🚀 MERN SOCIAL Enterprise-Grade Social Media Platform with AI Microservice (.NET 8)

A cloud-ready, microservice-driven full-stack social networking platform built using React, Node.js, MongoDB, Socket.io, Docker, and ASP.NET Core AI services.

Designed following real production architecture patterns used in modern SaaS systems.

🌐 LIVE APPLICATION 🔗 Production Deployment https://mern-social-4-ufh7.onrender.com/login

📌 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This platform simulates a real-world scalable social media backend ecosystem featuring:

Stateless frontend SPA

JWT-secured API layer

Real-time messaging engine

CDN-based media handling

Dedicated AI microservice

Reverse-proxy routing

Docker multi-container deployment

The system architecture mirrors modern microservice SaaS deployments.

🏗️ HIGH-LEVEL ARCHITECTURE User Browser | v NGINX Reverse Proxy | |---- React Frontend |---- Node.js REST API + WebSocket |---- ASP.NET AI Service + Admin Panel | v MongoDB Atlas Cloud

🧩 TECH STACK (PRODUCTION-LEVEL) 🎨 Frontend Layer

React + Vite (high-performance SPA)

Tailwind CSS

Axios API client

Socket.io realtime connection

⚙️ Backend API Layer

Node.js + Express.js

JWT authentication

RESTful service design

WebSocket chat server

Modular controllers/services

🤖 AI MICROSERVICE (ENTERPRISE SEPARATION)

Implemented as independent service:

ASP.NET Core 8 Web API

Swagger documentation

Recommendation-ready architecture

Content analysis ready pipeline

Future ML integration support

🔐 ADMIN DASHBOARD (ASP.NET SERVER RENDERED)

Includes secure operational interface:

User moderation panel

Post removal tools

AI usage monitoring

System health metrics

Secure cookie-based login

Accessible via:

/admin

🗄️ DATA STORAGE

MongoDB Atlas cloud database:

User profiles

Posts

Comments

Chat messages

Follow relationships

☁️ MEDIA DELIVERY

Cloudinary CDN integration:

Image uploads

Video hosting

Automatic compression

Global CDN delivery

✨ CORE PRODUCT FEATURES 👤 Authentication System

Secure JWT login

Password hashing

Protected routes middleware

📝 Social Posting Engine

Upload media posts

Caption support

Like system

Comment system

Delete posts

💬 Real-Time Chat Engine

Powered by Socket.io:

Instant messaging

Persistent connection

Low latency delivery

👥 Social Networking

Follow users

Profile browsing

Personalized feed

🤖 AI-READY EXTENSIBILITY

The platform integrates a dedicated AI service designed for:

Smart recommendations

Caption generation

Toxicity detection

Feed ranking models

📁 PROJECT STRUCTURE mern-social/ │ ├── frontend/ React SPA ├── backend/ Node API + Socket server ├── SocialAI/ ASP.NET AI + Admin panel ├── nginx/ Reverse proxy configs ├── docker-compose.yml

🔧 ENVIRONMENT SETUP Backend .env PORT=5000 MONGO_URI=YOUR_MONGO_URL JWT_SECRET=YOUR_SECRET

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=XXX CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=XXX CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=XXX

AI_SERVICE_URL=http://socialai:5187

Frontend .env VITE_API_BASE_URL=/api VITE_SOCKET_URL=/

🐳 DOCKER DEPLOYMENT (RECOMMENDED)

Run entire platform:

docker-compose up --build

Stop:

docker-compose down

Access Points Frontend → http://localhost API → http://localhost/api AI Swagger → http://localhost/ai/swagger Admin → http://localhost/admin

🖥️ LOCAL DEVELOPMENT (WITHOUT DOCKER) Frontend cd frontend npm install npm run dev

Backend cd backend npm install npm run dev

AI Service cd SocialAI dotnet restore dotnet run

☁️ AWS EC2 DEPLOYMENT (REAL-WORLD FLOW) ssh -i key.pem ec2-user@IP sudo yum install docker -y sudo systemctl start docker git clone YOUR_REPO cd mern-social docker-compose up -d --build

Open ports:

80 5000 5187

🧪 TESTING & DEBUGGING TOOLS Swagger http://localhost:5187/swagger

JWT Debugger https://jwt.io

Postman Collection

Used for:

Endpoint validation

Auth testing

Payload debugging

🐞 TROUBLESHOOTING MATRIX Issue Root Cause Resolution Frontend blank Proxy routing issue Verify nginx.conf Login fails JWT mismatch Check secret key Upload error Cloudinary config Validate credentials Chat disconnect WebSocket blocked Check proxy headers AI timeout Service down Restart SocialAI 🎯 ENGINEERING VALUE OF THIS PROJECT

This repository demonstrates:

✔ Microservice architecture separation ✔ Real-time WebSocket scaling model ✔ Secure stateless authentication ✔ CDN-offloaded media pipeline ✔ Reverse proxy infrastructure ✔ Containerized deployment design ✔ Cloud production readiness

👨‍💻 AUTHOR

Shashank Mankar

Full Stack Developer MERN | Node | React | MongoDB | ASP.NET | Docker

⭐ SUPPORT

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