Social Network Application

Project Overview

This repository contains the implementation for a social network application, inspired by popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The application provides various functionalities for users, including registration, posting, commenting, group creation, and more.

Applications

• Server: Java Spring Boot backend. Server Repository
• Web Client: Angular frontend.
• Mobile Client: Android application. Mobile App Repository

Launch Guide

Below are the steps to get the project up and running on your local environment.

Prerequisites:

1. Java 11 or higher
2. Maven
3. MySQL
4. Elasticsearch
5. MinIO
6. Node.js
7. Docker
8. IntelliJ IDEA
9. Visual Studio Code

Step 1: Clone the Repository

Clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/anna02272/Social-Network

Step 2: Import the Project in IntelliJ IDEA

Open IntelliJ IDEA and import the cloned repository.

Step 3: Load Maven Dependencies

Ensure all necessary Maven dependencies are downloaded.

Step 4: Set Up the Database

• Ensure MySQL is installed and running.
• Create a database named socialNetwork.
• Update the application.properties file with your MySQL credentials.

Step 5: Run the Application

Step 6: Start Angular Frontend

1. Open Visual Studio Code.
2. Navigate to the frontend directory in the cloned repository.
3. Start the Angular app with npm:

npm install
npm start

Step 7: Access the Platform

Once the services are up and running, you can access the platform via the provided endpoints:

• Frontend: Open a web browser and go to https://localhost:4200/

Option 2: Additional Steps for UES Branch

Step 1: Switch to UES Branch

git checkout ues

Step 2: Set Up Elasticsearch and MinIO

• Ensure Elasticsearch is installed and running.
• Ensure MinIO is installed and running.
• Update the application.properties file with your Elasticsearch and MinIO configurations.

Step 3: Install ICU Tokenizer

sudo docker exec -it ddmdemo-elasticsearch /bin/bash
elasticsearch-plugin install analysis-icu
# Restart Elasticsearch

Step 4: Build Docker Images and Start Docker Compose

docker-compose build
docker-compose up

Functionalities

• User Registration: Users can register, with a system administrator already predefined in the system.
• Login and Logout: Users can log in and out of the system. Access to other functionalities requires logging in.
• Handling Posts: Users can create posts with or without images.
• Comment Update: Users can reply to comments, and multiple replies are possible.
• User Reactions: Users can respond to posts and comments with likes, dislikes, and hearts.
• Sorting Comments: Comments can be sorted based on likes, dislikes, hearts, and publication date.
• Sorting Posts: Posts can be sorted by publication date in ascending or descending order.
• Handling Groups: Users can create and administer groups. Group administrators can suspend groups.
• Reporting: Users can report inappropriate content or users. Administrators can review and take actions.
• Overview of Home Page: Registered users see random public posts and posts from their friends or random groups.
• Change Password: Users can change their password by entering the current password twice and providing a new one.
• Change Profile Data: Users can set their display name, profile description, and profile picture. The user's group memberships are also displayed.
• User Search: Users can search for new friends based on first and last names. Friend requests can be sent and approved or rejected.
• Blocking and Unblocking Users: Group administrators can block and unblock users within their group.
• Group Join Requests: Group administrators can approve or reject incoming requests to join the group.
• Removing Group Administrators: System administrators can remove group administrators, reverting them to regular users.
• Group Suspension: System administrators can suspend groups, providing a reason for suspension. The app automatically removes group administrators from suspended groups.

Non-functional Requirements

• User authentication using username and password.
• Authorization using the token mechanism.
• Log messages about important events during application execution.

UES Branch Functionalities

This section describes the additional functionalities implemented in the UES branch. The UES branch can be found here.

• Indexing of groups and posts in Elasticsearch, and saving documents in the MinIO database.

Group Search:

• Search groups by name
• Search groups by description
• Search groups by description from the attached PDF file
• Search groups by the range of the number of posts (from - to), where the lower and/or upper limit of the range can be set
• Search groups by the average number of likes of posts in the group in the range (from - to), where the lower and/or upper limit of the range can be set
• Combine previous search parameters (BooleanQuery, enable AND and OR operator between fields)
• Preprocess the query to be case-insensitive, supporting both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets
• Provide support in form fields for PhraseQuery and FuzzyQuery input
• Search by group rules
• Display results showing the name of the group, the number of posts, the average number of likes, and a dynamic summary (Highlighter)

Post Search:

• Search posts by title
• Search posts by text
• Search posts by text from the attached PDF file
• Search posts by text in comments
• Search posts by the number of likes (from - to, including likes on the post itself and in comments), where the lower and/or upper range limit can be set
• Combine previous search parameters (BooleanQuery, enable AND and OR operator between fields)
• Preprocess the query to be case-insensitive, supporting both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets
• Provide support in form fields for PhraseQuery and FuzzyQuery input
• Search posts that have a number of comments in the range (from-to), with a lower and/or upper range limit
• Display results showing the title of the post, the text of the post, and a dynamic summary (Highlighter)

Technologies Used

• Spring framework
• Spring Boot
• MySQL
• Angular framework
• Elasticsearch
• MinIO

Application Architecture

The application consists of a web browser, a Spring container (Spring Boot), and a relational database (SUBP), also Elasticsearch and MinIO. The backend communicates with the frontend via a RESTful service.

Data Model

The data model includes entities:

• The User entity represents registered user of the application and is intended to store data used for authentication and authorization.
• An unregistered user can only register to the application.
• A user can also be a system administrator or a group administrator.
• A group administrator maintains a specific group, while a system administrator manages it application and has the ability to remove groups.
• Posts are described by the Post entity and they are text, but can also contain images.
• The Comment entity represents a comment in a given application.
• The Reaction entity represents a reaction to certain posts or comments.
• If the content violates community or application rules, a related Report entity is created to a post, comment or user.
• The Group entity represents a group that contains posts and comments are owned by users and maintained by the group administrator.

Images of project

Login and Register

Posts

Like, dislike, heart comment

Create and edit post

Comments

Groups and create group

Profile

Search for friends

Friend requests

Report

Search