Dropdesk

A high-performance, collaborative media sharing workspace designed for teams. Dropdesk provides a robust platform for teams to create isolated workspaces, manage users, and share media files efficiently, built on a decoupled, scalable backend architecture.

Links

• Live Demo: https://dropdesk-test.0bhishek.com/
• Deployed API URL: http://api-dropdesk.0bhishek.com/api/v1
• Video Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/@0bhishekk

Why Dropdesk?

While platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox are excellent general-purpose tools, Dropdesk is built specifically to address engineering challenges around high-throughput media sharing within team-centric isolated environments. It serves as a comprehensive demonstration of handling complex backend workflows—such as asynchronous media processing, secure direct-to-cloud uploads, and decoupled task execution—while maintaining a highly responsive REST API.

Architecture & Data Flow

Dropdesk is designed around a micro-architecture pattern that separates the main API thread from computationally heavy tasks.

1. Authentication & Authorization: The user authenticates via the Express API (using JWTs). Access to workspaces and media is strictly controlled through role-based access control (RBAC) enforced at the database level.
2. Media Upload Flow (Direct-to-S3):
   • Instead of uploading files directly to the Node/Bun server, the client requests a secure presigned URL from the API.
   • The client uploads the file directly to AWS S3 using this URL. This saves server bandwidth and drastically improves upload speeds.
3. Background Processing:
   • Once the upload completes, the client notifies the API.
   • The API pushes a job to a Redis queue.
   • A background worker (powered by BullMQ) picks up the job and processes the media (e.g., generating thumbnails using sharp, running garbage collection, sending email notifications).

Technical Decisions & Tradeoffs

• Direct S3 Uploads via Presigned URLs:
  • Decision: Offload file transfers from the primary server.
  • Tradeoff: Increases client-side complexity and requires strict CORS/IAM policies on AWS, but prevents the main API thread from blocking during large file transfers.
• Background Workers (BullMQ + Redis):
  • Decision: Decouple heavy workloads (media compression, emails) from the main request-response lifecycle.
  • Tradeoff: Introduces infrastructure overhead (requires Redis), but ensures the API remains fast and highly available under load.
• Bun Runtime:
  • Decision: Use Bun instead of Node.js for faster startup times, native TypeScript support, and improved performance.
  • Tradeoff: A newer runtime with a slightly smaller ecosystem, but the performance benefits for a backend service are significant.
• Prisma ORM with PostgreSQL:
  • Decision: Ensure strict type safety from the database to the API layer.
  • Tradeoff: Slightly heavier abstraction compared to raw SQL, but significantly improves developer velocity and reduces runtime errors.

Tech Stack

• Runtime & Language: Bun, TypeScript
• Framework: Express.js
• Database & ORM: PostgreSQL, Prisma
• Caching & Queues: Redis, BullMQ
• Cloud Storage: AWS S3 (AWS SDK) & S3 Lifecycle Policies
• Media Processing: Sharp
• Security, Validation & Logging: Zod, JWT, Cookie-Session, Helmet, CORS, Winston
• Infrastructure & Deployment: Docker, Nginx (Reverse Proxy), AWS EC2, GitHub Actions (CI/CD), CloudWatch

Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Bun installed on your system
• Docker and Docker Compose
• AWS S3 bucket credentials

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/iCoderabhishek/Dropdesk.git
   cd Dropdesk
   bun install

2. Environment Configuration Create a .env file in the root directory. Check src/config/env.ts for the required keys (Database URL, Redis URL, AWS credentials, JWT secrets).

3. Start Infrastructure Services Start the PostgreSQL and Redis containers in the background:

   bun run docker-dev

4. Database Migrations Initialize the database schema and generate the Prisma client:

   bun run migrate
   bun run generate

5. Start the Development Server

   bun run dev

   The API will be accessible on your local port.

Project Structure

• src/api/: Express application, routes, middlewares, and controllers.
• src/config/: Environment validation and global configurations.
• src/workers/: Background job processors handling Redis queues.
• prisma/: Database schemas and migration files.

License

This project is licensed under the ISC License.