[Codevel Project] – Time to get started. First up: the database

I. Why Data Matters

In any application, data is critical—especially in a dynamic web app where content changes frequently.
For a static website, you only need prewritten HTML files rendered at predefined URLs, so there’s no real need for a database.

Codevel.io, however, is a platform I built for sharing information and publishing articles. Posts are accessible via URLs that include a slug (a URL-friendly string derived from the title—for example, Hello World becomes hello-world).

Defining the data model for a website is extremely important. It shapes:

• The information delivered to users

• The features you can build

• The site’s overall workflow

By the time I wrote this, I already had the basic structure in mind. Early versions had extras and missing pieces—I gradually refined the schema as I coded. =)))

II. Main Tables and Key Attributes

1. User

• Username / Password → login credentials

• Email → password recovery

• Role → access control (on my site: just ADMIN and USER)

2. Post

• Title

• Description

• Content

• Cover (cover image)

• Slug → clean URL generated from the title

I don’t use numeric IDs in the URL. Instead, slugs make the URL more meaningful and user-friendly.

3. Category and Hashtag

• Category Name or Hashtag Name

• Slug or Code for navigation (e.g., https://codevel.io/category/category-1)

• Optional description

Relationships:

• A post → one category (1:N)

• A post → many hashtags, a hashtag → many posts (N:M)

4. LinkedPost / Series

At first, I created a LinkedPost table to store previous/next post references. This helps when posts belong to the same series (like the Codevel Project series).
However, I realized this approach isn’t ideal.
My plan now is to create a Series table to store posts by topic and their order—so users can view all posts in a series, not just navigate via “Next/Previous.”

5. Token

Handles login sessions:

• token

• username

I allow multiple devices and browsers, so a single username can have multiple tokens at once.

III. Wrap-Up

For now, these are the core tables for Codevel.io. As I keep coding, I may add more intermediate tables, but the ones above form the backbone.

I’ll stop here for this article. If you have suggestions, feel free to reach out—your feedback might inspire a future post in this series. =))) I really want to share the tricky parts I’ve faced while coding.