Backend Tech Stack

DevTinder — Backend

Professional backend for DevTinder: a developer-focused matchmaking and discovery service.

This repository contains the server-side implementation (APIs, realtime sockets, background jobs, and integrations) powering DevTinder's mobile and web clients.

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Quick summary

• Language & runtime: Node.js (ES modules)
• Entry point: server.js
• Framework: Express
• Realtime: socket.io (chat & call namespaces)
• Database: MongoDB (Mongoose)
• Cache / coordination: Redis (ioredis)
• Push & messaging: Firebase Admin + Web Push
• File storage: AWS S3 (optional)
• Payments: Cashfree / Razorpay integrations

What this service does

• Handles user onboarding, authentication, profile management, matching logic, and subscriptions.
• Exposes REST endpoints for client operations and socket.io namespaces for realtime chat and calls.
• Runs scheduled background jobs (subscription management, cleanup, notifications).
• Integrates with third-party services: S3 for files, Firebase for push, Cashfree/Razorpay for payments.

How it works (high-level)

1. Requests hit the Express app (src/app.js) and are routed to feature controllers under src/api/controllers/.
2. Controllers delegate to services in src/services/ which implement business logic and interact with Mongoose models in src/models/.
3. Authentication issues tokens and secures HTTP + socket endpoints; sockets use middleware and shared services for state and authorization.
4. Background tasks in cron/ and jobs/ run on schedule (via node-cron) to handle subscriptions, notifications, and maintenance.

Key scripts

• npm install — install dependencies
• npm run dev — start with nodemon server.js (development)
• npm start — start with node server.js (production)

Quick start:

npm install
npm run dev

Environment & secrets (important)

Set required variables in your environment or a .env file (do not commit .env):

• MONGO_URL — MongoDB connection string (production must provide a real URI)
• PORT — HTTP server port (defaults to 3000 if unset)
• NODE_ENV — development or production

Optional integration variables:

• REDIS_URI — Redis connection string
• AWS_REGION, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY — S3 credentials

Sensitive files:

• Place Firebase service account and RSA keys in the env/ folder for local dev or mount them via secrets in production. See env/help.md.

How to use (client & developer notes)

• See API_USAGE.md for endpoint examples and client-handling guidance (response shape, example flows).
• Client behavior on successful responses: persist tokens, initialize socket connections, and navigate to authenticated views.
• On failures: surface message to users and use HTTP status codes to categorize errors (401, 400, 5xx).

Architecture & code layout

• server.js — bootstraps the HTTP server, sockets, DB, and services.
• src/app.js — Express application and middleware.
• src/config/ — configuration and third-party initializers (Mongo, Redis, Firebase, S3, web-push).
• src/api/routes/ — route definitions.
• src/api/controllers/ — controllers that handle requests.
• src/services/ — business logic and orchestration.
• src/models/ — Mongoose models and schema definitions.
• src/helpers/, src/middlewares/, cron/, jobs/ — utilities, middleware, and scheduled tasks.

Logging & monitoring

• The project uses logs/printLogs.js for colored console output during boot and runtime. For production, consider structured logging (e.g., pino, winston) and integration with a log/metrics system.

Development tips

• Use npm run dev for iterative development with automatic restarts.
• For production use a process manager (PM2, systemd) or run inside Docker.
• Keep secrets out of VCS; use environment-based secret management in CI/CD or your cloud provider.

Deployment notes

• No build step is required; ensure Node.js version supports ES modules (Node 16+ recommended).
• Ensure secrets (Mongo, Redis, S3, Firebase) are available to the runtime before starting.

Security considerations

• Never commit the env/ folder or key files.
• Rotate credentials regularly and enforce least-privilege on service accounts.

Where to look in the repo

• App entry: server.js
• Express bootstrap: src/app.js
• Config: src/config/
• Routes: src/api/routes/
• Controllers: src/api/controllers/
• Services: src/services/
• Models: src/models/
• Socket handlers: src/api/socket/

Lead maintainer

• Ayush Shrivastava — Principal author and lead maintainer. Responsible for architecture, core development, and guiding contributions. Please open issues for bugs or feature requests; contributions are welcome via pull requests.

License

• ISC (as declared in package.json)

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If you'd like, I can now:

• add a .env.example file
• scaffold unit tests for core services
• create a Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml for local development

Tell me which you'd prefer next.