DevExchange is a collaborative developer Q&A and knowledge‑sharing platform focused on helping engineers ask technical questions, discover answers, and curate useful content. The platform supports:

• Question and answer threads with voting and sorting
• Rich tagging and search to surface related content
• Public and private communities for topic-focused discussion
• Personal collections for saving and organizing useful posts
• Direct messaging and global notifications
• Gamification: achievements, leaderboards, and moderation actions

This repository contains the full-stack implementation used for the CS4530 team project (internally referred to as "HuskyFlow"). It includes a TypeScript + React frontend, an Express/Node backend, shared TypeScript types, seed data and tests so you can run, extend, and evaluate the platform.

The website is: https://cs4530-f25-207.onrender.com/

ENV Files

• Please create a .env file in the client folder with the following properties:

• VITE_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8000

• Please create a .env file in the server folder with the following properties: MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://kapadiaket_db_user:FOs17swh1ahl8SIm@db-cs4530-fall25-207.rok6aqu.mongodb.net CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:4530 PORT=8000

JWT_SECRET=0dcb7f77c9b647c459392ccaed9770a45d92f1b54a11e2529aae435d06bb237f

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID = 274742781462-tdr2f9us2q1k0n0gesb1hs21a5p80td3.apps.googleusercontent.com GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET = 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

GITHUB_CLIENT_ID = Ov23lizfLwXjfhdmU310 GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET = 3f48bc3dac18a2ca01e1c767406bf928133b8627

GOOGLE_CALLBACK_URL=https://localhost:8000/auth/google/callback GITHUB_CALLBACK_URL=https://localhost:8000/auth/github/callback

Please create a .env file in the testing folder with the following properties: MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://kapadiaket_db_user:FOs17swh1ahl8SIm@db-cs4530-fall25-207.rok6aqu.mongodb.net

Getting Started

Run npm install in the root directory to install all dependencies for the client, server, and shared folders.

Note

Refer to IP1 and IP2 for further instructions related to setting up MongoDB, setting environment variables, and running the client and server.

Seed data

• Server seed scripts: The server contains scripts to populate and clear the local MongoDB instance. From the server directory you can run:

npm run populate-db   # populate the DB from server/seedData/data
npm run delete-db     # clear the DB

Ensure MONGODB_URI is set (see server/seedData/README.md for details on data order and collection dependencies).

Codebase Folder Structure

• client: Contains the frontend application code, responsible for the user interface and interacting with the backend. This directory includes all React components and related assets.
• server: Contains the backend application code, handling the logic, APIs, and database interactions. It serves requests from the client and processes data accordingly.
• shared: Contains all shared type definitions that are used by both the client and server. This helps maintain consistency and reduces duplication of code between the two folders. The type definitions are imported and shared within each folder's types/types.ts file.

Database Architecture

The schemas for the database are documented in the directory server/models/schema. A class diagram for the schema definition is shown below:

API Routes

/answer

Endpoint	Method	Description
/addAnswer	POST	Add a new answer
/upvoteAnswer	POST	Upvote an answer
/downvoteAnswer	POST	Downvote an answer
/deleteAnswer/:aid	DELETE	Soft-delete an answer (moderator only)
/flagAnswer/:answerId	PATCH	Toggle flag on an answer
/getFlaggedAnswers	GET	Retrieve flagged answers for moderator review
/changeAnswerType	POST	Change answer type

/comment

Endpoint	Method	Description
/addComment	POST	Add a new comment
/upvoteComment	POST	Upvote a comment
/downvoteComment	POST	Downvote a comment
/deleteComment/:cid	DELETE	Soft-delete a comment (moderator only)
/flagComment/:commentId	PATCH	Toggle flag on a comment
/getFlaggedComments	GET	Retrieve flagged comments for moderator review

/messaging

Endpoint	Method	Description
/addMessage	POST	Add a new message
/getMessages	GET	Retrieve all messages

/question

Endpoint	Method	Description
/getQuestion	GET	Fetch questions by filter
/getQuestionById/	GET	Fetch a specific question by ID
/addQuestion	POST	Add a new question
/upvoteQuestion	POST	Upvote a question
/downvoteQuestion	POST	Downvote a question
/flagQuestion/:questionId	PATCH	Toggle flag on a question
/getFlaggedQuestions	GET	Retrieve flagged questions for moderator review
/addTagToQuestion	PUT	Add a tag to a question
/removeTagFromQuestion	PUT	Remove a tag from a question
/deleteQuestion/:qid	DELETE	Soft-delete a question (moderator only)
/closeQuestion/:qid	POST	Close a question (moderator only)
/reopenQuestion/:qid	POST	Reopen a question (moderator only)

/tag

Endpoint	Method	Description
/getTagsWithQuestionNumber	GET	Fetch tags along with the number of questions
/getTagByName/	GET	Fetch a specific tag by name
/getAllTags	GET	Retrieve all tags
/addTag	POST	Create a new tag

/suspension

Endpoint	Method	Description
/suspend	POST	Issue a suspension to a user (moderator only)
/lift-suspension/:username	PATCH	Life a suspension from a user (moderator only)

/actions

Endpoint	Method	Description
/getModeratorActions/:moderatorUsername	GET	Fetch all actions performed by a specific moderator

/achievement

Endpoint	Method	Description
/getAchievements/:targetUsername	GET	Fetch all achievements awarded to a specific user

/user

Endpoint	Method	Description
/signup	POST	Create a new user account
/login	POST	Log in as a user
/resetPassword	PATCH	Reset user password
/getUser/	GET	Fetch user details by username
/getUsers	GET	Fetch all users
/deleteUser/	DELETE	Delete a user by username
/updateBiography	PATCH	Update user biography

/chat

Endpoint	Method	Description
/createChat	POST	Create a new chat.
/:chatId/addMessage	POST	Add a new message to an existing chat.
/:chatId	GET	Retrieve a chat by its ID, optionally populating participants and messages.
/:chatId/addParticipant	POST	Add a new participant to an existing chat.
/getChatsByUser/:username	GET	Retrieve all chats for a specific user based on their username.

/games

Endpoint	Method	Description
/create	POST	Create a new game
/join	POST	Join an existing game
/leave	POST	Leave a game
/games	GET	Retrieve all games

/api/collection

Endpoint	Method	Description
/create	POST	Create a new collection
/delete/:collectionId	DELETE	Delete a collection
/toggleSaveQuestion	PATCH	Add/remove question from collection
/getCollectionsByUsername/:username	GET	Get collections by username
/getCollectionById/:collectionId	GET	Get collection by ID

/api/community

Endpoint	Method	Description
/getCommunity/:communityId	GET	Get a specific community
/getAllCommunities	GET	Get all communities
/toggleMembership	POST	Join/leave a community
/create	POST	Create a new community
/delete/:communityId	DELETE	Delete a community

OpenAPI specification

OpenAPI specifications as given in the server/openapi.yaml file should give you an idea about the overall structure of the API endpoints, the request format and the various path/query parameters required as well as the expected response formats. To see a detailed explanation of the schemas and to test the endpoint in a sandboxed environment, you can use the Swagger UI page as follows:

• Start the server as specified earlier (cd server && npm run dev).
• Visit http://localhost:8000/api/docs to see the complete API specification in a user friendly manner.
• You should be able to see and test out individual endpoints using the Try it out button associated with each endpoint.

The specification itself is coupled with an OpenAPI validator (present as a middleware) that validates every request and response against the provided spec document.

Cypress Tests

Cypress tests are end-to-end tests that can help verify your implementation.

Setup Instructions

1. Navigate to the testing directory:

   cd testing

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Create a .env file in the testing/ directory with the following content:

   MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017
   

4. Make sure that both the server and client are already running

5. Run Cypress tests:

   npx cypress open

6. In the Cypress UI that opens:

   • Select E2E Testing
   • Choose your browser (Chrome is preferred)
   • Click on any of the test files to run it
   • If any of the tests fail, you should be able to see the exact sequence of steps that led to the failure.

Note

Running Cypress tests is optional. Cypress tests require significant system resources, and without them, the tests may be flaky. We will use these tests for grading.