigning the interface, and deploying it online. Features RecipeHub allows users to: Register and log in Create, edit, and delete recipes Browse recipes by category Save favourite recipes Upload recipe images Access a personal dashboard Use the application in both light and dark mode The application is fully responsive, making it easy to use on both desktop and mobile devices. Technologies Used I built the project using: Python Django Django Allauth PostgreSQL Tailwind CSS DaisyUI HTMX Vite Gunicorn Render GitHub was used for version control throughout the project. Challenges One of the biggest challenges was deployment. While everything worked locally, deploying to Render required configuring PostgreSQL, environment variables, and static files correctly. I also encountered an issue with uploaded recipe images. Since the application is hosted on Render's free tier, uploaded media is stored on an ephemeral filesystem, meaning uploaded images are lost after redeployment. Learning why this happens gave me a better understanding of the difference between development and production environments. Another challenge was redesigning the dashboards. I wanted them to feel clean and modern instead of looking like a default Django application, so I spent time improving the layout, spacing, and responsiveness. What I Learned This project helped me improve my understanding of: Django project structure Authentication and user management CRUD operations Database relationships Responsive UI design Git and GitHub workflows Deploying Django applications Debugging real-world issues More importantly, it taught me how to troubleshoot proble