A full-stack social feed application built by modernizing an older React project with a TypeScript + Express + Prisma backend.

The project focuses on clean backend architecture, authentication, authorization, validation, database access, and file uploads.

In active development.

• TypeScript + Express backend
• Prisma + MySQL
• User registration and login
• JWT authentication
• Argon2id password hashing
• Authentication middleware
• Post CRUD operations
• Post ownership and authorization
• Pagination
• User status management
• Image uploads with Multer
• Local image serving and cleanup
• Zod request validation
• Centralized error handling
• React frontend integration

• Automated tests
• Production image storage
• Login validation
• Rate limiting and security hardening
• API documentation
• Frontend modernization
• Production deployment

• React
• React Router
• CSS
• Fetch API

• Node.js
• Express
• TypeScript
• Prisma
• MySQL
• Zod
• Multer
• Argon2
• JSON Web Tokens

Message Node follows a layered backend architecture:

Request
   │
   ▼
Middleware
   │
   ▼
Route
   │
   ▼
Controller
   │
   ▼
Service
   │
   ▼
Prisma
   │
   ▼
MySQL

Controllers handle HTTP concerns while services contain application and database logic.

Authentication and authorization are handled through middleware and service-level ownership checks.

Authentication uses JWT with Argon2id password hashing.

Protected requests use:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

Authenticated user information is propagated through the Express request and used for authorization and resource ownership checks.

Users can:

• Create posts
• View posts
• View individual posts
• Edit their own posts
• Delete their own posts
• Upload images
• Replace post images

Posts are associated with their creator through a Prisma relationship.

Images are uploaded using Multer and currently stored on the local filesystem.

Images are served through:

/images/<filename>

When posts are updated or deleted, associated image files are cleaned up.

Production object storage is planned for a future deployment.

Protected endpoints require authentication.

cd backend
npm install
npx prisma generate
npm run dev

The backend runs on:

http://localhost:8080

cd frontend
npm install
npm start

The frontend runs on:

http://localhost:3000

Create a .env file in the backend:

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_USER=...
DB_PASSWORD=...
DB_NAME=message-node

JWT_SECRET=...
PORT=8080

Never commit real credentials or secrets.

• Automated testing
• Production image storage
• API documentation
• Rate limiting
• Production logging
• Security hardening
• Docker deployment
• CI/CD
• Frontend modernization
• Production deployment

Message Node is being developed as a practical full-stack project with an emphasis on:

• Type-safe backend development
• Clean architecture
• Secure authentication
• Resource authorization
• Runtime validation
• Maintainable database access
• Production-ready engineering practices

This project is currently a personal learning/development project.