Twitter Backend 🐦

A production-ready Twitter clone backend built with modern Node.js technologies, showcasing scalable architecture, security best practices, and comprehensive API design.

🚀 Live Demo

• API Base URL: (https://twitter-backend-3lau.onrender.com)

Core Functionality

• 🔐 User Authentication - JWT-based secure authentication
• 👤 User Management - Profile creation, updates, and user discovery
• 🐦 Tweet System - Create, read, delete tweets with 280 character limit
• 🖼 Media Uploads
  • Upload images with tweets (multiple images per tweet)
  • Upload profile picture and cover image for users
• ❤️ Social Interactions - Like/unlike tweets with real-time counts
• 👥 Follow System - Follow/unfollow users with relationship management
• 🔍 Search Functionality - Search users and tweets
• 📱 Timeline Feed - Personalized timeline based on following
• 💬 Direct Messaging (DM) - Real-time chat between users with sender/receiver mapping

Technical Features

• 📊 RESTful API Design - Clean, intuitive endpoints
• 🛡️ Security First - Input validation, rate limiting, CORS protection
• 📝 Comprehensive Validation - Request validation with detailed error messages
• 🚦 Error Handling - Consistent error responses across all endpoints
• ⚡ Real-Time Features - WebSocket integration (Socket.IO) for live messaging
• 🗂 Static Media Serving - Publicly accessible media URLs for uploaded images

🛠 Tech Stack

Backend

• Runtime: Node.js
• Framework: Express.js
• Database: MongoDB with Mongoose ODM
• Authentication: JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
• Validation: express-validator
• File Uploads: Multer (disk storage) + Express static file serving
• Security: bcryptjs, helmet, cors, express-rate-limit

Development Tools

• Environment Management: dotenv
• Development Server: nodemon
• Version Control: Git & GitHub

🏗 Architecture

twitter-backend/
├── config/                 # Configuration (DB, multer, etc.)
│   ├── database.js
│   
├── controllers/            # Business logic layer
│   ├── authController.js
│   ├── tweetController.js  # Tweet creation with image upload support
│   ├── userController.js   # Profile update with profile/cover image  upload
│   └── searchController.js
│   └── dmController.js     # Direct Messaging controller
├── middleware/             # Custom middleware
│   ├── auth.js             # Authentication middleware
│   └── validation.js       # Validation middleware (express-validator)
│   └── rateLimiter.js
|   └── multerUpload.js     # Multer storage, fileFilter & limits
├── models/                 # Database models
│   ├── User.js             # profilePicture, coverPicture fields
│   └── Tweet.js            # images[] field for tweet media
│   └── Message.js          # DM model
├── routes/                 # API routes
│   ├── auth.js
│   ├── tweets.js           # POST /api/tweets with multipart/form-data
│   ├── users.js            # PUT/PATCH /api/users/profile with images
│   └── search.js
│   └── message.js          # Direct Messaging routes
├── upload/                 # Local folder for uploaded images (profile, cover, tweets)
├── validators/             # Input validation schemas
│   ├── userValidation.js
│   └── tweetValidation.js
│   └── dmValidation.js
├── .env                    # Environment variables
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── socket.js
└── server.js               # Application entry point

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• MongoDB (local or MongoDB Atlas)
• Git

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Bharat1Rajput/twitter-backend.git
   cd twitter-backend

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Environment Setup

   cp .env.example .env

   Update .env with your configuration:

   PORT=5000
   MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/twitter-backend
   JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_jwt_key_here
   NODE_ENV=development

4. Start MongoDB

   # If using local MongoDB
   mongosh
   
   # Or ensure MongoDB Atlas connection is configured

5. Run the application

   # Development mode with auto-restart
   npm run dev
   
   # Production mode
   npm start

📚 API Documentation

Authentication Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/api/auth/register	Register new user	No
POST	/api/auth/login	Login user	No

User Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
GET	/api/users/profile	Get current user profile	Yes
PUT	/api/users/profile	Update user profile	Yes
GET	/api/users/:username	Get user by username	No
POST	/api/users/:userId/follow	Follow/unfollow user	Yes
GET	/api/users/:userId/followers	Get user followers	No
GET	/api/users/:userId/following	Get user following	No

Tweet Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/api/tweets	Create new tweet	Yes
GET	/api/tweets	Get public timeline	No
GET	/api/tweets/timeline	Get personalized timeline	Yes
POST	/api/tweets/:tweetId/like	Like/unlike tweet	Yes
DELETE	/api/tweets/:tweetId	Delete tweet	Yes
GET	/api/tweets/user/:userId	Get user's tweets	yes
GET	/api/tweets/user//:tweetId/analytics	Get tweet analytics	yes

Search Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
GET	/api/search/users?q=query	Search users	Yes
GET	/api/search/tweets?q=query	Search tweets	Yes

Search Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/api/message/	send new msg	Yes
GET	/api/message/:userId	get conversion	Yes
PUT	/api/message/:messageId/read	mark as Read	Yes

🔒 Security Features

• Authentication: JWT-based stateless authentication
• Password Security: bcrypt hashing with salt rounds
• Input Validation: Comprehensive validation using express-validator
• CORS Protection: Cross-origin resource sharing configuration
• Rate Limiting: Limit API requests to prevent brute-force attacks (express-rate-limit)
• Security Headers: Helmet.js for setting various HTTP headers
• Data Sanitization: Input sanitization to prevent XSS attacks
• Authorization: Route-level authentication middleware

📈 Future Enhancements

• Caching Layer - Redis implementation for improved performance
• Email Service - Email verification and notifications
• Push Notifications - Mobile push notification system
• Analytics - Tweet engagement and user activity analytics
• Admin Panel - Administrative dashboard for user management
• API Versioning - Versioned API endpoints for backward compatibility

📊 Project Statistics

• Total Lines of Code: ~2,000+
• API Endpoints: 15+
• Database Models: 2
• Middleware Functions: 3+
• Validation Schemas: 5+

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👨‍💻 Author

Bharat Rajput

• GitHub: @Bharat1Rajput
• LinkedIn: Bharat Singh
• Email: bharattsingh33@gmail.com

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Express.js community for excellent documentation
• MongoDB team for the robust database solution
• All contributors who helped improve this project

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Built with ❤️ by Bharat Rajput