🐣 Twitter Clone - A Web Engineering Project

This repo is intended to be the home for the backend API of the final project for the web engineering course (CC552). Where we, the developers of the project, can illustrate the foundation of this API to provide a seamless integration experience with the client's application. Also, to document our work in a slightly professional manner.

🥚 Introduction:

This REST API is built using Serverless Architecture with the help of Firebase and ExpressJS. This means that the entirety of the express application is running through the Firebase cloud service as a Cloud Function. Obviously, this decision was made to simplify the deployment process as much as possible so that the focus remains on the development of the application itself.

📟 Tech Stack:

• Firebase Authentication (serving as a secure way to both authenticate and authorise users)
• Firebase Firestore (serving as NoSQL datastore of the app)
• Firebase Cloud Functions (serving as the host environment of the backend application)
• Firebase Storage (serving as the file store of the app)
• ExpressJS (serving as the framework used to write the API)
• TypeScript (serving as the scripting langues used to write the API)

🛠 Usage & EndPoints

• To start using this API, an HTTP Request must be made to one of the following endpoints. Make sure to read the notes to insure a issueless integration.
• 🚑 HTTP POST Requests must submit a Content-Type of multipart/form-data

🥷 Authorization

Some of the requests below are labeled 'Auth Required', these require user authorizing before executing.
⚠️ A token must provided in the request header: ⚠️

'Authorization' : Token

📍 /user

This endpoint is responsible for 3 cases:

1️⃣. Creating new user.

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method

• POST Request

Request Params

• There're no request params for this case.

Request Body Object Structure

• The request body shall contain a JSON Object structured as follows

{
    email : string       
    username : string      
    birthdate : string   
}

Response Body Object Structure

{  
    id : string   
    email: string   
    name: string   
    username: string   
    avatar : string   
    coverPhoto : string   
    bio : string    
    location : string   
    birthdate : string   
    followers : number   
    following : number   
    tweetsNo : number   
    creationDate : string   
  
 }

---

2️⃣. Fetching user attributes

HTTP Request Method

• GET Request

Request Params.

Param	Type	Description
username	String	The identifier username for user (@username).

Request Body Object Structure.

• There's no request body for this operation.

Response Body Object Structure

{  
    id : string   
    email: string   
    name: string   
    username: string   
    avatar : string   
    coverPhoto : string   
    bio : string    
    location : string   
    birthdate : string   
    followers : number   
    following : number   
    tweetsNo : number   
    creationDate : string   
  
 }

---

3️⃣. updating user attributes

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method

• PATCH Request

Request Params.

• There're no request params for this case.

Request Body Object Structure.

Each update should be listed in body object

{
    avatar : file       
    name : string      
    birthdate : string   
}

Response Body Object Structure

{  
    id : string   
    email: string   
    name: string   
    username: string   
    avatar : string   
    coverPhoto : string   
    bio : string    
    location : string   
    birthdate : string   
    followers : number   
    following : number   
    tweetsNo : number   
    creationDate : string   
  
 }

---

📍 /tweets

This endpoint is responsible for 3 cases:

1️⃣. Composing new tweets

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

• There're no request params for this case.

Request Body Object Structure:

• The request body shall contain a JSON Object structured as follows

{
    text: string  // textual content of the tweet
    userId: string // the string identifier of the user
    hasMedia: boolean // if contains Media, set it to true
    mediaType: MediaType // enum representing media type( video, picture, voice)
    hasMention: boolean // if it has mentions, pass as true
    location: string // string descriping location
    timestamp: number // timestamp double number
}

• The mediaType enum is structured as follows

//Important to be used in the same order... 
enum MediaType {
     Video,
     Picture,
     Audio,
     None
}

---

2️⃣. Deleting a tweet

HTTP Request Method:

• DELETE Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the tweet to delete.

Request Body:

• There's no request body for this operation.

---

3️⃣. Loading the feed

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

• There're no request params for this case.

Request Body:

• There's no request body for this operation.

---

📍 /tweet

This endpoint is responsible for fetching a single tweet's data.

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the tweet to load.

Request Body:

• There's no request body for this operation.

Response Object Structure:

{
    "tweetData": {
        "replyToPostId": "",
        "isRepost": false,
        "location": "location",
        "repliesCount": 0,
        "text": "some valid words",
        "postPrivacy": "",
        "repostCount": 0,
        "mediaContent": {
            "image_1": "urlstring"
        },
        "likesCount": 0,
        "userId": "string",
        "isReply": false,
        "hasMention": "hasMention",
        "id": "tweetId",
        "timestamp": "1231231231",
        "repostToPostId": "",
        "mediaType": "2",
        "hasMedia": true
    },
    "tweetReplies": [] //array of tweet objects
}

---

📍 /profile

This endpoint is responsible for loading the tweets of a single user.

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the user to load.

Request Body:

• There's no request body for this operation.

---

📍 /follow

This endpoint is responsible for 2 cases:

1️⃣. Follow a user

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the user to follow.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No Request body

Response Body Object Structure

success or error message

---

2️⃣. unfollow a user

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method:

• DELETE Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the user to unfollow.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No Request body

Response Body Object Structure

success or error message

---

📍 /follow/followers

get user followers

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the user to get followers for.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No Request body

Response Body Object Structure

Array of brief user objects

  [
    {
    username,
    name,
    avatar
    },
    ...
  ]

---

📍 /follow/following

get user followings

⚠️Auth Required

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
id	String	The identifier string of the user to get followers for.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No Request body

Response Body Object Structure

Array of brief user objects

  [
    {
    username,
    name,
    avatar
    },
    ...
  ]

---

📍 /search

searches for users.

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
query	String	The search query string.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No Request body

Response Body Object Structure

Array of brief user objects

  [
    {
    username,
    name,
    avatar
    },
    ...
  ]

---

📍 /bookmark

This endpoint is responsible for 3 cases:

1️⃣. Bookmark a tweet

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet.

Request Body Object Structure:

{
  "userId": "someUserId",
  "timestamp": Timestamp
}

2️⃣. Remove a bookemarked tweet

HTTP Request Method:

• Delete Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet to bookmark.

Request Body Object Structure:

{
  "userId": "someUserId"
}

3️⃣. Fetch a user bookemarked tweets

HTTP Request Method:

• Delete Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
userId	String	The string identifier of the user to fetch the bookmarks for.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No request Body

Response Body Object Structure

• An array of tweet objects.

[
  {
        "replyToPostId": "",
        "isRepost": false,
        "location": "location",
        "repliesCount": 0,
        "text": "some valid words",
        "postPrivacy": "",
        "repostCount": 0,
        "mediaContent": {
            "image_1": "urlstring"
        },
        "likesCount": 0,
        "userId": "string",
        "isReply": false,
        "hasMention": "hasMention",
        "id": "tweetId",
        "timestamp": "1231231231",
        "repostToPostId": "",
        "mediaType": "2",
        "hasMedia": true
    },...
]

---

📍 /like

This endpoint is responsible for 2 cases:

1️⃣. Like a tweet

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet to like.

Request Body Object Structure:

{
  "userId": "someUserId"
}

2️⃣. Unlike a liked tweet

HTTP Request Method:

• DELETE Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet to unlike.

Request Body Object Structure:

{
  "userId": "someUserId"
}

---

📍 /replies

This endpoint is responsible for fetching the reply tweets of a single tweet.

HTTP Request Method:

• GET Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifier of the tweet to get the replies for.

Request Body Object Structure:

• No request body.

Response Body Object Structure:

• An array of Tweet objects

[
  {
    "replyToPostId": "sometweetId", //the id of the tweet the reply was composed for.
    "isRepost": false,
    "location": "location",
    "repliesCount": 0,
    "text": "some valid words",
    "postPrivacy": "",
    "repostCount": 0,
    "mediaContent": {
        "image_1": "urlstring"
    },
    "likesCount": 0,
    "userId": "string",
    "isReply": true,
    "hasMention": "hasMention",
    "id": "tweetId",
    "timestamp": "1231231231",
    "repostToPostId": "", 
    "mediaType": "2",
    "hasMedia": true
  }
]

---

📍 /reply

This endpoint is responsible for sending a reply to a tweet.

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet to reply to.

Request Body Object Structure:

• An entire Tweet object

---

📍 /retweet

This endpoint is responsible for sending a reply to a tweet.

HTTP Request Method:

• POST Request

Request Params:

Param	Type	Description
tweetId	String	The string identifying the tweet to retweet.

Request Body Object Structure:

• An entire Tweet object

---

🕸 Data Structure

Tweet

{
    id: string
    text: string
    userId: string
    postPrivacy: string
    hasMedia: boolean
    mediaType: MediaType
    mediaContent: string[]
    hasMention: boolean
    isRepost: boolean
    repostToPostId: string
    isReply: boolean
    replyToPostId: string
    likesCount: number
    repliesCount: number
    repostCount: number
    location: string
    timestamp: number

}

User

{
    id : string
    email: string
    name: string
    username: string
    avatar : string
    coverPhoto : string
    bio : string
    location : string
    birthdate : string
    followers : number
    following : number
    tweetsNo : number
    creationDate : string
}