HiveMind

HiveMind is a social network that allows users to share ideas, vote on them and comment, all within an environment built with a modern technology stack: Node.JS, Express.JS, Angular, Tailwind CSS, PostgreSQL.

This repository contains the entire project divided into two main folders:

• backend: contains the Node/Express server with CRUD for ideas, users, JWT authentication, comments, and votes.
• frontend: contains the Angular Single Page Application.

Table of Contents

• Main Features
• Technologies
  • Backend
  • Frontend
• Requirements
• Project Structure
• Environment Setup
• Installation and Startup Instructions
  • Running with Docker
  • Manual Execution (without Docker)
• Main Backend Routes
• Main Frontend Features
• Notes and Contacts

Main Features

• Registration and login with JWT tokens.
• Ability to post formatted ideas using markdown.
• Ability to leave votes on ideas.
• Ability to leave comments on ideas.
• Rankings of ideas (most popular, most controversial, etc.).
• Action logging to file, with customizable detail levels.
• Responsive frontend interface developed with Angular and Tailwind CSS.

Technologies

Backend

• Node.js and Express.js
• PostgreSQL as the relational database.
• Sequelize as the ORM for PostgreSQL.
• bcrypt for password hashing.
• jsonwebtoken for JWT authentication.
• dotenv / dotenvx for environment variable management.
• cors for cross-origin requests.
• swagger-ui-express and swagger-jsdoc for API documentation (configurable in /api-docs).

Frontend

• Angular as the SPA framework.
• Tailwind CSS for styling.
• ngx-markdown for rendering Markdown.
• rxjs for reactive programming.
• jwt-decode for decoding tokens on the frontend.
• ngx-toastr for toast notifications.

Requirements

• Node.js
• npm as package manager.
• Angular CLI (optional, but recommended if running the frontend manually).
• A local installation of PostgreSQL (if not using Docker) or Docker installed (if using container mode).

Project Structure

The main structure is as follows:

backend/
│
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── AuthController.js
│   │   ├── IdeaController.js
│   │   ├── VoteController.js
│   │   ├── CommentController.js
│   │   └── UserController.js
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── User.js
│   │   ├── Idea.js
│   │   ├── Comment.js
│   │   ├── Vote.js
│   │   └── associations.js
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── Logger.js
│   │   ├── AuthValidator.js
│   │   └── hashing.js
│   ├── data/
│   │   └── db.js (connection to PostgreSQL)
│   └── routes/
│       ├── authRoutes.js
│       ├── ideaRoutes.js
│       ├── voteRoutes.js
│       └── commentRoutes.js
├── index.js (main Express entry point)
├── cleanDatabase.js (script to clean the database)
├── docker-compose.yml (configuration for the Postgres service and the backend)
└── package.json

frontend/
│
├── src/
│   └── app/
│       ├── landing-page/
│       ├── login/
│       ├── register/
│       ├── home/
│       ├── navbar/
│       └── footer/
└── package.json

HiveMind.pdf (compiled PDF document)

Environment Setup

In the backend, the following environment variables are used (managed via dotenv/dotenvx):

• PORT: Port on which the Express app listens (e.g., 3000).
• DB_HOST: Host of the PostgreSQL DB (e.g., localhost or the service name in Docker).
• DB_USER: Database user (e.g., postgres).
• DB_PASSWORD: Database password.
• DB_NAME: Name of the database.
• DB_PORT: Port of the database (e.g., 5432).
• SECRET_KEY: Secret key for signing JWT tokens.

You can place these variables in a .env file inside the “backend” folder, or set them directly in your environment.

Installation and Startup Instructions

Running with Docker

1. Make sure Docker is installed and running.
2. In the root folder, run the following command to start the backend and the PostgreSQL database:

   docker-compose up --build

This will start the backend on port 3000, thePostgreSQL database on port 5432 and the frontend on port 4200.

Manual Execution (without Docker)

1. Ensure that PostgreSQL is running locally (or on another configured host).
2. Properly configure the .env file (see Environment Setup) or export the environment variables.
3. Start the backend:

   npm install
   npm start

   By default, this will start Express on port 3000.
4. In another terminal, start the frontend:

   cd frontend
   npm install
   ng start

5. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:4200 to view the user interface.

Main Backend Routes

Authentication (AuthController)

• POST /api/auth/register – Registers a new user.
• POST /api/auth/login – Logs in and provides a JWT.

Ideas (IdeaController)

• GET /api/ideas/get – Retrieves ideas (filterable by popularity, controversy, etc.).
• GET /api/ideas/get/:id – Retrieves the details of a single idea (including comments and vote counts).
• POST /api/ideas/new – Creates a new idea (authentication required).

Votes (VoteController)

• PUT /api/votes/upvote/:id – Upvotes an idea.
• PUT /api/votes/downvote/:id – Downvotes an idea.

Comments (CommentController)

• PUT /api/comments/:id – Adds a comment to an idea.

Note: To access protected routes, you must send the header Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Main Frontend Features

• Landing Page with a brief description of the application, "Register Now" and "Login" buttons.
• Authentication forms (page /register) and login form (page /login).
• Protected Home Page (page /home) to view the stream of ideas and filter them (Mainstream, Controversial, Unpopular).
• Idea Detail Page that displays comments, votes, and offers buttons to vote and comment.
• Sidebar Navbar with links to the main pages and a logout button.
• Responsive layout built with Tailwind CSS.

Notes and Contacts

• The project was developed as part of a university Web Technologies course and includes basic logic for managing votes, comments, and authentication.
• To clean the database (in a development environment), run the cleanDatabase.js script in the backend (for example, using the command: npm run clean if specified in package.json).
• API documentation is configured using Swagger at /api-docs.
• For questions or issues, please contact the author at parentesimone.01@gmail.com.

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Have fun with HiveMind!