Mini Project: Blog API + Admin Login (Putting It All Together)

Let’s combine what you learned into a mini project you can actually reuse.

Features

• Admin login (sessions)
• Create/edit/delete posts (CRUD with PDO)
• JSON API endpoint for posts
• Validation and safe error handling
• CSRF protection for admin forms

Suggested folder structure

project/
  public/
    index.php
    api.php
  src/
    Controllers/
    Models/
    Services/
  views/
    login.view.php
    posts.view.php
  config/
    db.php
  storage/
    logs/

Development roadmap (step-by-step)

1. Create DB schema: users, posts
2. Build login page, store session
3. Protect admin routes using session check
4. Build CRUD pages with prepared statements
5. Add CSRF tokens to admin forms
6. Build API route: GET /api/posts
7. Add pagination to API
8. Add logs for important actions

Architecture picture

flowchart LR
  A[Browser Admin] --> B[Controllers]
  B --> C[Models/Services]
  C --> D[(MySQL via PDO)]
  B --> E[Views]
  F[Frontend App] --> G[API Controller]
  G --> C

If you want, in the next message I can generate the full drop-in code skeleton for this mini project (still beginner-friendly, but professional structure).

Next: Tell me which stack you want after PHP, Laravel deep-dive, Node, Python, or WordPress plugin development.