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+# Panels
+
+A proof-of-concept forum application created using a microservices architecture.
+
+![Panels Banner](/docs/img-1.png)
+
+## About
+
+This application was created as a hobby project in spare time. In current form the application serves as a proof of concept containing bare-bones functionality.
+
+There are definitely aspects that I'd like to improve or polish further, in addition to some ideas for functionality that I would like to implement at some point. As such, the project should be considered a work-in-progress at this stage.
+
+## Architecture
+
+Users are served the React site from the ``frontend`` and make calls to the REST API exposed by the ``gateway-service``. The ``gateway-service`` makes calls to the relevant services for the request.
+
+Interservice communication is handled through RPC calls (utilising [gRPC](https://grpc.io/)) and [event sourcing](https://microservices.io/patterns/data/event-sourcing.html) (utilising [Kafka](https://kafka.apache.org/)).
+
+![Architecture](/docs/img-2.png)
+
+## Services
+
+I used a variety of languages for writing the services as this was created as a hobby project and the architecture gave me some room to play around with.
+
+| Service | Language | Datastores | Description |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| [frontend](/services/frontend) | TypeScript (React) | N/A | Web-based user interface |
+| [gateway-service](/services/gateway-service) | Golang | N/A | Exposes a HTTP REST API to allow users to communicate with the application. |
+| [panel-service](/services/panel-service) | Golang | [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/), [Redis](https://redis.io/) | Responsible for operations related to panels |
+| [post-service](/services/post-service) | Golang | [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/), [Redis](https://redis.io/) | Responsible for operations related to posts |
+| [user-service](/services/user-service) | TypeScript (Node) | [MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/) | Responsible for operations related to users |
+| [auth-service](/services/auth-service) | Python | [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/) | Responsible for authenticating users |
+| [comment-service](/services/comment-service) | Python | [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/), [Redis](https://redis.io/) | Responsible for operations related to comments |
+
+## Deployment and Configuration
+
+For more information about configuration and deployment, please view the [documentation](/docs/README.md) located in the ``/docs`` folder.
+
+## License
+
+**Acknowledgments:**
+
+* Logo Icon: [Tabler Icons](https://github.com/tabler/tabler-icons) ([MIT License](https://github.com/tabler/tabler-icons/blob/master/LICENSE))
+* Logo Font: [Oregano](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Oregano) ([Open Font License](https://scripts.sil.org/OFL))
+
+This repository is licensed under the [Apache License v2.0](/LICENSE).
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+# Panels Documentation
+
+## Contributing
+
+This project is a work-in-progress hobby project, however contributions are welcome. Please feel free to open issues or make a pull request.
+
+## Deployment
+
+### Using [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/):
+
+The application can be deployed to Kubernetes using [Skaffold](https://skaffold.dev/):
+
+> skaffold run
+
+Note that when deploying to Kubernetes you will need to have deployed Redis, Postgres and Mongo instances off cluster and adjusted your configuration for the services.
+
+### Using [Docker](https://www.docker.com/):
+
+The application can be easily deployed with [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) using the following command from the root directory:
+
+> docker compose up
+
+When deploying using Docker Compose, the default container configuration (exposed as environment variables in [docker-compose.yaml](/docker-compose.yaml)) can be left as is.
+
+This is presuming that the [docker-compose.override.yaml](/docker-compose.override.yaml) file, which contains specification for the instances that each service requires, is also being used. However, if solely the [docker-compose.yaml](/docker-compose.yaml) is being used then the configuration will need to be changed to point to your instances of the databases.
+
+## Configuration
+
+For an outline on the environment variables that each service requires, or events that are produced/consumed by the services, view the documentation for the individual services (located in the ``README.md`` files of each service folder). 
+
+Here is a table for easy access:
+
+| Service | Documentation | Example Configuration |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| [frontend](/services/frontend) | [README.md](/services/frontend/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/frontend/.env.example) |
+| [gateway-service](/services/gateway-service) | [README.md](/services/gateway-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/gateway-service/.env.example) |
+| [panel-service](/services/panel-service) | [README.md](/services/panel-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/panel-service/.env.example) |
+| [post-service](/services/post-service) | [README.md](/services/post-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/post-service/.env.example) |
+| [user-service](/services/user-service) | [README.md](/services/user-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/user-service/.env.example) |
+| [auth-service](/services/auth-service) | [README.md](/services/auth-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/auth-service/.env.example) |
+| [comment-service](/services/comment-service) | [README.md](/services/comment-service/README.md) | [.env.example](/services/comment-service/.env.example) |
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