friend.ly - An Anonymous Message Web App for Friends and Family

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Description

friend.ly is a Node.js and Express.js project that allows users to send messages to their friends using a fake name. It provides a simple and anonymous way to communicate with friends without revealing personal information.

Features

Send messages to friends using a fake name.
Anonymous communication to protect user privacy.
Easy-to-use interface for a seamless messaging experience.

Requirements

Nodejs on your system or on your deployment environment.
A Firestore Database( Just provide the credentials to the app it configures it automatically)

Installation

To install and run friend.ly on your local machine, follow these steps:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/subinoybiswas/friend.ly.git

Navigate to the project directory:
```
cd friend.ly
```
Install the dependencies:
```
npm install
```

Configuration

Before running the application, you need to set up the following configurations:

Create a .env file in the root directory.
Specify the following environment variables in the .env file:
```
PORT=3000
CLIENT_ID=
AUTH_PROVIDER=
AUTH_URI=
CLIENT_CERT=
CLIENT_EMAIL=
PRIVATE_KEY=
PRIVATE_KEY_ID=
PROJECT_ID=
TOKEN_URI=
TYPE=
UNI_DOMAIN=
```
Get these details from Firebase and put them in their corresponding places.

Focus especially on the "PRIVATE_KEY" as you have to put it in the object format for this to work:
```
{"private_key":"-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n..blah...blah..blah----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n"}
```
Alternatively, you can put the secrets in a .json file, as I did in the secret.json file. This process is much easier for the local environment.

Backend

The backend of the friend.ly project is built using Node.js and Express.js. It provides the API endpoints for sending and retrieving messages. The backend code can be found in the Backend directory.

To start the backend server, run the following command:

npm run start

Frontend

The front end of the friend.ly project is built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It provides the user interface for composing and viewing messages. The frontend code can be found in the Frontend directory.

The routing for the front end is primarily handled via the server.js file at /index.js. Then it gets rerouted via the client-side javascript.

Deployment

To deploy friend.ly to a production environment, follow these steps:

Set up a Firestore Database.
Configure the necessary environment variables in your production environment.
Set up the project and install the necessary dependencies.
Go to the correct directory (Root)
Start the backend server:
```
npm run start
```
Enjoy your app.

Contributing

Contributions to friend.ly are welcome! If you find any bugs, have feature requests, or want to contribute code, please open an issue or submit a pull request to the project repository.

subinoybiswas / friend.ly