The Gigmen - Where gig workers rant

A full-stack content publishing platform built with Node.js, MongoDB, Google Cloud Functions, and Next.js. Demonstrates microservices architecture, RESTful API design, and modern web development practices.

🛠 Tech Stack

Backend:

• Node.js + Express
• MongoDB (Mongoose)
• JWT Authentication
• REST APIs

Serverless:

• Google Cloud Functions
• Analytics microservice

Frontend:

• Next.js 14 (App Router)
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

📁 Project Structure

the-gigmen/
├── backend/                 # Express API
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── models/         # MongoDB schemas
│   │   ├── routes/         # API endpoints
│   │   ├── middleware/     # Auth middleware
│   │   ├── config/         # Database config
│   │   └── index.js        # Server entry
│   └── .env
├── cloud-functions/         # GCP Functions
│   └── article-analytics/
│       └── index.js
└── frontend/                # Next.js app
    ├── app/                # App router pages
    ├── lib/                # API client
    └── .env.local

🚀 Quick Start

1. MongoDB Setup

1. Go to MongoDB Atlas
2. Create free cluster
3. Get connection string
4. Whitelist your IP (0.0.0.0/0 for development)

2. Backend Setup

cd backend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Create .env file
cat > .env << EOL
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://username:password@cluster.mongodb.net/gigmen
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_key_change_this_in_production
PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
EOL

# Start development server
npm run dev

Test the API:

# Health check
curl http://localhost:5000/health

# Register user
curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "username": "testuser",
    "email": "test@example.com",
    "password": "password123",
    "bio": "Test user bio"
  }'

# Create article (use token from register)
curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/articles \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN_HERE" \
  -d '{
    "title": "My First Article",
    "content": "This is my first article content...",
    "tags": ["nodejs", "mongodb"],
    "published": true
  }'

3. Google Cloud Functions Setup

cd cloud-functions/article-analytics

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Install Google Cloud CLI
# https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

# Login to GCP
gcloud auth login

# Set project
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

# Deploy function
gcloud functions deploy getArticleAnalytics \
  --runtime nodejs18 \
  --trigger-http \
  --allow-unauthenticated \
  --set-env-vars MONGODB_URI="your_mongodb_connection_string"

# Get function URL
gcloud functions describe getArticleAnalytics

4. Frontend Setup

cd frontend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Create .env.local
cat > .env.local << EOL
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api
NEXT_PUBLIC_GCP_ANALYTICS_URL=https://YOUR_GCP_FUNCTION_URL
EOL

# Start development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000

🎯 Key Features

Backend API

✅ User authentication with JWT ✅ CRUD operations for articles ✅ MongoDB schemas with indexing ✅ Pagination and search ✅ Role-based access control ✅ Clean middleware architecture ✅ Comprehensive error handling

Google Cloud Function

✅ Serverless analytics microservice ✅ MongoDB aggregation pipelines ✅ Connection pooling for performance ✅ CORS-enabled endpoints

Next.js Frontend

✅ Server-Side Rendering (SSR) ✅ Static Site Generation (SSG) ✅ TypeScript for type safety ✅ Responsive design with Tailwind ✅ API client with auth interceptors

🔑 API Endpoints

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/register - Create account
• POST /api/auth/login - Login
• GET /api/auth/me - Get current user

Articles

• GET /api/articles - List articles (with pagination)
• GET /api/articles/:slug - Get single article
• POST /api/articles - Create article (auth required)
• PUT /api/articles/:id - Update article (auth required)
• DELETE /api/articles/:id - Delete article (auth required)
• GET /api/articles/user/:username - User's articles

Analytics (GCP Function)

• GET /getArticleAnalytics - Platform analytics

📊 Database Schema

Users Collection:

{
  username: String,
  email: String,
  password: String (hashed),
  bio: String,
  role: String,
  articlesPublished: Number,
  createdAt: Date,
  updatedAt: Date
}

Articles Collection:

{
  title: String,
  slug: String (auto-generated),
  content: String,
  excerpt: String,
  author: ObjectId (ref: User),
  tags: [String],
  published: Boolean,
  views: Number,
  likes: Number,
  createdAt: Date,
  updatedAt: Date
}

🚢 Deployment

Backend (Render/Railway)

1. Push code to GitHub
2. Connect repository to Render/Railway
3. Add environment variables
4. Deploy

Frontend (Vercel)

1. Push code to GitHub
2. Import repository to Vercel
3. Add environment variables
4. Deploy

🧪 Testing

# Backend
cd backend
npm test

# Frontend
cd frontend
npm test

🎓 Learning Outcomes

This project demonstrates:

• ✅ RESTful API design principles
• ✅ MongoDB schema modeling and optimization
• ✅ JWT authentication implementation
• ✅ Serverless architecture with Google Cloud
• ✅ Next.js SSR and SSG patterns
• ✅ TypeScript in full-stack development
• ✅ Clean code architecture
• ✅ Modern DevOps practices

📝 What I Learned

Building this project gave me hands-on experience with:

1. MongoDB: Schema design, aggregation pipelines, indexing strategies
2. Google Cloud Functions: Serverless deployment, cold start optimization
3. Next.js: Server-side rendering, static generation, API routes
4. Authentication: JWT implementation, secure password hashing
5. API Design: REST best practices, middleware patterns, error handling

🔗 Links

• Live Demo: [Your Vercel URL]
• API Documentation: [Your Backend URL]/api
• GitHub: [Your GitHub Repo]

👨‍💻 Author

Eric Kojo Abbey

• Location: Accra, Ghana
• LinkedIn: [Your LinkedIn]
• Email: kojoaeric@gmail.com

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Built as a portfolio project to demonstrate full-stack development skills with modern technologies relevant to publishing platforms and content management systems.