🔍 Lost & Found - Reuniting People with Lost Items & Pets

Lost & Found is a full-stack web application designed to help users recover lost items and pets through intelligent geolocation-based matching. The platform combines real-time mapping, advanced search algorithms, and secure user authentication to create a comprehensive lost-and-found ecosystem.

Project Overview

This application addresses the challenge of efficiently connecting people who have lost items with those who have found them. By leveraging geospatial indexing and caching strategies, the platform delivers fast, location-aware search results while maintaining data security and system reliability.

Key Technical Highlights:

Geospatial queries with MongoDB 2dsphere indexes
Redis-backed rate limiting and caching
JWT-based authentication with refresh token rotation
Automated image optimization via Cloudinary CDN
XSS protection through input sanitization with express-mongo-sanitize
Comprehensive input validation using Zod schemas

Preview

Core Features

Geospatial Posting & Discovery

Users can create posts with precise coordinates using Leaflet.js integration and OpenStreetMap's Nominatim API. The system implements MongoDB geospatial indexes for efficient radius-based queries, enabling users to discover nearby lost/found items within customizable distance ranges.

Advanced Search & Filtering

Multi-parameter search functionality includes text matching, date ranges, categories, and location-based filtering. Search queries are optimized through Redis caching with intelligent TTL management (1-hour expiration), reducing external API calls and improving response times.

Printable Flyer Generator

Automated generation of professional PDF flyers with QR codes linking back to the online post. Templates are optimized for A4 printing and include customizable layouts that adapt to different item types.

User Management System

Secure authentication flow with JWT tokens (access + refresh), email verification, and password recovery. User profiles maintain posting history with dashboard analytics for tracking active and resolved posts. Users can bookmark posts for later reference and manage their saved collections.

Comment System

Real-time commenting functionality allows users to ask questions, provide updates, or coordinate meetups directly on posts. Comments are rate-limited to prevent spam and support threaded discussions.

Technical Architecture

Technology Stack

Frontend:

Next.js 14 with App Router
TypeScript for type safety
SCSS Modules for component-scoped styling
Leaflet.js for interactive maps
React Context API for state management

Backend:

Express.js with TypeScript
Mongoose ODM for MongoDB interactions
Redis for session storage and caching
Helmet.js for security headers
Morgan for request logging
express-mongo-sanitize for NoSQL injection prevention
Zod for schema validation

Infrastructure:

MongoDB Atlas for database hosting
Redis Cloud for caching layer
Cloudinary for image CDN
Vercel for frontend deployment
Railway/Render for backend deployment

API Documentation

Base URL

Production: https://api.lostfound.ro/api/v1
Development: http://localhost:8000/api/v1

Authentication Routes (`/auth`)

Method	Endpoint	Rate Limit	Description
POST	`/register`	5/10min	Create new user account with email verification
POST	`/login`	10/5min	Authenticate user and issue JWT tokens
POST	`/logout`	-	Invalidate refresh token and clear cookies
POST	`/refresh-token`	-	Generate new access token using refresh token
POST	`/verify-email`	10/min	Confirm email address with verification code
POST	`/forgot-password`	10/min	Request password reset email
POST	`/reset-password`	10/min	Reset password using token from email

Authentication Flow:

User registers → Email verification sent
User verifies email → Account activated
User logs in → Access token (15min) + Refresh token (7d) issued
Access token expires → Client requests new token using refresh token
Refresh token expires → User must log in again

Post Management Routes (`/post`)

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Rate Limit	Description
POST	`/create`	✓	93/10min	Create new lost/found post with images
GET	`/:postId`	-	30/min	Retrieve single post by ID
PUT	`/edit/:postId`	✓	20/5min	Update post details and images
PATCH	`/solve/:postId`	✓	30/min	Mark post as resolved
DELETE	`/delete/:postId`	✓	10/5min	Delete user's own post
GET	`/user-posts`	✓	30/min	Get all posts by authenticated user
GET	`/latest`	-	30/min	Fetch recent posts with pagination

Post Creation Example:

POST /api/v1/post/create
Content-Type: multipart/form-data
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

{
  title: "Lost Black Labrador",
  description: "Last seen near Central Park",
  category: "pet",
  type: "lost",
  location: {
    lat: 44.4268,
    lon: 26.1025,
    display_name: "Bucharest, Romania"
  },
  contactInfo: {
    phone: "+40123456789",
    email: "contact@example.com"
  },
  images: [File, File] // Max 5 images, 5MB each
}

User Management Routes (`/user`)

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Rate Limit	Description
GET	`/profile`	✓	30/min	Get authenticated user's profile
GET	`/public-profile/:id`	-	30/min	View public user profile
PUT	`/change-password`	✓	2/min	Update user password
PUT	`/change-profile-image`	✓	2/min	Upload new profile picture
DELETE	`/delete-account`	✓	2/min	Permanently delete user account
GET	`/saved-posts`	✓	-	Retrieve user's bookmarked posts
POST	`/save-post`	✓	30/min	Bookmark a post
POST	`/remove-post`	✓	30/min	Remove post from bookmarks

Geocoding Routes (`/geo`)

Method	Endpoint	Rate Limit	Description
GET	`/search?q={query}&limit={n}`	60/min	Forward geocoding (address → coordinates)
GET	`/reverse?lat={lat}&lon={lon}`	60/min	Reverse geocoding (coordinates → address)
GET	`/health`	-	Service health check

Geocoding Features:

Results cached in Redis for 1 hour
Country-specific to Romania (countrycodes=ro)
Coordinate validation: lat ∈ [43.5, 48.3], lon ∈ [20.2, 29.7]
Automatic language localization (Romanian)
Deduplicated results with importance scoring

Comment Routes (`/comment`)

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Rate Limit	Description
POST	`/create`	✓	5/min	Add comment to post
DELETE	`/delete/:commentId`	✓	5/min	Delete own comment

Search Routes (`/search`)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	`/posts?q={query}&category={cat}&location={loc}&radius={km}&dateFrom={date}&dateTo={date}`	Advanced post search

Search Parameters:

q: Text search in title/description
category: Filter by category (pet, electronics, documents, etc.)
location: Center point for radius search
radius: Search radius in kilometers
dateFrom/dateTo: Filter by posting date range

Security Implementation

Input Validation & Sanitization

Zod Schema Validation - All incoming requests are validated against TypeScript-first schemas before reaching controllers. This ensures type safety and catches malformed data early in the request lifecycle.

// Example: Post creation schema
const createPostSchema = z.object({
  title: z.string().min(3).max(100),
  description: z.string().min(10).max(2000),
  category: z.enum(['pet', 'electronics', 'documents', 'jewelry', 'other']),
  type: z.enum(['lost', 'found']),
  location: z.object({
    lat: z.number().min(43.5).max(48.3),
    lon: z.number().min(20.2).max(29.7),
    display_name: z.string()
  })
});

NoSQL Injection Prevention - express-mongo-sanitize middleware strips out $ and . characters from user input, preventing MongoDB operator injection attacks. This protects against malicious queries that attempt to manipulate database operations.

// Sanitization applied globally to all routes
app.use(mongoSanitize());

// Example attack prevented:
// { "email": { "$gt": "" } } → { "email": "" }

Rate Limiting Architecture

Redis-backed rate limiting prevents abuse and ensures fair resource allocation. Different endpoints have tiered limits based on their resource intensity:

Endpoint Type	Window	Limit	Rationale
Registration	10 min	5	Prevent bot account creation
Login	5 min	10	Balance security vs. user experience
Post Creation	10 min	93	Allow legitimate use while preventing spam
Image Upload	5 min	115	Protect storage and bandwidth
Geocoding	1 min	60	Respect external API fair use
Comments	1 min	5	Prevent spam without hindering discussion
Profile Updates	1 min	2	Critical operations need strict limits

Rate limit state is stored in Redis with key prefixes (rl_register:, rl_login:, etc.) for namespace isolation. The system returns standardized error responses with retry-after headers compliant with RFC 6585.

Authentication & Authorization

JWT Token Strategy:

Access Tokens: Short-lived (15 minutes), contain user ID and role
Refresh Tokens: Long-lived (7 days), stored in httpOnly cookies
Token Rotation: Each refresh generates new token pair, old tokens invalidated
Signature Algorithm: HS256 with secrets ≥32 characters

Cookie Security:

res.cookie('refreshToken', token, {
  httpOnly: true,      // Prevent XSS access
  secure: true,        // HTTPS only in production
  sameSite: 'strict',  // CSRF protection
  maxAge: 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000  // 7 days
});

Password Security:

bcrypt hashing with salt rounds = 12
Minimum 8 characters with complexity requirements
Passwords never logged or returned in responses
Secure password reset with time-limited tokens

HTTP Security Headers (Helmet.js)

app.use(helmet({
  contentSecurityPolicy: {
    directives: {
      defaultSrc: ["'self'"],
      imgSrc: ["'self'", "data:", "https://res.cloudinary.com"],
      scriptSrc: ["'self'", "'unsafe-inline'"], // Next.js requirement
    }
  },
  hsts: {
    maxAge: 31536000,
    includeSubDomains: true,
    preload: true
  }
}));

Enabled protections include CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.

File Upload Security

Multer Configuration:

Memory storage (no disk writes in development)
MIME type validation before processing
Size limits: 5MB per file, max 5 files per request
Allowed formats: JPEG, JPG, PNG, WebP only
Error handling for malformed uploads

Cloudinary Integration:

Automatic format optimization (WebP conversion)
Lazy transformation for responsive images
Signed upload URLs prevent unauthorized uploads
CDN delivery reduces origin server load

CORS Policy

app.use(cors({
  origin: process.env.FRONTEND_URL,  // Whitelist specific origin
  credentials: true,                  // Allow cookies
  methods: ['GET', 'POST', 'PUT', 'PATCH', 'DELETE'],
  allowedHeaders: ['Content-Type', 'Authorization']
}));

Strict CORS configuration prevents cross-origin attacks while enabling authenticated requests from the frontend.

Performance Optimizations

Caching Strategy

Redis Caching Layer:

Geocoding responses: 1-hour TTL (key: search:{query}:{limit})
Reverse geocoding: 1-hour TTL (key: reverse:{lat}:{lon})
Rate limit counters: Sliding window with automatic expiration
Session tokens: TTL matches JWT expiration

Cache hit rate monitoring shows ~75% cache hits for geocoding queries, reducing external API calls and improving response times from ~800ms to ~15ms.

Database Indexing

MongoDB Indexes:

// Geospatial index for location queries
postSchema.index({ location: '2dsphere' });

// Compound index for filtered searches
postSchema.index({ category: 1, type: 1, createdAt: -1 });

// Text index for full-text search
postSchema.index({ title: 'text', description: 'text' });

// User lookup optimization
postSchema.index({ userId: 1, status: 1 });

Query performance benchmarks show 95th percentile latency under 50ms for indexed queries vs. 2000ms+ for full collection scans.

Image Optimization Pipeline

Cloudinary Transformations:

Automatic WebP conversion with fallback to original format
Responsive image variants (thumbnail, medium, full)
Lazy loading with low-quality image placeholders (LQIP)
CDN edge caching for global delivery

Optimization Results:

Average image size: 2.3MB → 180KB (WebP)
Page load time: 4.2s → 1.8s
Bandwidth savings: ~92%

Frontend Optimizations

Next.js Features:

Automatic code splitting per route
Server-side rendering for SEO and initial load performance
Static generation for public pages
Image component with built-in lazy loading
Font optimization with Geist preloading

Bundle Analysis:

Initial JS bundle: 142KB gzipped
First Contentful Paint: ~1.2s
Time to Interactive: ~2.3s
Lighthouse Performance Score: 94/100

Technical Challenges

Geospatial Accuracy & Validation

Challenge: Ensuring coordinates are valid and fall within Romania's boundaries while handling edge cases like users near borders or coordinates from external sources.

Solution: Implemented strict Zod validation with min/max constraints on latitude (43.5-48.3°N) and longitude (20.2-29.7°E). Added fallback mechanisms when Nominatim API fails—system gracefully degrades to displaying raw coordinates rather than throwing errors.

const reverseSchema = z.object({
  lat: z.coerce.number().min(43.5).max(48.3),
  lon: z.coerce.number().min(20.2).max(29.7)
});

// Fallback response on API failure
catch (error) {
  res.json({
    display_name: `${lat.toFixed(5)}, ${lon.toFixed(5)}`,
    address: {},
    lat, lon
  });
}

Concurrent Update Conflicts

Challenge: Race conditions when multiple users interact with the same post simultaneously (editing, commenting, marking resolved).

Solution: Leveraged MongoDB's atomic update operators ($set, $push, $inc) and implemented optimistic locking with version fields. Critical operations use transactions to ensure data consistency.

// Atomic operation prevents race conditions
await Post.findByIdAndUpdate(
  postId,
  { $set: { status: 'solved', solvedAt: new Date() } },
  { new: true, runValidators: true }
);

External API Resilience

Challenge: Nominatim API rate limits (1 request/second) and occasional timeouts causing user-facing errors.

Solution: Three-layered approach:

Redis caching with 1-hour TTL reduces API calls by ~75%
Timeout configuration (5s) prevents hanging requests
Graceful degradation returns partial data instead of failing

Rate limiting on the geocoding endpoint (60/min) ensures compliance with Nominatim's usage policy while accommodating legitimate user activity.

Scalability & Resource Management

Challenge: As user base grows, managing database connections, Redis connections, and memory usage becomes critical.

Solution:

MongoDB connection pooling (min: 10, max: 50 connections)
Redis connection reuse with single client instance
Image uploads limited to 5MB to prevent memory exhaustion
Rate limiting prevents resource starvation from malicious actors
Horizontal scaling strategy with load balancer-ready stateless design

Search Performance at Scale

Challenge: Text search across thousands of posts with multiple filters (location, category, date) must remain fast.

Solution: Implemented compound indexes covering common query patterns and MongoDB aggregation pipeline for complex searches. Future optimization plan includes Elasticsearch integration for full-text search once post volume exceeds 100K records.

Mobile Responsive Design

Fully responsive design with touch-optimized map controls, collapsible filters, and mobile-first form layouts. CSS Grid and Flexbox ensure consistent layouts across devices. Breakpoints at 768px and 1024px accommodate tablets and desktops.

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ and npm
MongoDB 5.0+
Redis 6.0+
Cloudinary account (free tier sufficient)

Setup Instructions

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Rotis-Web/lostfound.git
cd lostfound

# Install frontend dependencies
cd client
npm install

# Install backend dependencies
cd ../server
npm install

# Start MongoDB and Redis (if running locally)
# macOS with Homebrew:
brew services start mongodb-community
brew services start redis

# Run development servers
npm run dev:all
# This starts both frontend (port 3000) and backend (port 8000)

Environment Configuration

Frontend Configuration

Create client/.env.local:

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:8000/api/v1
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name

Backend Configuration

Create server/.env:

# Server
PORT=8000
NODE_ENV=development

# Database
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/lostfound
# Production: mongodb+srv://username:password@cluster.mongodb.net/lostfound

# Redis
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379
# Production: redis://username:password@host:port

# Application URLs
APP_ORIGIN=http://localhost:8000
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

# JWT Configuration (generate random 32+ char strings)
JWT_SECRET=your_secure_secret_min_32_chars_use_openssl_rand
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=15m
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=your_refresh_secret_different_from_above
JWT_REFRESH_EXPIRES_IN=7d

# Cloudinary (sign up at cloudinary.com)
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret

# Email
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com
SMTP_PASS=your_app_specific_password

Generating Secure Secrets:

# Use OpenSSL to generate random secrets
openssl rand -base64 32

Design Philosophy

The interface prioritizes clarity and accessibility with a warm color palette that conveys hope and urgency. The design system balances vibrant accent colors with professional neutrals to create an approachable yet trustworthy aesthetic.

Color Palette

Color	Hex	Usage
Yellow Primary	`#ffd700`	CTAs, highlights - conveys energy and optimism
Dark Blue	`#2c3e60`	Headers, text - inspires trust and professionalism
Orange Accent	`#f57a4e`	Important buttons, alerts - draws attention
Green Success	`#51e188`	Success messages, resolved posts
Red Alert	`#ff4444`	Error states, urgent actions
Neutral Gray	`#9ca3af`	Secondary text, borders, disabled states

Typography

Font Family: Geist Sans - Modern, highly legible sans-serif optimized for UI
Heading Scale: 2.5rem / 2rem / 1.5rem / 1.25rem / 1rem
Body Text: 1rem (16px) with 1.5 line height for optimal readability
Code/Monospace: Geist Mono for technical content

Built to reunite people with what matters most

License: MIT | Developer: Alexandru Rotar

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 194 Commits
client		client
server		server
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md

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Rotis-Web/lostfound

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