I built a Dev.to clone from scratch! 🥳😄

Live Site

Backend API

Tech

• UI: React
• Routing: React Router
• Real-time Notifications: Socket.io
• Backend: Express
• Database: MongoDB
• ORM: Mongoose
• Image hosting: Cloudinary

Features

• Login / Signup
• Google Oauth
• Create / Remove / Update / Delete Post
• Like / Unicorn / Bookmark Post
• Reading List
• Create / Add Tags to Post
• Follow Tags
• Find Posts by Tags
• Comment / Replies
• Like Comment
• Edit / Delete Comment
• View Profile
• Edit Profile
• Follow User
• Search Posts
• Real-time Notifications

How to setup locally

Clone

Clone the repo to your local machine using https://github.com/eknoorpreet/dev.to-clone

Setup

Install npm dependencies in both client and server subdirectories using npm install

$ cd server && npm install
$ cd client && npm install

Set up a MongoDB database either locally or online via MongoDB Atlas

Create a Cloudinary account

Create a new project on Google Cloud Platform

Create a .env file in in both client and server subdirectories

Set up the following environment variables

In client/.env:

REACT_APP_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000/api
REACT_APP_SOCKET_IO_URL=http://localhost:5000
REACT_APP_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=<GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID>

In server/.env:

DB_USER= //user name for db
DB_PASSWORD= //password for db
DB_NAME= // name for db
JWT_KEY= //random string

//cloundiary will provide you with the following credentials
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME= //cloud name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY= //API key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET; //API secret

//Google will provide you with the following credentials
GOOGLE_API_KEY = //API key

Finally, run npm start in both client and server subdirectories

$ cd server && npm start
$ cd client && npm start