Notex

Backend Assignment for Speer Technologies (https://speer.io)

Table of Contents

• What is Notex?
• How to run the project?
  • Prerequisites
  • Project structure
  • Running application
• How to run the tests?
• How to use the API?
• Design Decisions

What is Notex?

Notex (i know very !creative name) is a backend for a simple, multi user, note taking application. It is created as an assignment for Speer Technologies (https://speer.io).

It is created using GoLang and MongoDB. Using golang's GoFiber framework and MongoDB Go Driver.

How to run the project?

Prerequisites:

• GoLang
• MongoDB

Project structure

The main entry point to this project is main.go file.

• config folder: is used to store api and app config.
• data folder: is used to store database related operations.
• docs folder: is used to store Swagger 2.0 documentation.
• password folder: is used to store password encryption and decryption related operations.
• tests folder: is used to store tests.
• user folder: is used to store user related operations.

Running application

Clone the project

git clone https://github.com/KunalSin9h/notex

Download dependencies

go mod download

Run the project

Caution

Make sure you have mongodb running on localhost:27017.

go run main.go

The application will start on port 7000 by default.

And uses mongodb database at localhost:27017 by default.

Open http://localhost:7000/swagger to view the swagger documentation and test api with ease.

Important

This application comes with Swagger 2.0 api documentation. So we can test the APIs without needing any external tools.

How to run the tests?

To run the tests, run the following command

go test -v ./...

Test need a mongodb database running on localhost:27017 by default.

How to use the API?

API Documentation can be found at http://localhost:7000/swagger.

To use the application, one need to signup first.

After signing up, one can login with username and password. To get the Access Token. The Access Token is then stored in the Session which will expire in 1 hour (default).

Login endpoint is protected with Basic Auth authorization scheme.

And Access Token is used to authenticate all other endpoints.

After login successfully, Access Token is setup in the Cookie header, as well as return in the response body.

For browser clients, Since Access Token is setup in the Cookie header, it will be automatically sent with every request. Thats why when using swagger documentation, after login, every api is accessible without needing to setup Access Token manually.

Design Decisions

1. Why Golang?

In simple words, go is simple and fast. It is simple as Javascript / Python and 2x faster then Java. Thats why Go is becoming popular day by day for backend development.

Note

Apart from that, I also have experience with Javascript / Typescript for backend development with Express.js framework.

1. Why GoFiber?

GoFiber is the fastest HTTP framework for Go. It is inspired by Express.js and make development straight forward and easy. Especially for testing.

2. Why MongoDB?

The Entities are modeled like this:

Here Notes are independent of Users, with only AuthorID as a reference to User.

Users has access to Notes. Its just an array of NotesID.

With this simple and efficient design, we dont need the complex modeling of SQL databases.

Also, for text searching mongodb is better for fast and efficient searching.

Security & Instrumentation

The application is secure by Encrypted Cookies, Argon2ID password hashing, and Timing Safe Password Comparison.

Application is Instrumented with logs and metrics(future).

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Feel free to contact me at kunal@kunalsin9h.com or discord at @kunalsin9h.