Journal - A social media app 👥📚📸

A social media application built using the MERN stack, where users can share their experiences, follow each other, comment on posts, and filter content based on names and tags.

Features ✨

User registration and authentication
Follow/unfollow functionality
Commenting on posts
Content filtering by names and tags
Pagination for better user experience
Hash encryption of passwords
Access management with JWT tokens

Demo 📸

Technology Stack 🛠️

Backend

Node.js: A JavaScript runtime environment for server-side development.
Express.js: A web application framework for Node.js used for building APIs and handling HTTP requests.
MongoDB: A NoSQL database for storing application data.
JWT (JSON Web Tokens): A mechanism for authenticating and securely transmitting information between parties.

Frontend

React.js: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
Redux: A predictable state container for managing application state.
React Router: A routing library for navigation in a React application.
Axios: A library for making HTTP requests from the browser.

Prerequisites 📦

Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) should be installed.
MongoDB should be installed and running.

Installation ⚙️

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ananyap18/Journal.git
cd social-media-web-app

Install the dependencies for both backend and frontend:
```
 cd server
 npm install
```
```
 cd ../client
 npm install
```
Configuration: Rename the .env.example file in the backend directory to .env and update the configuration values such as MongoDB connection URL, JWT secret, etc.

Start the application:

 cd server
 npm start

 cd ../client
 npm start

The application should now be running at http://localhost:3000. ▶️