/FoxBerry.API

FoxBerry.API: Robust ASP.NET Core 9 backend for a social media platform. Features include JWT Auth, user profiles, posts with images, likes, comments, and a follow system, all powered by PostgreSQL.

Primary LanguageC#MIT LicenseMIT

FoxBerry.API 🍓

A social network backend built with ASP.NET Core.

License Build Status Contributors

🚀 Overview

FoxBerry.API: Robust ASP.NET Core 9 backend for a social media platform. Features include JWT Auth, user profiles, posts with images, likes, comments, and a follow system, all powered by PostgreSQL.

FoxBerry is a social media platform that allows users to share posts with images, like and comment on posts, and follow other users. This repository contains the backend API for the FoxBerry application, built using ASP.NET Core 9 and Entity Framework Core. It provides a robust and scalable foundation for managing user data, posts, interactions, and more.

FoxBerry Solution Structure:

This repository is the root of the FoxBerry solution, which currently contains the backend API project (FoxBerry.API). The frontend web application (FoxBerry.Web - Angular) will reside in a separate repository.

✨ Features

  • User Authentication & Authorization: Secure JWT-based authentication (registration, login) and authorization for protected endpoints.
  • User Profiles: Create, view, and update user profiles, including biography and profile pictures.
  • Post Management: Create, view (individual and feed), update, and delete posts with image uploads.
  • Likes: Like and unlike posts.
  • Comments: Add, view, and delete comments on posts.
  • Follow System: Follow and unfollow other users, view followers and following lists.
  • Image Storage: Local file system storage for post and profile images (scalable to cloud storage for production).
  • Database: PostgreSQL integration via Entity Framework Core.
  • API Documentation: Self-documenting API with Swagger UI.

🛠️ Technologies Used

  • Backend Framework: ASP.NET Core 9.0
  • Language: C# 12
  • Database: PostgreSQL
  • ORM: Entity Framework Core 9.0 (via Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore and Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL)
  • Authentication: JWT (JSON Web Tokens) with Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer (v9.0.5)
  • Password Hashing: BCrypt.Net-Next (v4.0.3)
  • API Documentation: Swashbuckle (Swagger/OpenAPI) (v8.1.4)

📦 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Installation

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/abdullokhonz/FoxBerry.API.git
cd FoxBerry.API # Navigate into the solution root directory

  2. Configure Sensitive Data (Connection Strings & JWT Secret) using User Secrets:

    • Sensitive information like database connection strings and JWT secret keys should not be committed to source control. ASP.NET Core provides a secure way to manage these for development using User Secrets.
    • Navigate into the FoxBerry.API project directory (where FoxBerry.API.csproj is located): 
      cd FoxBerry.API/
    • Initialize User Secrets for the project (if not already done): 
      dotnet user-secrets init
    • Add your database connection string: 
      dotnet user-secrets set "ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection" "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=FoxBerryDb;Username=your_username;Password=your_password"
      Important: Replace your_username and your_password with your actual PostgreSQL credentials.
    • Add your JWT secret key: 
      dotnet user-secrets set "JwtSettings:Secret" "YourStrongAndUniqueJwtSecretKeyThatIsAtLeast32CharactersLong"
      Important: Replace YourStrongAndUniqueJwtSecretKeyThatIsAtLeast32CharactersLong with a secure, random string (minimum 32 characters). This should be the same key used during development of the Auth system.
    • You can verify your secrets are set by running dotnet user-secrets list.

  3. Configure Database:

    • Ensure your PostgreSQL server is running.
    • Create a new database for this project (e.g., FoxBerryDb).
    • From the FoxBerry.API project directory (where FoxBerry.API.csproj is), apply database migrations: 
      dotnet ef database update
      This will create the necessary tables in your FoxBerryDb database.

  4. Create Image Folders:

    • Manually create the following folders within the wwwroot directory of the FoxBerry.API project:
      • FoxBerry.API/wwwroot/images
      • FoxBerry.API/wwwroot/images/posts
      • FoxBerry.API/wwwroot/images/profiles
    • This is where uploaded images will be stored locally.

Running the Application

  1. Navigate back to the solution root directory:

    cd .. # If you are in FoxBerry.API project directory, go up one level

  2. Run the application (from solution root, for FoxBerry.API project):

    dotnet run --project FoxBerry.API/FoxBerry.API.csproj

    The API will typically run on https://localhost:7001 (or http://localhost:5000).

  3. Access Swagger UI:

    • Open your browser and navigate to https://localhost:7001/swagger (replace port if different).
    • Here you can explore all API endpoints and test them.

🔑 API Usage (via Swagger UI)

  1. Register a User:

    • Navigate to Auth -> POST /api/Auth/register.
    • Provide username, email, and password.
    • Execute the request.

  2. Login and Get JWT Token:

    • Navigate to Auth -> POST /api/Auth/login.
    • Provide email, and password.
    • Execute the request. Copy the token from the response.

  3. Authorize in Swagger:

    • Click the "Authorize" button at the top right of the Swagger UI.
    • In the dialog, type Bearer YourJWTToken (replace YourJWTToken with the actual token you copied).
    • Click "Authorize".

  4. Explore and Test Endpoints:

    • Now you can use the various endpoints (e.g., Posts, Likes, Comments, Follows, Users) to create, read, update, and delete data.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions or want to contribute, please feel free to open issues or pull requests.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.