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🎬 Video Platform Backend

A scalable RESTful backend for a video-sharing platform, built with Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, and modern backend engineering practices.

📌 Overview

This project is a full-featured backend for a video-sharing platform inspired by modern streaming and content platforms.

It provides APIs for user management, authentication, video publishing, comments, likes, subscriptions, playlists, watch history, search, and creator dashboards.

The backend is designed with a modular architecture focused on security, maintainability, scalability, and clean API design.

Core Capabilities

  • JWT-based authentication and authorization
  • User profile management
  • Video upload and management
  • Cloud-based media storage
  • Comments and likes
  • Channel subscriptions
  • Playlist management
  • Watch history
  • Video search and pagination
  • Creator dashboard analytics
  • MongoDB aggregation pipelines
  • Centralized API error handling
  • Secure protected routes

🛠️ Tech Stack

Technology Purpose
Node.js JavaScript runtime
Express.js REST API framework
MongoDB Primary database
Mongoose MongoDB ODM
JWT Authentication & authorization
Bcrypt Password hashing
Cloudinary Image & video storage
Multer Multipart file handling
Cookie Parser Cookie management
CORS Cross-origin resource sharing
dotenv Environment configuration

🏗️ Architecture

The application follows a modular MVC-inspired architecture, separating HTTP routing, middleware, controllers, business logic, database models, and utility functions.

┌─────────────────────┐
│       Client        │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│       Routes        │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│    Middlewares      │
│ Auth / Upload / etc │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│    Controllers      │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│      Services       │
│   Business Logic    │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│   Mongoose Models   │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│      MongoDB        │
└─────────────────────┘

This structure keeps responsibilities separated and makes individual components easier to maintain and extend.

📁 Project Structure

src/
│
├── controllers/
│   ├── auth.controller.js
│   ├── user.controller.js
│   ├── video.controller.js
│   ├── comment.controller.js
│   ├── like.controller.js
│   ├── playlist.controller.js
│   ├── subscription.controller.js
│   └── dashboard.controller.js
│
├── models/
│   ├── user.model.js
│   ├── video.model.js
│   ├── comment.model.js
│   ├── like.model.js
│   ├── subscription.model.js
│   ├── playlist.model.js
│   └── watchHistory.model.js
│
├── routes/
│   ├── auth.routes.js
│   ├── user.routes.js
│   ├── video.routes.js
│   ├── comment.routes.js
│   ├── like.routes.js
│   ├── playlist.routes.js
│   ├── subscription.routes.js
│   └── dashboard.routes.js
│
├── middlewares/
│   ├── auth.middleware.js
│   ├── multer.middleware.js
│   └── error.middleware.js
│
├── services/
│
├── db/
│   └── index.js
│
├── utils/
│   ├── ApiError.js
│   ├── ApiResponse.js
│   ├── asyncHandler.js
│   └── cloudinary.js
│
├── constants/
│
├── app.js
└── index.js

🗄️ Database Design

The application consists of seven core models: Users, Videos, Comments, Likes, Tweets, Playlists, and Subscriptions.

Entity Relationship Diagram

🔐 Authentication & Authorization

Authentication is implemented using JWT access and refresh tokens.

Authentication Flow

                 Login Request
                      │
                      ▼
              Validate Credentials
                      │
                      ▼
               Hash Verification
                      │
                      ▼
             Generate JWT Tokens
                ┌─────┴─────┐
                ▼           ▼
           Access Token  Refresh Token
                │           │
                └─────┬─────┘
                      ▼
                 Authenticated
                    Session

Protected Request Flow

Client
  │
  ▼
Authentication Middleware
  │
  ├── Invalid Token → 401
  │
  └── Valid Token
          │
          ▼
      Controller
          │
          ▼
       Response

Security Measures

  • Password hashing using Bcrypt
  • JWT access tokens
  • JWT refresh tokens
  • Token expiration
  • Protected routes
  • Authorization middleware
  • HTTP-only cookies where applicable
  • Environment-based secrets
  • Centralized error handling

☁️ File Upload Architecture

Media files are processed using Multer and stored using Cloudinary.

Client
  │
  │ multipart/form-data
  ▼
Multer
  │
  ▼
File Processing
  │
  ▼
Cloudinary
  │
  ▼
Secure Media URL
  │
  ▼
MongoDB

MongoDB stores media metadata and URLs while Cloudinary handles the actual media storage and delivery.

Supported Media

  • Profile avatars
  • Cover images
  • Video files
  • Video thumbnails

📡 REST API

Base API path:

/api/v1

🔑 Authentication

Method Endpoint Auth
POST /users/register ❌
POST /users/login ❌
POST /users/logout ✅
POST /users/refresh-token ❌

Register

POST /api/v1/users/register

{
  "username": "john_doe",
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "fullName": "John Doe",
  "password": "strongPassword"
}

Login

POST /api/v1/users/login

{
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "password": "strongPassword"
}

👤 User APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
GET /users/current-user ✅
PATCH /users/update-account ✅
PATCH /users/avatar ✅
PATCH /users/cover-image ✅
GET /users/history ✅
DELETE /users/history ✅

🎥 Video APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
POST /videos ✅
GET /videos ❌
GET /videos/:videoId ❌
PATCH /videos/:videoId ✅
DELETE /videos/:videoId ✅
PATCH /videos/toggle/publish/:videoId ✅

Video Upload

POST /api/v1/videos
Content-Type: multipart/form-data
Authorization: Bearer <access_token>

💬 Comment APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
GET /comments/:videoId ❌
POST /comments/:videoId ✅
PATCH /comments/c/:commentId ✅
DELETE /comments/c/:commentId ✅

Create Comment

POST /api/v1/comments/:videoId

{
  "content": "Great video!"
}

👍 Like APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
POST /likes/toggle/v/:videoId ✅
POST /likes/toggle/c/:commentId ✅
GET /likes/videos ✅

🔔 Subscription APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
POST /subscriptions/c/:channelId ✅
GET /subscriptions/u/:subscriberId ❌
GET /subscriptions/c/:channelId ❌

📂 Playlist APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
POST /playlist ✅
GET /playlist/user/:userId ❌
GET /playlist/:playlistId ❌
PATCH /playlist/:playlistId ✅
DELETE /playlist/:playlistId ✅
PATCH /playlist/add/:videoId/:playlistId ✅
PATCH /playlist/remove/:videoId/:playlistId ✅

🕒 Watch History APIs

Method Endpoint Auth
GET /users/history ✅
DELETE /users/history ✅

📊 Dashboard APIs

Dashboard endpoints provide creator-level statistics using MongoDB aggregation pipelines.

Potential metrics include:

  • Total videos
  • Total views
  • Total subscribers
  • Total likes
  • Video performance
  • Recent uploads
  • Channel statistics

Example:

GET /api/v1/dashboard/stats

Authentication: Required

🔎 Search, Filtering & Pagination

The video API supports scalable data retrieval through query parameters.

Example:

GET /api/v1/videos?query=nodejs&page=1&limit=10&sortBy=createdAt&sortType=desc

Supported operations include:

  • Search
  • Pagination
  • Sorting
  • Filtering
  • Result limits
  • Database aggregation

Pagination Flow

Request
   │
   ▼
Parse Query Parameters
   │
   ▼
Apply Filters
   │
   ▼
Search
   │
   ▼
Sort
   │
   ▼
Skip + Limit
   │
   ▼
Paginated Response

📈 MongoDB Aggregation

MongoDB aggregation pipelines are used for complex queries and analytics.

They support operations such as:

  • Dashboard statistics
  • Subscriber counts
  • Video statistics
  • Like counts
  • Channel analytics
  • Cross-collection queries

Example:

[
  {
    $match: {
      owner: userId
    }
  },
  {
    $lookup: {
      from: "videos",
      localField: "owner",
      foreignField: "owner",
      as: "videos"
    }
  },
  {
    $project: {
      totalVideos: {
        $size: "$videos"
      }
    }
  }
]

⚠️ API Error Handling

The API uses centralized error handling and standardized responses.

Successful Response

{
  "success": true,
  "statusCode": 200,
  "message": "Video fetched successfully",
  "data": {}
}

Error Response

{
  "success": false,
  "statusCode": 404,
  "message": "Video not found",
  "errors": []
}

This provides a predictable response format for frontend clients.

⚙️ Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

Make sure the following are installed:

  • Node.js
  • npm
  • MongoDB account or MongoDB server
  • Cloudinary account

1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git

2. Navigate to Project

cd your-repo

3. Install Dependencies

npm install

4. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

PORT=8000

MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string

ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your_access_secret
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET=your_refresh_secret

ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRY=1d
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY=10d

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret

Keep credentials and secrets outside version control. Never commit .env to the repository.

5. Run Development Server

npm run dev

The server will run on:

http://localhost:8000

🧪 API Testing

The API can be tested using tools such as:

  • Postman
  • Insomnia
  • Thunder Client

Recommended Postman collection structure:

API Collection
│
├── Authentication
├── Users
├── Videos
├── Comments
├── Likes
├── Subscriptions
├── Playlists
├── Watch History
└── Dashboard

📖 API Documentation

Detailed API documentation should cover:

  • Endpoint
  • HTTP method
  • Authentication requirements
  • Headers
  • Path parameters
  • Query parameters
  • Request body
  • Response body
  • HTTP status codes
  • Error responses
  • Example requests

For larger deployments, the API can also be documented using OpenAPI/Swagger.

🚧 Development Status

Feature Status
Project Setup ✅
Database Connection ✅
User Model ✅
Authentication 🚧
Authorization 🚧
File Uploads 🚧
Video APIs 🚧
Comment APIs 🚧
Like System 🚧
Playlist APIs 🚧
Subscription APIs 🚧
Watch History 🚧
Search 🚧
Pagination 🚧
Aggregation Pipelines 🚧
Dashboard APIs 🚧
API Documentation 🚧
Automated Testing ⬜
Deployment ⬜

🔮 Planned Improvements

  • Request validation
  • Rate limiting
  • API versioning
  • Automated unit tests
  • Integration testing
  • Docker support
  • CI/CD pipeline
  • Structured application logging
  • Redis caching
  • Advanced search
  • Recommendation system
  • Production deployment
  • OpenAPI/Swagger specification

🔒 Security Considerations

The backend is designed with several security considerations:

  • Passwords are never stored in plain text
  • Authentication uses signed JWTs
  • Secrets are stored through environment variables
  • Protected resources require authentication
  • Authorization checks restrict resource ownership
  • Uploaded media is handled through dedicated storage
  • API errors are centrally managed
  • CORS is explicitly configured

📌 Engineering Highlights

This project demonstrates practical implementation of:

  • RESTful API architecture
  • MVC-based application structure
  • MongoDB data modeling
  • Mongoose relationships
  • JWT authentication
  • Access/refresh token architecture
  • Password hashing
  • Cloud media storage
  • Multipart file processing
  • Pagination and filtering
  • MongoDB aggregation pipelines
  • Centralized error handling
  • Modular backend architecture

📄 License

This project is intended for educational and portfolio purposes.

👨‍💻 Author

Abdul Hafeez

Backend Developer

Node.js • Express.js • MongoDB • REST APIs • Backend Architecture

⭐ If you find this project useful or interesting, consider giving the repository a star.

About

a videoTube platform complete backend

Topics

authenticationbackendrest-apivideotube

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