brotocalll

brotocall is a full-stack real-time chat application built with modern web technologies.
It supports authentication, real-time messaging, media uploads, and automated deployment — designed with scalability and simplicity in mind.

---

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Architecture
• API Endpoints
• Setup and Installation
• Environment Variables
• Deployment
• Future Improvements
• License

---

Overview

brotocall allows users to:

• Sign up, log in, and update their profiles.
• Send and receive messages in real time.
• Upload and share images using Cloudinary.
• Store user and message data in a NoSQL (Document) database.
• Automatically deploy to Sevalla via GitHub CI/CD on every new commit.

It’s equipped with Arcjet rate limiting and middleware to ensure performance and security.

---

Features

• User authentication (Sign up, Login, Logout, Profile update)
• Real-time messaging between users
• Cloud image upload via Cloudinary
• MongoDB (Document DB) for storing users and messages
• Automatic deployment on each GitHub commit
• Welcome email on signup
• Arcjet rate limiting for abuse prevention

---

Tech Stack

Frontend:

• React.js

Backend:

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB (Mongoose)
• Cloudinary (for media storage)
• Arcjet (rate limiting)

DevOps & Deployment:

• GitHub (CI/CD integration)
• Sevalla (hosting)

---

Architecture

Here’s the high-level architecture of brotocall:

Key Components

Auth & IAM

Handles user registration, login, logout, and profile management.
Sends a welcome email upon signup.

Application Server

Core backend handling API logic, middleware, and communication between services.

Document DB

Stores User and Message collections.

User Schema

{
  "email": "string",
  "userName": "string",
  "password": "string",
  "profilePic": "string"
}

Message Schema

{
  "senderId": "ObjectId",
  "receiverId": "ObjectId",
  "text": "string",
  "image": "string"
}

Cloudinary

Stores user profile pictures and chat media.

Arcjet Middleware

Adds security and rate limiting to prevent abuse.

GitHub + Sevalla

Automatic deployment pipeline — new commits trigger updates to the live environment.

---

API Endpoints

Auth Routes

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/signup	Register a new user
POST	/api/auth/login	Log in an existing user
POST	/api/auth/logout	Log out user
PUT	/api/auth/updateProfile	Update user info (e.g., profile pic)

---

Message Routes

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/messages/contacts	Get user’s contacts
GET	/api/messages/chats	Fetch user’s chat list
GET	/api/messages/:id	Get all messages with a specific user
POST	/api/messages/send/:id	Send a new message

---

Setup and Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/iamAmer/brotocalll.git
   cd brotocalll

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Configure environment variables (see below)

4. Run the server

   npm run dev

---

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory and include:

PORT=3000
MONGO_URI=your_mongo_uri_here

NODE_ENV=development

JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret

RESEND_API_KEY=your_resend_api_key
EMAIL_FROM=your_email_from_address
EMAIL_FROM_NAME=your_email_from_name

CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

ARCJET_KEY=your_arcjet_key
ARCJET_ENV=development

---

Deployment

brotocall is automatically deployed to Sevalla through GitHub Actions on each commit.

• Live Demo: brotocall
• You can manually trigger deployment by pushing to the main branch:

git add .
git commit -m "deploy: update feature"
git push origin main

---

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — free for personal and commercial use.

---

Author

Developed by @iamAmer