BrewJournal/README.md

Brew Application

Welcome to the Brew application! This project features a React + Vite frontend and a Node.js Express + PostgreSQL backend.

Architecture Overview

The codebase is split into two main sections:

• Frontend: A React application located in the root directory, built with Vite. Key files include:
  • package.json (dependencies and scripts)
  • src/App.jsx (routing and layout)
  • src/AuthContext.jsx (authentication state and backend communication)
• Backend: An Express application located in the server/ directory. Key files include:
  • server/package.json (backend dependencies and scripts)
  • server/index.js (Express application setup, routes, and authentication middleware)
  • server/db.js (PostgreSQL connection and table initialization)

---

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed on your system:

• Node.js (v18.x or higher recommended)
• npm (v9.x or higher)
• PostgreSQL (v14 or higher)

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1. Database Setup (PostgreSQL)

You need a running PostgreSQL database instance. Follow the steps below based on your operating system:

Installing PostgreSQL

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib

The PostgreSQL service should start automatically. If not, start it with:

sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

macOS (using Homebrew)

brew install postgresql
brew services start postgresql

Windows

Download and run the interactive installer from the Official PostgreSQL Downloads page.

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Creating the Database and User

1. Log into the PostgreSQL interactive terminal as the superuser postgres:

   sudo -i -u postgres psql
   

   (On macOS/Windows, open your terminal/command prompt and run psql postgres or use a graphical tool like PgAdmin).

2. Create a database user with a secure password:

   CREATE USER brew_user WITH PASSWORD 'your_secure_password';
   

3. Create the database and set its owner to brew_user. Setting the owner guarantees that the user has full table creation privileges on the default public schema:

   CREATE DATABASE brew OWNER brew_user;
   

4. Exit the PostgreSQL shell:

   \q
   

Tip

Troubleshooting "Permission denied for schema public" (PostgreSQL 15+): If you already created the database without setting brew_user as the owner and encounter this error, log in as the superuser (postgres), connect to the brew database, and explicitly grant the schema privileges:

\c brew
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO brew_user;

Note

Database tables (such as users) are initialized automatically when you start the backend server, as defined in server/db.js.

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2. Backend Setup

1. Navigate to the backend directory:

   cd server
   

2. Create a server/.env file by copying the template server/.env.example:

   cp .env.example .env
   

3. Open server/.env and configure the environment variables:

   PORT=5000
   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://brew_user:your_secure_password@localhost:5432/brew
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_here
   

   Replace your_secure_password with the password you set during the database setup.

4. Install dependencies and start the backend server:

   npm install
   npm start
   

   The backend should start and display:

   Database initialized
   Server running on port 5000
   

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3. Frontend Setup

1. Open a new terminal window/tab and navigate to the project root directory:

   cd /home/sortedcord/Projects/brew
   

2. Install frontend dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Start the Vite development server:

   npm run dev
   

4. Open your browser and navigate to the local URL printed in the console (usually http://localhost:5173).

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Production Deployment

When deploying the Brew application to a production environment, follow these guidelines for security, reliability, and performance:

1. Database (PostgreSQL)

• Restricted Access: Do not use superuser accounts (such as postgres) for backend application connections. Instead, use a restricted role with standard read/write permissions.
• Managed Databases: Use a managed database service (e.g., Supabase, Neon, AWS RDS, GCP Cloud SQL) to leverage automated backups, scaling, and high-availability.
• SSL Connection: Enforce encrypted database connections by appending SSL options to the connection string (e.g., ?sslmode=require).

2. Backend Server Setup

• Environment Variables: In your production environment, set the following environment variables:
  • NODE_ENV=production
  • PORT=8080 (or whichever port is provided by your host)
  • DATABASE_URL=postgresql://<db_user>:<db_password>@<db_host>:<db_port>/<db_name>?sslmode=require
  • JWT_SECRET=your_long_random_production_secret (generate a secure 32-byte key using openssl rand -base64 32)
• Process Management: Use a process manager like PM2 to run the backend node process, keep it alive, and handle automatic clustering or restarts:

  # Install PM2 globally
  npm install -g pm2
  
  # Start the backend server
  pm2 start server/index.js --name "brew-backend"
  

• Restrict CORS: In server/index.js, configure the cors middleware to only accept requests from your frontend production domain:

  app.use(cors({ origin: 'https://yourfrontenddomain.com' }));
  

3. Frontend Build & Hosting

• Build the static bundle: Run the build script in the root directory to generate optimized production assets:

  npm run build
  

  This generates static HTML, CSS, and JS files in the dist/ directory.
• Hosting:
  • Deploy the static files from the dist/ directory to static hosting platforms like Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or AWS S3/CloudFront.
  • Alternatively, if using a VPS, serve the dist/ directory using Nginx and proxy API traffic:

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name yourfrontenddomain.com;
    
        # Serve static frontend
        location / {
            root /var/www/brew/dist;
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }
    
        # Proxy API requests to backend server
        location /api/ {
            proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        }
    }
    

Important

HTTPS Required for PWAs: For security reasons, web browsers will only install Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and register Service Workers when served over a secure connection (HTTPS). Make sure to set up an SSL certificate (e.g., via Let's Encrypt / Certbot) for your production deployment domain. Local development on localhost or 127.0.0.1 is exempt and will work over HTTP.