yourstory

Note: This project was developed as the final project for my Bachelor's degree with a specialization in Computer Science at the University of Oradea (2019/2020 to 2021/2022).

Description

yourstory is a free blogging platform that allows users to:

• Create up to 10 stories
• Upload and edit up to 3 images per story
• Explore and "heart" other users' stories
• Switch to "anonymous author" mode
• Choose a preferred theme (light or dark)

How to Run

To run this project, you’ll need an .env.development or .env.production file (depending on the environment) placed at the root of the server folder. Each .env file should contain the following variables:

ENVIRONMENT= # "development" or "production"
PORT= # Port number for server
COOKIE_SESSION_KEY= # Secret key for cookie session
USER_ID_ENCRYPTION_KEY= # 256-bit encryption key for user IDs
SSO_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID= # Google client ID
SSO_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET= # Google client secret
MYSQL_HOST= # MySQL host
MYSQL_PORT= # MySQL port
MYSQL_USER= # MySQL user
MYSQL_PASSWORD= # MySQL password
MYSQL_DATABASE= # MySQL database name
AWS_BUCKET_NAME= # AWS bucket name
AWS_BUCKET_REGION= # AWS bucket region
AWS_ACCESS_KEY= # AWS access key
AWS_SECRET_KEY= # AWS secret key
SSL_CERT= # SSL certificate path
SSL_KEY= # SSL private key path

Note: The MySQL tables are generated automatically on project startup, but you must manually create the database beforehand. The database name should match the MYSQL_DATABASE variable in your .env file.

Optional: Adding a Favicon

To include a custom favicon:

1. Create an images folder at the root of your AWS bucket.
2. Upload your favicon as favicon.ico with the MIME type image/x-icon.

Scripts to Run

Once you’ve created the .env file and configured the database, navigate to the project’s root folder and run the following scripts:

Development

• npm run install-all-development
• npm run build-all-development
• npm run start-development

Production

• npm run install-all-production
• npm run build-all-production
• npm run start-production

For Continuous Development

If you’re making frequent changes to the code, use one of the following scripts for automatic rebuilding:

• npm run watch-client – for client-side code
• npm run watch-server – for server-side code
• npm run watch-all – for both client and server

Author: Erik Zsolt Varga