Hobbscussion

A simple networking app for people to come together, discuss, and collaborate on projects!

Deployment

To deploy this project:

1. Download the zip file
2. Unzip
3. Open command prompt in the unzipped folder
4. npm install
5. Open a command prompt in both my-app and express-app
6. run npm i in my-app, then run npm dev in my-app
7. run node . in express-app

Now, the react website should be running at localhost:3000, and the api should be running at localhost:9000

Dependencies Used

• React
• NextJS
• Tailwind
• Font Awesome
• NPM
  • bcrypt: for hashing passwords
  • cookie: for parsing and handling browser cookies
  • cors: for enabling communication between the React app and the server
  • cross-fetch: to make sure fetch is possible in all environments
  • express: handling server requests
  • mongodb: for storing user data, community data, and posts
  • uuid: for creating unique ids for data

Future Improvements

• Change MongoDB format
  • Currently, the MongoDB has posts nested within the communities and profiles. I'd like to later change this so that all posts are contained within one table, and so that posts are fetched based on community / user
• Add email verification
• Add settings
• Add different sorting methods for posts in profiles and communities
• Add a commenting feature
• Make UI more user friendly

Acknowledgements

• Discord
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Threads
• João Henrique from FreeCodeCamp
• Scott Arciszewski via Stack Exchange

API Reference

These are the API routes for the server located at PORT:3000

GET /

Redirects to the React app's homepage.

POST /register

Registers a new user.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
username	string	The username of the new user.	Yes
email	string	The email of the new user.	Yes
password	string	The password of the new user.	Yes
confirmedPassword	string	Confirmation of the password.	Yes
tos	boolean	Agreement to the terms of service.	Yes

POST /login

Authenticates a user and returns a session cookie.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
username	string	The username of the user.	Yes
password	string	The password of the user.	Yes
rememberMe	boolean	Whether to remember the user.	No

POST /verifyCookie

Verifies if a session cookie is valid.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
session_id	string	The session cookie to verify.	Yes
id	string	The user ID to verify against the cookie.	Yes

POST /community/create

Creates a new community.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
name	string	The name of the community.	Yes
icon	string	The icon of the community.	No
description	string	The description of the community.	Yes
owner	string	The ID of the user creating the community.	Yes

POST /community/join

Allows a user to join a community.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
communityId	string	The ID of the community to join.	Yes

POST /community/leave

Allows a user to leave a community.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
communityId	string	The ID of the community to leave.	Yes

GET /community/:communityId/posts/:postId

Retrieves a specific post from a community.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
communityId	string	The ID of the community.	Yes
postId	string	The ID of the post.	Yes

POST /community/:id/post

Creates a new post in a community.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
id	string	The ID of the community.	Yes
title	string	The title of the post.	Yes
content	string	The content of the post.	Yes
userId	string	The ID of the user creating the post.	Yes

GET /community/:id

Gets info on a community

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
id	string	The ID of the community.	Yes

GET /profile/self

Gets the profile corresponding to the authorization token provided

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
authorization (via headers)	string	The User's Session ID	Yes

POST /profile/post

Create a new post in a user's profile

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
author	string	The post's author	Yes
title	string	The post's title	Yes
content	string	The post's content	Yes
authorization (via headers)	string	The User's Session ID	Yes

GET /profile/:userId/posts

Gets a user's profile's posts

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
userId	string	The ID of the user.	Yes

GET /profile/:userId/posts/:postId

Gets a specific post from a user

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
userId	string	The ID of the user.	Yes
postId	string	The ID of the post.	Yes

GET /profile/:id

Gets a specific user

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
id	string	The ID of the user.	Yes

GET /posts/popular

Gets posts currently popular and sorted via a popularity function

Parameter	Type	Description	Required

GET community/popular

Gets communities currently popular and sorted via a popularity function

Parameter	Type	Description	Required

GET /home/communities

Gets a list of communities for the home page

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
authorization (via headers)	string	The User's Session ID	Yes

GET /search

Searches users' profiles, communities, and posts for a specific keyword

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
q	string	The query of the search	Yes