DevConnect

Developer blog platform served from Express + EJS on Render:

• backend/: Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose, JWT auth, REST API, and EJS pages

Features

• User registration and login with hashed passwords and JWT
• Protected profile update flow
• Blog CRUD with owner-only update/delete
• Likes and comments
• Search and pagination on posts
• Server-rendered pages with EJS on the backend
• Deployment-ready backend structure for Render

Project Structure

DevConnect/
├── backend/
├── render.yaml
└── README.md

Backend runs on http://localhost:5000.

API Endpoints

Auth

• POST /api/auth/register
• POST /api/auth/login
• GET /api/auth/me

Users

• GET /api/users/:id
• PUT /api/users/:id

Posts

• POST /api/posts
• GET /api/posts
• GET /api/posts/:id
• PATCH /api/posts/:id
• DELETE /api/posts/:id
• POST /api/posts/:id/like

Comments

• GET /api/posts/:postId/comments
• POST /api/posts/:postId/comments
• PATCH /api/comments/:id
• DELETE /api/comments/:id

Render Deployment

• Create a Render Web Service from this repo
• Use backend as the root directory
• Build command: npm install
• Start command: npm start
• Add env vars:
  • NODE_ENV=production
  • MONGODB_URI
  • JWT_SECRET
  • CLIENT_URL (optional; comma-separated list of allowed origins for /api CORS)

render.yaml is included for convenience.

Notes

• The main UI is now served by the backend at /, /login, /register, /profile, /create-post, /users/:id, and /posts/:id
• The Render URL is the only URL you need for webpages and API
• For production, keep JWT_SECRET long and private
• MongoDB Atlas is recommended for deployment
• Registered users are stored in MongoDB, and the server keeps auth in an httpOnly cookie for the EJS flow