CodeMate Backend 👩‍💻❤️‍🔥

A platform connecting developers based on their skills, projects, and interests. CodeMate API provides the backend infrastructure for user authentication, profile management, connection requests, real-time chat, and more. It aims to solve the problem of finding and connecting with like-minded developers for collaboration, networking, and mentorship opportunities.

🚀 Key Features

• User Authentication: Secure user authentication and management using Clerk.
• Profile Management: Create, view, and edit developer profiles with skills, projects, and social links.
• Connection Requests: Send, accept, and reject connection requests to build your network.
• Real-time Chat: Engage in real-time conversations with other developers using WebSockets.
• Image Uploads: Upload project and profile images to Cloudinary.
• User Feed: Discover new developers based on your interests and connections.
• API Health Check: Provides a health check endpoint to monitor the API status.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Database: MongoDB, Mongoose
• Authentication: Clerk
• Real-time Communication: Socket.IO
• Cloud Storage: Cloudinary
• Environment Variables: Dotenv
• CORS: Cors
• Cookie Parsing: Cookie-parser
• Validation: validator
• Cryptography: bcrypt, jsonwebtoken, crypto (Node.js built-in)

📦 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• MongoDB account and connection string
• Clerk account and API keys
• Cloudinary account and API keys
• npm or yarn package manager

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-directory>

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   # or
   yarn install

3. Configure environment variables:

   • Create a .env file in the root directory.
   • Add the following environment variables, replacing the placeholders with your actual values:

   DB_CONNECTION_STRING=<your_mongodb_connection_string>
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=<your_cloudinary_cloud_name>
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=<your_cloudinary_api_key>
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=<your_cloudinary_api_secret>
   CLERK_SECRET_KEY=<your_clerk_secret_key>
   JWT_SECRET=<your_jwt_secret>
   FRONTEND_URL=<your_frontend_url> # e.g., https://devtinder.render.com
   

Running Locally

1. Start the server:

   npm start
   # or
   yarn start

2. The API server will be running on http://localhost:<PORT> (default port is likely 3000, check your app.js).

📂 Project Structure

├── src/
│   ├── app.js             # Main entry point for the API server
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── database.js    # MongoDB database connection configuration
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   └── auth.js        # Authentication middleware using Clerk
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── chat.js        # Mongoose model for chat messages
│   │   ├── connectionrequest.js # Mongoose model for connection requests
│   │   └── user.js        # Mongoose model for user data
│   ├── router/
│   │   ├── auth.js        # Authentication routes (Clerk webhooks, sync)
│   │   ├── chat.js        # Chat routes
│   │   ├── profile.js     # Profile routes (view, edit)
│   │   ├── requests.js    # Connection request routes (send, review)
│   │   ├── upload.js      # Image upload routes (Cloudinary)
│   │   └── user.js        # User routes (requests, connections, feed)
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── cloudinary.js  # Cloudinary configuration
│   │   ├── socket.js      # WebSocket initialization and handling
│   │   └── validation.js  # Input validation functions
│   ├── .env               # Environment variables
│   └── package.json         # Project dependencies and scripts
│   └── README.md          # Project documentation

📸 Screenshots

(Add screenshots of the API endpoints in action here)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
3. Make your changes and commit them with descriptive messages.
4. Push your changes to your fork.
5. Submit a pull request to the main repository.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

📬 Contact

Vanshika Agarwal - vanshikaagarwal781@gmail.com

💖 Thanks Message

Thank you for checking out the CodeMate API! We hope it helps you build amazing things.

This is written by readme.ai.