Orbit

Orbit is a full-stack social media web application where users can sign up, create posts, follow others, and receive notifications.

✨ Features

• 🔐 User authentication (signup/login)
• 📝 Create, edit, and delete posts
• 👥 Follow/unfollow users
• 🎨 Responsive UI with theme toggle
• 📷 Image uploads with Cloudinary
• 💬 Interactive social features

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React - User interface library
• Vite - Build tool and development server
• Tailwind CSS - Utility-first CSS framework
• DaisyUI - Component library for Tailwind CSS
• React Router Dom - Client-side routing
• React Hot Toast - Toast notifications

Backend

• Node.js - JavaScript runtime
• Express - Web application framework
• MongoDB - NoSQL database
• Mongoose - MongoDB object modeling
• JWT - Authentication tokens
• Cloudinary - Image storage and management
• bcryptjs - Password hashing

📁 Project Structure

Orbit._/
├── backend/
│   ├── controllers/       # Request handlers
│   ├── db/               # Database connection
│   ├── middleware/       # Authentication middleware
│   ├── models/          # Database schemas
│   ├── routes/          # API routes
│   ├── utils/           # Utility functions
│   └── server.js        # Main server file
├── frontend/
│   ├── public/          # Static assets
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/  # React components
│   │   ├── contexts/    # React contexts
│   │   ├── hooks/       # Custom hooks
│   │   ├── pages/       # Page components
│   │   └── utils/       # Utility functions
│   └── package.json
├── package.json         # Root package.json
└── README.md

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB (local installation or MongoDB Atlas)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/rajanikant04/Orbit._
   cd Orbit._

2. Install dependencies

   npm install
   cd frontend
   npm install
   cd ..

3. Environment Variables

   Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

   NODE_ENV=development
   PORT=5000
   MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

4. Start the development server

   npm run dev

   This will start both the backend server (http://localhost:5000) and the frontend development server (http://localhost:5173).

📜 Available Scripts

• npm run dev - Start development server with nodemon
• npm start - Start production server
• npm run build - Build the application for production

🌐 Live Demo

Visit the live application: https://orbit-8rsw.onrender.com/

📚 API Endpoints

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/signup - Register new user
• POST /api/auth/login - User login
• POST /api/auth/logout - User logout
• GET /api/auth/me - Get current user

Users

• GET /api/users/profile/:username - Get user profile
• GET /api/users/suggested - Get suggested users
• POST /api/users/follow/:id - Follow/unfollow user
• POST /api/users/update - Update user profile

Posts

• GET /api/posts/all - Get all posts
• GET /api/posts/following - Get posts from followed users
• GET /api/posts/likes/:id - Get users who liked a post
• GET /api/posts/user/:username - Get posts by user
• POST /api/posts/create - Create new post
• POST /api/posts/like/:id - Like/unlike post
• POST /api/posts/comment/:id - Comment on post
• DELETE /api/posts/:id - Delete post

Notifications

• GET /api/notifications - Get user notifications
• DELETE /api/notifications - Delete all notifications

🎯 Key Learnings

• Express parsers should be configured before route definitions
• Always use optional chaining (?) when accessing potentially undefined variables
• Proper error handling and validation are crucial for robust applications

👨‍💻 Author

Rajanikant - GitHub Profile