Whispr

Whispr is a modern social media backend and API, built for connecting, sharing, and discovering content in a dynamic community environment.

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🚀 Overview

Whispr provides a Node.js/Express REST API for a social media-like application. It uses MongoDB (via Mongoose) for persistent data storage and JWT-based authentication (with cookies). The API is suitable for frontend integration, powering features like user signup, posting, following, feeds, likes, and replies.

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⚙️ Technologies Used

• Node.js, Express.js
• MongoDB, Mongoose
• JWT (jsonwebtoken)
• bcryptjs (password hashing)
• dotenv (environment config)
• cookie-parser

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🗄️ Database Schemas

User

{
  name: String,           // Required
  username: String,       // Required, Unique
  email: String,          // Required, Unique
  password: String,       // Required (hashed)
  profilepic: String,     // Default: Gravatar URL
  followers: [String],    // Array of user IDs
  following: [String],    // Array of user IDs
  bio: String,            // Optional
  createdAt: Date,
  updatedAt: Date
}

Post

{
  postedBy: ObjectId,     // User ID (ref: User)
  content: String,        // Required, maxLength: 500
  image: String,          // Optional
  likes: [ObjectId],      // User IDs who liked the post
  replies: [
    {
      userID: ObjectId,         // User ID (ref: User)
      content: String,          // Required
      image: String,            // Optional
      likes: [ObjectId],        // User IDs who liked the reply
      userProfilePic: String,   // User's profile picture
      username: String          // User's username
    }
  ],
  createdAt: Date,
  updatedAt: Date
}

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🔐 Authentication

• JWT is used for authentication, stored in an HTTP-only cookie named jwt.
• All protected routes require the user to be authenticated (cookie must be present).

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🚦 API Routes

User Routes (/api/users)

Method	Endpoint	Auth Required	Description	Body / Params
POST	/signup	No	Register a new user	{ name, username, email, password }
POST	/login	No	Login user, sets JWT cookie	{ email, password }
POST	/logout	Yes	Logout user, clears JWT
POST	/follow/:id	Yes	Follow a user by ID	URL param: id (user to follow)
POST	/unfollow/:id	Yes	Unfollow a user by ID	URL param: id (user to unfollow)
POST	/update	Yes	Update profile	{ name, email, password, profilepic, bio, username }
GET	/profile/:username	No	Get public profile by username	URL param: username

Post Routes (/api/posts)

Method	Endpoint	Auth Required	Description	Body / Params
POST	/create	Yes	Create a new post	{ content, image? }
GET	/get/:id	Yes	Get a single post by ID	URL param: id
DELETE	/delete/:id	Yes	Delete a post (must be owner)	URL param: id
POST	/like/:id	Yes	Like/unlike a post	URL param: id
POST	/reply/:id	Yes	Reply to a post	{ content, image? }, URL param: id
GET	/feed	Yes	Get feed (posts from followings + self)
GET	/all	Yes	Get all posts (most recent first)

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🛡️ Middleware

• secureRoute: Protects routes, checks for valid JWT in cookies, attaches user to req.user.

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📝 Usage Notes

• All POST/DELETE/PUT requests require Content-Type: application/json.
• All protected routes require the jwt cookie to be present (set on login).
• All responses are in JSON format.
• All date fields are ISO strings.

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🧑‍💻 Example API Usage

Signup

POST /api/users/signup
{
  "name": "Alice",
  "username": "alice123",
  "email": "alice@example.com",
  "password": "password123"
}

Login

POST /api/users/login
{
  "email": "alice@example.com",
  "password": "password123"
}

Response sets a jwt cookie.

Get Feed

GET /api/posts/feed
// Requires jwt cookie

Get All Posts

GET /api/posts/all
// Requires jwt cookie

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🌩️ Additional Features

• All user and post IDs are MongoDB ObjectIds (24-char hex strings).
• All endpoints return appropriate HTTP status codes and error messages.
• All posts and replies can include images (provided as URLs).
• Cloudinary integration for uploading profile pictures and images.

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📄 License

This project currently does not specify a license. Please contact the repository owner for usage permissions.

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🌐 Live Demo

Try Whispr online: https://whispr-three-alpha.vercel.app