⚡ DevLink - Backend API

A robust RESTful API for a professional networking and dating platform, built with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. Features real-time chat, advanced authentication, email notifications, and automated scheduling.

🌐 Live API: linkdev.online

✨ Features

Core Functionality

🔐 JWT Authentication & Authorization - Secure token-based auth with cookie management
👤 User Management - Complete CRUD operations with profile customization
🤝 Connection System - Send, accept, reject connection requests
💬 Real-time Chat - Instant messaging using Socket.io
📧 Email Notifications - Automated emails via AWS SES
⏰ Scheduled Tasks - Cron jobs for daily connection digests
🔍 Advanced Queries - Complex MongoDB aggregations and filtering

Technical Highlights

Password hashing with bcrypt
Data validation with Mongoose and validator.js
Custom middleware for authentication and error handling
MongoDB indexing for optimized queries
RESTful API design with proper HTTP methods
Comprehensive error handling and logging

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend Framework

Node.js
Express.js

Database

MongoDB (MongoDB Atlas)
Mongoose ODM

Authentication & Security

JWT (jsonwebtoken)
bcrypt
cookie-parser
validator

Real-time Features

Socket.io

Cloud Services

AWS SES (Simple Email Service)
AWS SDK v3

Task Scheduling

node-cron
date-fns

Development Tools

Nodemon
Postman (API testing)

📚 API Endpoints

Authentication Routes

POST   /signup              - Register new user
POST   /login               - User login
POST   /logout              - User logout

Profile Routes

GET    /profile             - Get logged-in user profile
PATCH  /profile/edit        - Update profile details
PATCH  /profile/password    - Change password

Connection Request Routes

POST   /request/send/:status/:userId           - Send connection request
POST   /request/review/:status/:requestId      - Accept/reject request
GET    /user/requests/received                 - Get pending requests
GET    /user/connections                       - Get all connections

Feed Routes

GET    /feed?page=1&limit=10                   - Get user feed with pagination

User Routes

GET    /user/:id            - Get user by ID
GET    /user/email/:email   - Get user by email
DELETE /user/:id            - Delete user
PATCH  /user/:id            - Update user

🗄️ Database Schema

User Schema

firstName, lastName (required, min: 4, max: 50)
emailId (required, unique, lowercase, validated)
password (required, min: 8, validated)
age (min: 18)
gender (custom validation)
photoUrl (validated URL)
about (max: 200)
skills (array, max: 10 skills)
timestamps (createdAt, updatedAt)

Connection Request Schema

fromUserId (ref: User)
toUserId (ref: User)
status (interested, ignored, accepted, rejected)
timestamps
Compound index on fromUserId + toUserId

🚀 Deployment

Hosting

Platform: AWS EC2 (Ubuntu)
Process Manager: PM2
Reverse Proxy: Nginx
Domain: linkdev.online
SSL: Enabled via Cloudflare

Deployment Architecture

Frontend (React)     →  Nginx (Port 80)  →  linkdev.online
Backend (Node.js)    →  PM2 (Port 7777)  →  linkdev.online/api
Database (MongoDB)   →  MongoDB Atlas    →  Cloud hosted

Nginx Configuration

location /api/ {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:7777/;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}

📦 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

Node.js (v16.17.0 or higher)
MongoDB Atlas account
AWS account (for SES)

Local Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Dhruv-Raichand/devlink-backend.git
cd devlink-backend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Create .env file
cp .env.example .env

# Add your environment variables
DATABASE_URL=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_aws_access_key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_aws_secret_key
AWS_REGION=your_aws_region
SENDER_EMAIL=your_verified_ses_email

# Start development server
npm run dev

Environment Variables

DATABASE_URL=mongodb+srv://...
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key
PORT=7777
COOKIE_DOMAIN=localhost
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_secret
AWS_REGION=ap-south-1
SENDER_EMAIL=noreply@linkdev.online

🔧 Scripts

npm start          # Start production server
npm run dev        # Start development server with nodemon
npm test           # Run tests (if configured)

📡 PM2 Deployment Commands

# Start application
pm2 start npm --name "devlink-backend" -- start

# View logs
pm2 logs devlink-backend

# Monitor
pm2 monit

# Restart
pm2 restart devlink-backend

# Stop
pm2 stop devlink-backend

# Delete
pm2 delete devlink-backend

🔐 Security Features

Password hashing with bcrypt (10 salt rounds)
JWT tokens with 7-day expiry
HTTP-only cookies for token storage
Input validation and sanitization
MongoDB injection prevention
Rate limiting ready
CORS configuration with credentials

🎯 Key Learning Implementations

Middleware Chain

Authentication middleware
Error handling middleware
Request validation middleware

MongoDB Optimizations

Compound indexes for frequent queries
Pre-save hooks for password hashing
Population for related documents
Query operators ($or, $and, $nin, $ne)

Advanced Features

Pagination logic: skip = (page - 1) * limit
JWT token generation and verification
Socket.io for real-time communication
Cron jobs for scheduled tasks
AWS SES integration for emails

🔗 Related Repository

Frontend Repository: DevLink Frontend

📝 API Testing

Import the Postman collection for testing all endpoints:

Authentication flows
CRUD operations
Connection request handling
Feed pagination
Real-time chat

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

👤 Author

Dhruv Raichand

GitHub: @Dhruv-Raichand
Website: linkdev.online

🙏 Acknowledgments

MongoDB for excellent documentation
AWS for reliable cloud services
Socket.io for real-time capabilities
Express.js community

Built with 💻 and ☕ by Dhruv Raichand

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 58 Commits
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

Dhruv-Raichand/devlink-backend

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation