Authenticate Me 🔐

Table of Contents

1. Project Overview
2. Built With
3. Goals
4. Deployment

Project Overview

Authenticate Me is a lightweight full-stack application designed as my stepping stone into the world of full-stack development. The project incorporates foundational elements commonly found in web applications: account creation, login, logout, along with a tried-and-true user authentication and authorization pattern.

Built With:

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Goals

• Grasp Core Functionality: As my first full-stack project, the goal was to understand and implement core web functionalities such as account creation, log in, log out, and user authentication.
• Dive into Databases: Delve deep into PostgreSQL, understanding its strengths and intricacies to manage user data securely.
• Data flow and state management: Adopt and master the Redux Toolkit to manage the application's state efficiently and streamline data flow across components.
• Decipher Authentication: Build an application that's not only functional, but also resilient against common cyber threats.
• Holistic Development: Cement a foundational understanding of how front-end and back-end technologies intertwine and communicate, laying the groundwork for more complex projects in the future.
• Deployment: Experience the nuances and challenges of deploying a full-stack application, transitioning from a local development environment to a live platform accessible by users.

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Deployment

Remote Deployment

To view the live version of Authenticate Me, click here. Follow the on-screen instructions to register or log in.

Local Deployment

Follow these steps to run Authenticate Me on your local machine for development and testing.

• Prerequisites

  • Node.js & NPM
  • PostgreSQL

• Installing

  1. Clone the repository to your local machine.
  2. Navigate to the project directory.
  3. Create a .env file in backend and define the variables below for your PostgreSQL database, your desired JWT parameters, and bcrypt salt to be used for hashing:

         PORT=5000
         DB_USERNAME=
         DB_PASSWORD=
         DB_DATABASE=
         DB_HOST=localhost
         JWT_SECRET=
         JWT_EXPIRES_IN=
         BCRYPT_SALT=
     

  4. Run npm install inside frontend to install all required front-end dependencies.
  5. Run npm start inside frontend to start the front-end.
  6. Run npm install inside backend to install all required back-end dependencies.
  7. Run npm start inside backend to start the back-end.
  8. Run dotenv npx sequelize db:migrate inside backend to run Sequelize migrations.
  9. Run dotenv npx sequelize db:migrate inside backend if you would like to seed the database with mock data.

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