💬 Nexlink

A scalable, modular Social Media Backend built with NestJS, supporting both real-time communication and traditional REST/GraphQL interactions. Built with microservices, gRPC, and WebSockets, it provides real-time chat, friend/follow systems, and a foundation for modern social features.

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📌 Table of Contents

• Features
• Tech Stack
• Architecture
• Getting Started
• Microservices Overview
• Gateway API
• Authentication
• Real-time Communication
• API Documentation
• Usage Examples
• Planned Features
• Project Structure
• Contributing
• License

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✨ Features

• 🧱 Microservices architecture with gRPC
• 🌐 REST + GraphQL API support
• 🔐 Auth system with JWT and RBAC
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Follow/friend request system
• 💬 1-on-1 and group chat support with Socket.IO
• 📥 Group join requests with admin approval
• 📌 Real-time messaging using WebSockets
• 🔔 Notification support (via Redis pub/sub)

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🛠 Tech Stack

Layer	Tech Used
Backend Framework	NestJS
API Protocols	REST, GraphQL, gRPC
Real-time Engine	WebSockets, Socket.IO
Messaging Queue	Redis Pub/Sub
Database	PostgreSQL
Auth	JWT, RBAC
Containerization	Docker, Docker Compose
DevOps	GitHub Actions (CI/CD), Terraform (WIP)

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🏗 Architecture

[Insert system architecture diagram here: gateway, services, Redis, WebSockets, etc.]

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• Docker & Docker Compose
• PostgreSQL
• Redis

Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/iamarvy/social-media-api.git
cd social-media-api

Install Dependencies

npm install

Run with Docker

docker-compose up --build

Run Individual Services

cd services/auth
npm run start:dev

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🧩 Microservices Overview

Service	Description
Auth Service	Handles sign up, login, token generation
User Service	Stores user profile and connection data
Post Service	Manages posts, comments, and likes
Chat Service	Handles real-time and group messaging
Notification Service	Sends real-time or async notifications

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🌐 Gateway API

• Unified REST and GraphQL entry point for frontend clients
• Integrates with all microservices over gRPC
• Handles WebSocket connections for real-time communication
• Includes role and token validation middleware

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🔐 Authentication

• Uses JWT-based auth across services
• Role-based permissions: User, Admin, Group Admin
• Token validation handled at gateway + gRPC level guards

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🔄 Real-time Communication

• WebSocket gateway powered by Socket.IO
• Chat service emits and listens to events using Redis pub/sub
• Group messaging with join requests and admin approval
• Message persistence using PostgreSQL

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📚 API Documentation

This project uses Swagger for automatic API documentation.

• 🧭 Full REST Docs: Available at http://localhost:3000/api
• ⚙️ Generated via: NestJS + Swagger module

Sample Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/signup	Register a new user
POST	/auth/login	Authenticate and get JWT
GET	/users/me	Fetch current user info
POST	/posts	Create a new post

📌 For the complete list of endpoints, request/response schemas, and error formats, see the Swagger UI at /api/docs.

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🧪 Usage Examples

Authentication

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/auth/login \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "email": "user@example.com", "password": "123456" }'

Create Post

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/posts \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "text": "My first post!" }'

Send WebSocket Message (via Socket.IO client)

socket.emit('send_message', {
  roomId: 'abc123',
  message: 'Hello, world!',
});

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🛠 Planned Features

• Story/Status system
• Media uploads with storage microservice
• Notification preferences & batching
• Activity logs and admin moderation tools
• Full-text post and comment search

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📁 Project Structure

/services
  ├── auth/
  ├── users/
  ├── posts/
  ├── chat/
  ├── notifications/
  └── common/
/gateway
  ├── api-gateway/
/proto
  └── *.proto
/docker
  └── docker-compose.yml

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🤝 Contributing

1. Fork this repo
2. Create a branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. © 2025 Oluwaseyi Oke