Hubbie Chat Backend

This is the backend API and realtime WebSocket server for Hubbie Chat, a full-stack MERN real-time chat application. It is built using Node.js, Express, MongoDB/Mongoose, and Socket.IO.

---

🚀 Key Features

• REST API: Handlers for user authentication, contact search, chat room creation, and message fetching.
• Cookie-based JWT Auth: Synchronous token validation and secure cookie sessions.
• Realtime WebSockets: Powered by Socket.IO with connection-level authentication and strict room participation checks.
• Email Verification & Password Reset: Uses Nodemailer (SMTP) for sending verification OTPs (cryptographically secure) and password reset tokens (TTL indexed).
• Robust Error Handling & Database Resilience: Automatic cleanup of stale reset tokens and graceful connection teardown on process exit signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM).

---

🛠️ Prerequisites

• Node.js: v18.x or higher recommended.
• MongoDB: A running MongoDB instance (local or Atlas cluster).
• SMTP Account: A mail account (e.g., Gmail App Password) to send verification and password reset emails.

---

📦 Setup & Installation

1. Navigate to the Backend directory:

   cd backend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Configure Environment Variables: Create a .env file in the root of the backend/ directory and configure the following variables:

   # Database Configuration
   MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_production_uri
   DB_DEV_URI=your_mongodb_development_uri
   
   # Server Configuration
   PORT=4000
   CLIENT_URL=https://hubbie-chat.onrender.com
   NODE_VERSION=18.15.0
   
   # SMTP Configuration (Nodemailer)
   MAIL_USERNAME=lastbenchscholar@gmail.com
   MAIL_PASSWORD=your_email_app_password
   
   # Security / JWT
   SECRET=your_jwt_signing_secret_key
   
   # SSO / External Service Configuration
   SSO_API_KEY=your_sso_api_key
   SSO_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:5000
   
   # JWT Verification details
   JWT_ISSUER=LBS-AUTH-SERVER
   JWT_PUBLIC_KEY="-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nyour-public-key-here\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----"

---

🚦 Running the Application

• Development Mode (with Nodemon): Runs the server with auto-reload enabled when source files change.

  npm run dev

• Production Mode: Runs the server with standard node engine.

  npm start

---

📚 API & Project Context

For structural details, models, and endpoints, please refer to the project_context.md file.