README

Startpoint

A multilingual blog platform and support system built for the modern web.

Publish in Farsi. Reach readers in Arabic. Welcome the world in English.

What Is Startpoint?

Startpoint is a production-ready, multilingual content platform that combines a full-featured blog engine with a built-in customer support ticketing system. It was designed from the ground up to serve audiences that read right-to-left — Persian and Arabic — while remaining equally polished in left-to-right languages like English.

Unlike generic CMS solutions bolted together from plugins, every layer of Startpoint — routing, UI, admin panel, language switching — was architected as a cohesive whole. You get SEO-friendly localized URLs (/en/posts/..., /ar/posts/...), automatic RTL/LTR layout switching, a cookie-and-database-backed language preference system, and a beautiful Filament 5 admin panel, all without a single line of client-side JavaScript in the public frontend.

Key Features

Content & Publishing

• Blog engine with rich post editor, categories, and meta fields (title, description, keywords)
• Reading time estimates automatically calculated from post content
• Visit counter per post with lightweight tracking
• Related posts surfaced by category
• XML sitemap auto-generated for all published posts
• Soft deletes across all content — nothing is permanently lost

Community & Engagement

• Comment system with moderation queue — comments go live only after admin approval
• Newsletter — subscribe, manage members, compose and send campaigns
• Full-text search across post titles and body content

Multilingual & RTL-First

• Three languages out of the box: Persian (fa), English (en), Arabic (ar)
• RTL/LTR auto-switching — dir and lang HTML attributes set dynamically per locale
• SEO-friendly locale URLs — /en/... and /ar/... prefixes for non-default locales; the default locale has no prefix
• Language switcher — zero JavaScript, pure link-based navigation
• Layered locale resolution: URL prefix → user preference (database) → cookie → app default
• Configurable default locale — set once in config/app.php, everything follows

Support System

• Ticket management — users submit support requests; admins triage and respond
• Ticket categories — organize requests by topic (billing, technical, general, etc.)
• Status tracking — open / pending / closed with color-coded badges in the admin

Admin Panel

• Filament 5 — modern, fast, accessible admin UI at /admin
• Post & category management with rich text editor
• Comment moderation — approve or reject with one click
• User management — promote to admin, disable accounts
• Newsletter composer — write, preview, and track sends
• Ticket inbox — full support queue with filtering by status and category

Developer Experience

• Laravel 13 slim bootstrap — no legacy Kernel.php or RouteServiceProvider
• Tailwind CSS v4 — utility-first, zero-config CSS
• No JavaScript on the frontend — server-rendered Blade, instant page loads, no hydration overhead
• Anonymous migrations — conflict-free across teams and forks
• PHP 8.4 enums — Language backed enum drives all locale logic (labels, direction, enablement)

Tech Stack

Getting Started

Requirements

• PHP 8.4+
• Composer 2
• Node.js 20+ and pnpm
• MySQL 8+ or PostgreSQL 14+

Installation

# 1. Clone and install dependencies
git clone https://github.com/mbpcoder/startpoint.git
cd startpoint
composer install
pnpm install

# 2. Environment setup
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# 3. Configure your database in .env, then run migrations
php artisan migrate

# 4. Build frontend assets
pnpm run build

# 5. Start the development server
php artisan serve

Set Your Default Language

Open config/app.php and set the locale you want as the no-prefix default:

'locale' => 'fa',    // Persian — no URL prefix, RTL layout
// 'locale' => 'en', // English — no URL prefix, LTR layout
// 'locale' => 'ar', // Arabic  — no URL prefix, RTL layout

All other enabled languages are accessible via /{locale}/... URLs automatically.

Create an Admin User

php artisan tinker
>>> \App\Models\User::create([
...     'name'     => 'Admin',
...     'username' => 'admin',
...     'email'    => 'admin@example.com',
...     'password' => bcrypt('your-password'),
...     'is_admin' => true,
... ]);

Then visit /admin to access the dashboard.

Project Structure

app/
├── Enums/
│   ├── Language.php             # Backed enum — FA, EN, AR; RTL logic; labels
│   └── EnumOperationsTrait.php
├── Filament/Resources/          # Filament 5 admin resources (8 resources)
├── Helpers/helpers.php          # lroute(), locale_path(), clean_path()
├── Http/
│   ├── Controllers/             # Blog + auth + support controllers
│   └── Middleware/SetLocale.php
└── Models/                      # User, Post, Category, Comment,
                                 # Newsletter, NewsletterMember, Ticket, TicketCategory

lang/
├── fa.json / en.json / ar.json  # UI string translations
└── {locale}/enums.php           # Enum label translations per locale

routes/
├── web.php      # Auth routes + locale-grouped public route registration
└── public.php   # Shared public route definitions (included once per locale)

resources/views/
├── layouts/     # main.blade.php (public), app.blade.php (auth)
├── components/  # language-switcher, category-sidebar, post-card, ...
├── posts/
├── auth/
└── index.blade.php

Multilingual Architecture

Startpoint uses a route-group-per-locale strategy. The file routes/public.php is a single shared route definition included once per enabled locale. The default locale group carries no URL prefix; all others get /{locale} prefix and a matching route name prefix.

GET /                     → home (default locale, e.g. fa)
GET /posts/my-article     → posts.show (default locale)
GET /en                   → en.home
GET /en/posts/my-article  → en.posts.show
GET /ar/posts/my-article  → ar.posts.show

The lroute('posts.show', $id) helper automatically picks the right named route based on the active locale — no manual locale-checking needed in views.

Language preference is resolved in this order on every request:

1. URL prefix — explicit, SEO-friendly, takes priority
2. User database column (users.locale) — persisted for logged-in users
3. Cookie (locale, 1-year) — persisted for guests
4. app.locale — the configured default

Roadmap

• Tag-based filtering and tag pages
• Post scheduling (future published_at)
• RSS / Atom feed
• Email notifications for new comments
• API endpoints for headless / mobile clients
• Dark mode
• More locales (Urdu, Turkish, Kurdish)

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

License

MIT — free to use with attribution.