A Pinterest-style content discovery and pinning app built with Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and EJS. Users can register, create boards, save and organize pins, follow other users, like and comment on content, and explore a feed of pins from people they follow. Image uploads go through Cloudinary. Auth is handled by Passport.js with session-based login.
Currently server-side rendered with EJS. A migration to React is planned, along with AI-powered content recommendations.
Auth Users register with email and password. Passport.js handles login, session management, and route protection. Sessions are stored in MongoDB so they persist across server restarts.
Boards & Pins Users create boards to organize content and save pins to them. Each pin supports an image (uploaded to Cloudinary), a title, description, and link. Pins can be saved, unsaved, liked, and commented on.
Social Users can follow and unfollow each other. Following someone brings their pins into your explore feed. Profile pages show a user's boards, pins, followers, and following count.
Search Search works across both pins (by keyword/tag) and users (by username or name). Results render instantly on the same page without a full reload.
Profile Users can edit their display name, bio, and profile photo. Profile photo uploads also go through Cloudinary.
visionBoard/ ├── bin/ # Server startup script (www) ├── public/ # Static assets — CSS, client-side JS, images ├── routes/ # Express route files — auth, pins, boards, users, search ├── views/ # EJS templates — layouts, partials, and page views ├── app.js # Express app setup, middleware, session config, route mounting ├── .env # Environment variables (not committed) └── package.json
Why EJS? This was built as a server-rendered app where each page is rendered on the server and sent as HTML. It works well and keeps the architecture simple — no separate frontend build step, no API layer needed. The tradeoff is that interactivity is limited without adding client-side JS on top.
Node.js · Express.js · MongoDB · Mongoose · EJS · TailwindCSS · Passport.js · Cloudinary · Multer · Express-Session
bash git clone https://github.com/Samadali123/visionBoard.git cd visionBoard npm install
Create a .env file in the root:
.env PORT=5000 MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string SESSION_SECRET=your_session_secret
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
Start the server:
bash npm start
App runs at http://localhost:5000.
Users Apis Pins Apis Comments Apis
React migration — replacing EJS templates with a React frontend. The plan is to convert the app into a proper API + SPA architecture: Express serves JSON, React handles rendering. This gives full control over interactivity and state without the limitations of server-rendered templates.
AI features — once on React, the plan is to add AI-powered pin recommendations based on what users save and engage with, and smart search that understands intent rather than just matching keywords.
nodejs expressjs mongodb ejs tailwindcss passport cloudinary pinterest-clone session-auth fullstack`
Syed Samad Ali — LinkedIn