🚀 Social Network - Server Side

🔹 Production Version
Click here to access the live production version

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🎯 Overview

The backend of Social Network is developed using Java & Spring Boot, offering a secure, scalable, and optimized REST API.
The architecture follows a layered design, ensuring clear separation of concerns:
📌 Entities → Repositories → Services → Controllers → DTOs → Responses

This backend provides authentication, caching, real-time updates, email & SMS verification, and scheduled jobs for maintenance. It is fully Dockerized and deployed with CI/CD using GitHub Actions and Render.

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🏗 Tech Stack

🛠 Backend Framework: Spring Boot, Java
🔒 Security: Spring Security, JWT (JSON Web Tokens), Password Hashing (SHA-256 + Salt)
📡 Real-Time Updates: SSE (Server-Sent Events)
📦 Database: MySQL (optimized queries & indexes using JPA)
📨 Email & SMS Verification: Twilio, Mailgun
📸 Cloud Storage: Cloudinary for media uploads
⚡ Caching: Spring Boot Caching for optimized performance
🗄 Scheduled Jobs: CRON Job (session tracking, expired token cleanup)
📋 Environment Configuration: Dotenv for managing variables
🐳 Containerization & Deployment: Docker + Render + GitHub Actions (CI/CD)

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🔄 System Flow

1️⃣ Frontend to Backend Communication

• The client (React) sends requests using Axios to RESTful API endpoints.
• Backend controllers handle the request, then delegate to services.
• Services process the business logic and interact with repositories.
• Repositories execute JPA queries on the MySQL database.
• Caching optimizes responses, and SSE provides real-time updates.
• All operations are containerized in Docker for scalable deployment.

2️⃣ Authentication & Security

• User Registration:

  • Strong password validation & uniqueness check (email/phone).
  • If valid, an email is sent with account details.
  • Password is hashed & salted (SHA-256) before storage.

• Login Process:

  • User enters credentials → JWT is generated.
  • 2FA SMS verification is sent to the phone.
  • On success, session starts & user gains access.

• Password Reset:

  • User requests reset → Receives email with a unique token.
  • User enters token & new password → New hashed & salted password is saved.
  • Confirmation email is sent.

3️⃣ Data Storage & Optimization

• MySQL database with efficient JPA queries and indexes.
• User content (posts, comments, media) stored with Cloudinary integration.
• Spring Boot Caching improves response times and reduces redundant queries.

4️⃣ Real-Time Notifications & Messaging

• SSE (Server-Sent Events) used for real-time notifications/messages.
• Users get instant alerts for likes, follows, and comments.

5️⃣ Automated Jobs & Expiration Handling

• CRON Jobs run monthly to check for inactive users & send reminders.
• Token expiration handling ensures security by removing stale sessions.

6️⃣ Deployment & Scaling

• Dockerized environment ensures consistency across deployments.
• CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions) automates deployment to Render.
• Environment variables managed securely with .env files.

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📂 Project Structure

Social-Network-Server/
├── 📂 .github
│     ├── workflow
│         ├── deploy.yml # CI/CD GitHub Actions for auto-deployment
├── 📂 src/main/java/org.server.socialnetworkserver
│    ├── 📂 config          # Security, JWT, Caching & Environment Management
│    ├── 📂 controllers     # API endpoints for handling requests
│    ├── 📂 dtos            # Data transfer objects for request/response
│    ├── 📂 entities        # Database entities (User, Post, Comment, etc.)
│    ├── 📂 jobs            # Scheduled tasks (CronJobs)
│    ├── 📂 repositories    # JPA repositories for database interaction
│    ├── 📂 responses       # Custom API responses
│    ├── 📂 services        # Business logic layer
│    ├── 📂 test            # Unit & integration tests
│    ├── 📂 utils           # Helper functions, token & password generators & utilities
│    └── SocialNetworkServerApplication  # Main application with enabled annotations  
├── 📂 resources             # Application properties settings  
│    
├── Dockerfile              # Docker container setup  
├── .env                    # Environment variable template for local use  
└── README.md               # Project documentation  

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Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD)

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🔄 Installation & Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/your-repo/social-network-server.git
cd social-network-server

# Build and run with Maven
mvn clean install
mvn spring-boot:run

#DotEnv Example
DB_URL_LOCAL=yourLocalDb
DB_HOST_LOCAL=yourHost
DB_USERNAME_LOCAL=yourUsername
DB_PASSWORD_LOCAL=yourPassword
DB_NAME_LOCAL=yourDBname
SMS_TOKEN=You Need SMS Token or Cancel it
SENDER_EMAIL=yourMail
SENDER_PASSWORD=yourPassAppMail
URL_CLIENT_PC=http://localhost:3000
URL_TEST=http://localhost:8080/social-network/slow-endpoint

# Running with Docker
docker build -t social-network-server .
docker run -p 8080:8080 social-network-server

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📡 API Communication

User Registration (Secure)

@PostMapping("/add-user")
public ValidationResponse addUser(@RequestBody User user) {
    return userService.addUser(user);
}

Login with 2FA SMS Verification

 @PostMapping("/login-user")
public LoginResponse loginUser(@RequestBody Map<String, String> loginDetails) {
    return userService.loginUser(loginDetails);
}

@PostMapping("/verify-code")
public Map<String, String> verifyCode(@RequestBody Map<String, String> verificationDetails) {
    return userService.verifyCode(verificationDetails);
}

Password Reset Request

 @GetMapping("/reset-password/{email}&{username}")
public BasicResponse resetPasswordForThisUser(@PathVariable String email, @PathVariable String username) {
    return userService.resetPasswordForThisUser(email,username);
}

@PostMapping("/confirm-reset-password")
public BasicResponse confirmResetPassword(@RequestParam String token){
    return userService.confirmPasswordReset(token);
}

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🔐 Security Features

✅ JWT Authentication with Expiration Handling
✅ Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) via SMS
✅ Password Hashing (SHA-256 + Salt)
✅ Rate Limiting to Prevent Abuse
✅ Spring Boot Caching for Optimized Performance
✅ CORS & Helmet for API Security

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📡 Real-Time Features

📡 SSE for Instant Updates

• Notifications for likes, comments, follows, messages.
• Real-time updates without excessive polling.

📢 Automated Email & SMS Alerts

• Registration confirmation via email.
• Password reset email with unique token.

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📅 Automated Jobs (CRON Jobs)

🕒 Runs once per month

• Sends reminder emails to inactive users.
• Checks for expired authentication tokens and removes them.

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🛠 Deployment & CI/CD

🚀 Dockerized for scalable deployment
🔄 CI/CD with GitHub Actions
🌍 Hosted on Render (auto-deployment on commit)

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📩 Contact & Contribute

💡 Contributions are welcome via Pull Requests.
Feel free to reach out via email: 📧 yakovbenhemo5@gmail.com

🚀 Built for a seamless and secure social networking experience! 🌍