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Clown is a cool social media platform built as a side project for fun and learning. It mimics popular social media features like posts, likes, comments, and real-time chat, offering a hands-on way to explore full-stack development, AI integrations, and modern deployment practices. Built with cutting-edge technologies, Clown serves as a playground for experimenting with scalable architectures, authentication systems, and real-time communication. While it’s not a production-ready platform, it’s a great way to understand how social media platforms work under the hood.

• React: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
• Tailwind CSS: A utility-first CSS framework for rapid UI development.

• Node.js: A JavaScript runtime for building scalable server-side applications.
• Express.js: A web application framework for Node.js.
• Socket.io: For real time chat.

• MongoDB: A NoSQL database for storing unstructured data like posts, comments, and user profiles.
• PostgreSQL: A relational database for structured data like user relationships and authentication details.

• JWT (JSON Web Tokens): Secure token-based authentication.
• HTTP-only Cookies: Enhanced security for storing authentication tokens.
• Email Verification: OTP-based email verification using SendGrid.

• Image Captioning: Powered by Salesforce/blip-image-captioning-base.
• Caption Generation: Enhanced by mistralai/Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.3.

• AWS EC2: Cloud hosting for the application.
• Docker Compose: Containerization for seamless deployment.
• Nginx: Reverse proxy and load balancer.
• GitHub Actions: CI/CD pipeline for automated deployments.

• Secure login and registration with JWT tokens and HTTP-only cookies.
• Email verification via OTP using SendGrid.

• Displays posts from followed users, sorted by most recent.

• Create posts with an image.
• Generate captions automatically using AI or add a manual description.

• A basic live chat system where users can message each other in real time.
• Only users you follow appear in your chat list.
• Note: More advanced chat features are planned for future updates.

• Easily follow or unfollow other users.

• Search for users by username or name.

• Like and unlike posts.

• Add comments to posts.

• View and edit your profile (name, profile picture, bio, gender, etc.).
• View other users' profiles and their posts.

• Node.js and npm installed.
• Docker and Docker Compose installed.
• MongoDB and PostgreSQL databases set up.
• AWS EC2 instance configured (optional for local development).
• Different API keys mentioned in the .env files.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Avngrstark62/Clown.git

2. Create a .env file in the backend folder with the following variables:

   MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_uri
   JWT_SECRET=jwt_secret_key
   JWT_EXPIRES=7d
   PORT=8000
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=cloudinary_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=cloudinary_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=cloudinary_api_secret
   DATABASE_URL=your_postgres_database_url
   AI_SERVICE_URL=http://ai-service:8001
   SENDGRID_API_KEY=your_api_key
   SENDGRID_FROM_EMAIL=your_email

3. Create a .env file in the ai-service folder with the following variable:

   HUGGINGFACE_TOKEN=your_hugging_face_token

4. Run the application using Docker Compose:

   docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up --build

5. Access the application at http://localhost:8000 (or your configured domain).

• Advanced Chat Features: Better UI, typing indicator, unread messages indicator.
• Notifications: Real-time notifications for new messages, likes, comments, and new followers.
• Explore Page: Discover new posts and users based on interests.

• Clown is currently deployed on an AWS EC2 t3.micro instance, which is a low-resource instance suitable for small-scale testing and development. As a result, it cannot handle a large number of users or high traffic.
• The AI features (image captioning and caption generation) rely on external APIs and models, which may introduce latency or limitations based on usage.
• The real-time chat system is basic and lacks advanced features like typing indicators, or read receipts.
• The platform is optimized for learning and experimentation, not for production use or scalability.

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

For any questions, feedback, or just to chat about the project, feel free to reach out:

• Email: thakurabhijeetsingh79@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: Abhijeet Singh Thakur
• GitHub: Avngrstark62

Thank you for checking out Clown! This project was created as a fun side activity to explore modern web development and AI integrations. Feel free to contribute, fork, or use it as a learning resource. 🎉