TaskFlow Microservices Application

A fully containerized full-stack task management application

Tech Stack

Backend Services

• API Gateway: Node.js, Express, Http-Proxy-Middleware (Port 5000)
• User Service: Node.js, Express, Mongoose, JWT Authentication (Port 5001)
• Task Service: Node.js, Express, Mongoose (Port 5002)
• Notification Service: Node.js, Express, EmailJS API (Port 5003)

Databases

• User Database: MongoDB (Isolated Container: mongo-user)
• Task Database: MongoDB (Isolated Container: mongo-task)

Frontends

• User Frontend: React, Vite, CSS (Port 5173)
• Admin Frontend: React, Vite, CSS (Port 3000)

Orchestration & Deployment

• Containerization: Docker
• Orchestration: Docker Compose
• Web Server: Nginx (serving frontends inside containers)

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Folder Structure

task-manager-api/
├── .gitignore                      # Project-wide git exclusion file
├── docker-compose.yml              # Central Docker Compose orchestration file
├── api-gateway/                    # Express gateway proxy on Port 5000
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── server.js
├── user-service/                   # Manages auth, user profiles, and admin accounts (Port 5001)
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/                     # Contains isolated User schema
│   ├── routes/
│   └── Dockerfile
├── task-service/                   # Manages task lifecycles and assignments (Port 5002)
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/                     # Contains isolated Task schema
│   ├── routes/
│   └── Dockerfile
├── notification-service/           # Handles automated email alerts via EmailJS (Port 5003)
│   ├── utils/                      # Email client configurations
│   ├── server.js
│   └── Dockerfile
├── task-manager-user-frontend/     # React application for general task users (Port 5173)
│   ├── src/
│   ├── nginx.conf                  # Production routing proxy configuration
│   └── Dockerfile
└── task-manager-frontend/          # React application for system administrators (Port 3000)
    ├── src/
    ├── nginx.conf                  # Production routing proxy configuration
    └── Dockerfile

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How to Run

Docker Compose is the only supported and required method to build and run the entire application stack.

1. Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop must be installed and running on your system.
• Git must be installed.

2. Configure Environment Variables

You must verify and configure the environment files for each service. Sample or pre-configured .env files must be populated prior to startup. Key env files include:

• user-service/.env (contains MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_EMAIL, ADMIN_PASSWORD)
• task-service/.env (contains MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET)
• notification-service/.env (contains EMAILJS_PRIVATE_KEY, EMAILJS_PUBLIC_KEY, EMAILJS_SERVICE_ID, EMAILJS_TEMPLATE_ID)
• task-manager-user-frontend/.env (contains VITE_API_URL pointing to the API Gateway)
• task-manager-frontend/.env (contains VITE_API_URL pointing to the API Gateway)

Note: In the local microservice environment, the User and Task service databases are automatically hosted by the local MongoDB containers on mongodb://mongo-user:27017/TaskManagerUser and mongodb://mongo-task:27017/TaskManager respectively.

3. Start the Application

Open a terminal in the root directory and run the following command to compile the code, pull the base images, and initialize the containers:

docker-compose up --build -d

Once execution completes, all 8 containers will be running in the background.

4. Access Links

• User Interface: http://localhost:5173
• Admin Dashboard: http://localhost:3000
• API Gateway Entrypoint: http://localhost:5000

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Developer Commands and Operations

Common commands used during developer cycles:

Check Running Container Health

docker-compose ps

View Real-Time Output Logs

To inspect system logs globally:

docker-compose logs -f

To tail logs for a specific service (e.g., user-service):

docker-compose logs -f user-service

Recreate and Apply Changes

If you modify source code in one of the backend services or static frontends, you must force a rebuild and update the active container:

docker-compose stop <service-name>
docker-compose rm -f <service-name>
docker-compose up -d --build <service-name>

Example for task-service:

docker-compose stop task-service; docker-compose rm -f task-service; docker-compose up -d --build task-service

Stop All Services

To suspend execution and stop all microservice containers:

docker-compose down

To tear down all microservices, networks, and clear persistent volumes:

docker-compose down -v