Project — Internal Knowledge Base | Development Standards

Django + Templates ~8 Hours Intermediate

What You Are Building

Build a workspace-based internal knowledge base where admins can create articles and members can search/read approved content.

This project teaches

Django models
Forms
Services
Views
Templates
Search
Categories
Permissions
Rich content
Slug routing

Flow Design

Example Flow

flowchart TD
    Login[User logs in]
    Workspace[Selects workspace]
    KB[Opens Knowledge Base]

    Login --> Workspace --> KB

    KB --> Owner[Owner Flow]
    KB --> Admin[Admin Flow]
    KB --> Member[Member Flow]

    Owner --> OwnerOverview[View knowledge across owned workspaces]
    OwnerOverview --> OwnerFilter[Search / filter / paginate articles]
    OwnerFilter --> OwnerManage[Create category, edit article, publish, archive]
    OwnerManage --> OwnerAudit[Review article visibility and content quality]

    Admin --> AdminHome[View workspace knowledge base]
    AdminHome --> AdminCategory[Create or manage categories]
    AdminCategory --> AdminDraft[Write or edit draft article]
    AdminDraft --> AdminPublish[Publish article for workspace members]
    AdminPublish -. cannot manage another workspace .-> AdminBlocked[Blocked by workspace permission rules]

    Member --> MemberHome[View published knowledge base]
    MemberHome --> MemberSearch[Search topics, categories, or article content]
    MemberSearch --> MemberRead[Open published article detail]
    MemberRead -. drafts and admin edit controls are hidden .-> MemberBlocked[Restricted actions denied]

Required Pages

Knowledge Base Home

Should show:

Search bar for article title/content.
Category cards or list.
Recently published articles.
Popular article tracking is out of scope for the base project.
Workspace-safe empty state when no article exists yet.
Pagination or “load more” if article volume grows.

Category Page

Should show:

Category title, article count, and filtered article list.
Search inside the category.
Sort by recent first by default, with optional alphabetical sort only if time remains after the base project is complete.
Pagination for long article lists.
Clear no-result state for empty categories or filtered searches.

Article Detail Page

Should show:

Title, rich content, category, author, and last updated date.
Related articles are optional only after the base project is complete and are not required for delivery.
Drafts fully blocked from member view.

Admin Article Form

Fields:

Title, slug, category, content, status, and visibility fixed to the current workspace.
Slug preview and uniqueness validation.
Rich content editor or structured content area.
Save draft and publish actions are required.
Preview mode before publish is a nice-to-have only after the base project is complete.

Data Model

Recommended models:

Model	Purpose
`KnowledgeCategory`	Groups articles.
`KnowledgeArticle`	Main article content.
`ArticleView`	Optional article analytics.

Recommended KnowledgeArticle fields:

Field	Purpose
`workspace`	Workspace relation.
`category`	Category relation.
`title`	Article title.
`slug`	URL-safe slug.
`content`	Rich article content.
`status`	Draft or published.
`created_by`	Author.
`updated_at`	Last update time.

Slug Routing

Recommended route style:

/kb/<category_slug>/<article_slug>/

Slug rules:

Slug should be unique per workspace.
Slug should not expose database ID where avoidable.
Slug should update carefully to avoid broken links.

Permission Rules

Actor	Allowed
Owner	Manage all knowledge base content.
Admin	Create/edit articles in assigned workspace.
Member	Read published articles in own workspace.
Non-member	No access.

Search Expectations

Search should work by:

Article title
Article content
Category

Use Django ORM search for the base project. PostgreSQL full-text search is a later enhancement, not part of the required delivery.

Acceptance Checklist

Admin can create category.
Admin can create article.
Draft articles are hidden from members.
Published articles are visible to workspace members.
Member cannot see articles from another workspace.
Search works.
Category filtering works.
Slug routing works.
Empty state appears when no article exists.
Business logic is handled in service layer.