mini-message-board

A mini message board is built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

A Node.js + Express server renders views with EJS and handles message storage using PostgreSQL.

🔗 A preview is available here

Features

• Post messages with an optional display name
• Input validation using express-validator
• Automatic moderation via Azure AI Content Safety (free tier)
• Persistent messages storage using a PostgreSQL database
• Timestamps are formatted client-side based on user timezone
• Real-time updates using WebSocket: all connected clients receive message list updates instantly
• WebSocket connection is suspended when the tab is inactive to conserve resources
• Server broadcasts are event-driven and debounced — only triggered on actual DB changes

Tech Stack

• Node.js – JavaScript runtime for the server
• Express – Web framework for routing and server logic
• EJS – Embedded JavaScript templating for HTML rendering
• PostgreSQL – Relational database for persistent message storage
• pg – Node.js client for PostgreSQL
• express-validator – Input validation middleware
• express-async-handler – Simplifies async route handlers
• @azure-rest/ai-content-safety – Connects to Azure AI Content Safety API for content moderation
• ws – WebSocket implementation for real-time message broadcasting
• dotenv – Loads environment variables from .env files
• Vanilla JavaScript / HTML / CSS – Frontend logic and layout

Setup

Follow these steps to run the app locally:

1. Clone the repository

   git clone git@github.com:frarosset/mini-message-board.git
   cd mini-message-board

2. Install dependencies

    npm install

3. Initialize the database

   Initialize a PostgreSQL database and obtain its connection URI

   postgresql://your_user:your_password@host:port/your_db
   

4. Configure environment variables

   Create a .env file in the root directory (use .env.example as a reference)

5. Start the server

    node app.js