EverLearn Hub – Backend

EverLearn Hub Backend is a RESTful API server built with NestJS, designed to power an E-Learning platform for students and working professionals. It handles authentication, course management, enrollments, payments, user progress tracking, and admin operations with a scalable, production-ready architecture.

This backend serves as the core system behind the EverLearn Hub frontend and represents an MVP of a real-world application.

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🚀 Project Overview

• Project Name: EverLearn Hub – Backend
• Type: REST API / Backend Service
• Project Status: MVP
• Framework: NestJS
• Database: PostgreSQL (via Prisma ORM)
• Frontend: Next.js application (separate repository)

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🛠 Tech Stack

• Framework: NestJS
• Language: TypeScript
• ORM: Prisma
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Authentication: JWT (Access & Refresh tokens)
• Auth Strategy: Passport + JWT
• Caching / Session: Redis (ioredis)
• File Storage: Cloudinary (images & PDFs)
• Payments: Stripe
• Validation: class-validator / class-transformer
• API Documentation: Swagger (OpenAPI)
• Testing: Jest + Supertest

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🧩 Application Modules

The backend is organized using NestJS modules to ensure separation of concerns and scalability:

• AuthModule – Authentication, JWT, refresh tokens, guards
• UsersModule – User management and profiles
• CoursesModule – Course creation, listing, and management
• LessonsModule – Lesson content within courses
• CategoriesModule – Course categorization
• EnrollmentsModule – Course enrollment logic
• ProgressesModule – User learning progress tracking
• DashboardModule – User dashboard data
• StatsModule – Learning statistics and analytics
• PaymentsModule – Payment records and logic
• StripeModule – Stripe checkout and webhook handling
• CloudinaryModule – Image & PDF uploads
• PdfsModule – PDF lesson management
• RedisModule – Caching and token/session handling
• HealthModule – Health check endpoint
• PrismaModule – Database access layer

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✨ Core Features

🔐 Authentication & Authorization

• User registration and login
• JWT-based authentication (access & refresh tokens)
• Refresh token stored in HTTP-only cookies
• Role-based access control (STUDENT / ADMIN)
• Protected routes using guards

📚 Course & Learning Management

• Course CRUD operations (admin only)
• Lesson management (text, PDF)
• Course categories and filtering

👤 User & Progress Tracking

• User profile management
• Avatar upload via Cloudinary
• Track enrolled courses
• Track lesson and course progress
• Learning activity statistics

📊 Dashboards & Analytics

• User dashboard statistics:
  • Total enrolled courses
  • Completed courses
  • Active learning days (yearly)

💳 Payments

• Stripe checkout integration
• Payment intent creation
• Enrollment activation after successful payment
• Payment history tracking

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📄 API Documentation

Swagger UI is available for API exploration and testing:

GET http://localhost:3001/api

OpenAPI specification is used by the frontend to generate fully typed API clients.

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🧱 Architecture & Patterns

• Modular NestJS architecture
• Clean separation between controllers, services, and modules
• Prisma as a single source of truth for database access
• Transaction-safe operations using Prisma $transaction
• Global configuration using @nestjs/config
• Environment-based behavior (development / production)

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▶️ Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Stripe account
• Cloudinary account

Installation

npm install

Environment Variables

Create a .env file:

PORT=3001
NODE_ENV=development
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
GLOBAL_PREFIX=api

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/everlearn

JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret

REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=your_stripe_secret
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your_stripe_webhook_secret
STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY=your_stripe_public_key

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=xxx
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=xxx
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=xxx

Database Setup

npx prisma migrate dev
npx prisma db seed

Run Development Server

npm run start:dev

Server will start at:

http://localhost:3001

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🧠 Key Learnings & Challenges

• Designing scalable NestJS module architecture
• Implementing secure cookie-based refresh token flow
• Managing database transactions with Prisma
• Integrating Stripe payments and webhooks
• Handling file uploads with Cloudinary
• Using Redis for caching and token/session handling

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🔮 Future Improvements

• Improve test coverage
• Add background jobs (queues)
• Add audit logs for admin actions
• Improve monitoring and logging

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📌 Portfolio Note

This backend demonstrates:

• Real-world NestJS architecture
• Secure authentication & authorization
• Payment integration with Stripe
• Database modeling with Prisma
• API documentation with Swagger
• Production-oriented backend design

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EverLearn Hub Backend – Powering scalable online learning platforms 🚀