arosenfeld2003 / messages

A clone of Twitter built with React and Rails

README

Live Demo: MESSAGES

Messages is micro-blogging service that replicates the functionality of Twitter. I built this app with another apprentice at Qwasar Silicon Valley.

Features include:

• Custom user authentication using JSON Web Token (JWT) stored in the database

• Ability to post/delete 'tweets', comment on posted tweets, and 'like' or unlike posted tweets

• Ability to follow other users and see their tweets

• Ability to be followed by other users so they can see your tweets

• Ability to 'retweet' a post from another user

• Dynamic search of the user database

• React front end - state management with Redux
• PostgreSQL for data storage for Heroku deploy

My specific contributions include:

• Create basic framework for the application using Rails and Create-React-App
• Implement database logic for User, including model for followers and following - see this GIST for details
• Implement logic to like and comment on tweets
• Deploy app to Heroku
• Numerous bug fixes and minor tweaks to front-end

TODO (time permitting):

• Write unit tests for all aspects of the application
• Refactor front end for enhanced UX/UI
• Refactor React Router logic
• Improve performance with fewer API calls to database

We used this project to understand how to marry React on the front-end with Rails on the back-end. We also studied the structure of a relational database for allowing users to follow and be followed by other users (Twitter Model), and tweets to be retweeted.