Relay — Microblogging Platform

A full-stack microblogging application inspired by Twitter/X. Users can post short messages, follow each other, like and comment on posts, and manage their profile.

Live demo: coming soon

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, React Router, Vite
Backend	Java 21, Spring Boot 3, Spring Data JPA
Database	MariaDB (production), H2 (tests)
Auth	Session-based (HTTP-only cookies) with BCrypt password hashing
API Docs	OpenAPI / Swagger
Containerisation	Docker, Docker Compose

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Features

• Register, log in, and log out
• Create posts (max 280 characters)
• Like and unlike posts (cannot like your own)
• Comment on posts, delete your own comments
• Follow and unfollow users
• Aggregated timeline of followed users' posts
• User search
• Edit your own profile (name, email, bio)
• View other users' public profiles and follower / following counts
• Dark / Light mode toggle
• Responsive design (mobile and desktop)
• Accessible: skip-to-content link, ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation, speech-to-text input (Chrome / Edge)

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Running Locally

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Java 21
• Docker & Docker Compose (easiest option)

Option A — Docker (recommended)

docker-compose up --build

• Frontend: http://localhost
• Backend API: http://localhost:8080
• Swagger UI: http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html

Option B — Manual

Backend

cd relay-backend
# Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values, then:
export DB_URL=jdbc:mariadb://localhost:3306/relay?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true
export DB_USERNAME=root
export DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Frontend

cd relay-frontend
npm install
npm run dev

App runs at http://localhost:5173 — the Vite dev server proxies /api to the backend automatically.

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Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values before running.

Variable	Description	Default
DB_URL	MariaDB JDBC connection string	jdbc:mariadb://localhost:3306/relay
DB_USERNAME	Database user	root
DB_PASSWORD	Database password	(none)
COOKIE_SECURE	Set true when running behind HTTPS	false
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	Comma-separated allowed frontend origins	http://localhost
VITE_API_URL	Backend API base URL used by the frontend build	/api

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Testing

cd relay-backend
./mvnw test

73 tests covering controllers, services, and authentication flows.

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Security

• Passwords hashed with BCrypt (work factor 12, unique salt per hash)
• Session cookies are HttpOnly — not readable by JavaScript
• Secure flag enabled in production via the COOKIE_SECURE env var
• No secrets committed to version control — all sensitive config via environment variables

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License

Copyright © 2025 Malek Alsibai