Revnal - A Dev Journal and Code Review Request

This is a submission for the Postmark Challenge: Inbox Innovators.

What I Built

Revnal is a Django web application designed for developers to manage their journals, share their thoughts privately or publicly, and request code reviews publicly. It features a dual journal system:

• Private journals secured by an email and a numeric PIN (format: pin: ###### or pin: ####).
• Public journals open for anyone to view.

The app enables seamless management of personal and shared content, with email-based submissions for convenience

Demo

Testing Instructions

• Send an email to the app’s inbound mail address to interact with the system.
• To submit a code review request, use or include the subject line: review
• To submit a journal entry, use the subject line: journal
• For private journals, include your PIN in the message body exactly as pin: 123456 or pin: 1234 — this PIN is required to view your private messages.
• For public journals, do not include a PIN.
• Submissions without the correct PIN format for private journals won’t be accessible.

you can change the inbound email to your own inbound mail.
install requirements.txt.
I used ngrok for testing if are using it ake sure the inbound web-hoook in postmark is as follow ('your-url/webhook/inbound/)

quick edit: you can check out the project on the website below:

Revnal

and send your email to address below:
[e-mail]

Code Repository
Link

How I Built It

Revnal was built with Django handling the backend and CSS for frontend styling. A key part of the app is its email interaction, powered by Postmark’s inbound email parsing feature. Using Postmark simplified receiving and categorizing incoming emails as journal entries or code review requests, allowing users to submit content directly via email.

I started development just two days after discovering similar apps, which inspired me to build a unique solution. ChatGPT helped scaffold parts of the backend logic, especially the differentiation between private and public journals based on PIN validation.

This project deepened my understanding of Django email workflows, secure user authentication, and third-party service integration.

Comments

[Dotallio]

Love the email-first approach, feels super convenient. Any plans to add GitHub integration for code reviews down the line?

[Dominion okorie]

I never thought of that. Will definitely look into it as an added feature thanks for Idea.