Social Media App (Full Stack Learning Project)

Overview

This is a simple full stack social media project built to practice backend and frontend development. The application allows users to create accounts, log in, and interact with posts through features like follow, like, and dislike.

The backend is fully implemented, and the frontend is currently in progress using HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript.

Features

• User authentication (signup, login)
• Follow and unfollow users
• Create posts
• Like and dislike posts
• Token-based authentication using cookies

Technologies Used

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• MongoDB
• Mongoose
• JSON Web Token (JWT)
• cookie-parser
• dotenv

Frontend (in progress)

• HTML
• CSS
• Vanilla JavaScript

Project Structure

• Backend handles API, authentication, and database operations
• Frontend consumes APIs and renders UI

Purpose

This project is built as a learning exercise to understand how a social media application works at a fundamental level, especially focusing on backend logic and API design.

Status

• Backend: Completed
• Frontend: In progress

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Create a .env file and add required environment variables (e.g., MongoDB URI, JWT secret)

4. Run the server:

   npm start
   

Notes

This is a beginner-friendly project focused on learning core concepts rather than production-level implementation.