DECP Platform — Department Engagement & Career Platform

A production-ready, full-stack microservices platform that connects university students with alumni, enabling career development, research collaboration, event management, and community engagement — built for the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Peradeniya.

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Table of Contents

1. Project Overview
2. Key Features
3. Architecture
4. Technology Stack
5. Repository Structure
6. Microservices Reference
7. Quick Start
8. Environment Configuration
9. Running in Development
10. Running in Production (AWS)
11. CI/CD Pipeline
12. API Reference
13. Database Design
14. Testing
15. Security
16. Performance Targets
17. Documentation
18. Team
19. Acknowledgements

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Project Overview

The DECP Platform (Department Engagement & Career Platform) is a comprehensive social networking and career development system designed for university departments. It bridges the gap between current students and alumni by providing tools for:

• Building and managing professional profiles
• Posting and discovering job and internship opportunities
• Creating, sharing, and engaging with a community feed
• Organizing department events with RSVP and calendar integration
• Collaborating on research projects and sharing academic documents
• Real-time direct and group messaging
• Smart notifications and analytics dashboards

The platform is built as a production-ready microservices application deployed on AWS ECS Fargate, with a React web frontend, a React Native mobile app, and a full Terraform-managed cloud infrastructure.

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Key Features

User Management

• Secure registration with email verification
• Role-based access control: Student, Alumni, Admin
• Rich profile management — skills, education, work experience
• Connection/follower graph

Social Feed

• Text, image, and video posts
• Like, comment, and share interactions
• Infinite-scroll feed with real-time updates
• Media stored in AWS S3 / MinIO

Jobs & Internships

• Job and internship posting by alumni and department
• Resume upload and application tracking
• AI-assisted job recommendations

Events

• Create and manage department events
• RSVP system with automated reminders
• Calendar integration

Research Collaboration

• Research project management with collaborator invitations
• Document sharing with version control
• Publication tracking

Messaging

• Direct messaging and group chat
• Real-time delivery via Socket.io
• File sharing in conversations

Notifications

• In-app, push, and email notifications
• Granular per-category notification preferences

Analytics

• User activity and engagement metrics
• Popular content analysis
• Job application statistics
• Admin dashboard

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Architecture

DECP Platform is built on a microservices architecture with an API Gateway as the single entry point.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        PRESENTATION LAYER                            │
│    Web App (React/Vite)    Mobile App (React Native/Expo)            │
└───────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │ HTTPS / WSS
                                ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             API GATEWAY  —  Port 3000                                │
│     JWT Verification  |  Rate Limiting  |  Request Routing           │
└──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┘
       │      │      │      │      │      │      │      │      │
       ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼      ▼
   [Auth]  [User]  [Feed] [Jobs] [Events][Research][Msg][Notif][Analytics]
   :3001   :3002   :3003  :3004  :3005   :3006   :3007 :3008   :3009
       │      │      │      │      │      │      │      │      │
       └──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┘
                                │
┌───────────────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          DATA LAYER                                   │
│  PostgreSQL (9 databases)  |  Redis  |  AWS S3  |  RabbitMQ          │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Cloud Deployment (AWS):

Internet → ALB → ECS Fargate (API Gateway) → ECS Fargate (microservices)
                                           → RDS PostgreSQL
                                           → ElastiCache Redis
                                           → S3 (media + frontend static)

Refer to diagrams/ for C4 model, data-flow, deployment, and security architecture diagrams.

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Technology Stack

Backend (all microservices)

Category	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 20+
Language	TypeScript 5.3+
Framework	Express.js
ORM	Sequelize 6.35+
Authentication	JWT (access + refresh tokens), Passport.js, Google OAuth 2.0
Real-time	Socket.io 4.7+
Validation	Joi, Zod
Logging	Winston 3.11+
Rate Limiting	express-rate-limit, rate-limiter-flexible
Security	Helmet, bcryptjs, CORS
Email	Nodemailer 6.9+

Databases & Infrastructure

Category	Technology
Primary DB	PostgreSQL 16 (one database per service)
Cache	Redis 7
Message Queue	RabbitMQ
Object Storage	AWS S3 / MinIO (local dev)

Frontend (Web)

Category	Technology
Framework	React 18.2+
Language	TypeScript 5.2+
Build Tool	Vite 7.3+
State	Redux Toolkit 2.0+
UI	Material-UI v5.14+, Tailwind CSS 3.3+
Forms	React Hook Form 7.49+, Zod
Charts	Recharts 2.10+
HTTP	Axios 1.6+
Real-time	Socket.io-client 4.7+
Router	React Router v6.21+
Testing	Vitest 4.0+, React Testing Library

Mobile

Category	Technology
Framework	React Native 0.73+
Platform	Expo 50.0+
State	Redux Toolkit 2.0+, Redux Persist
Navigation	React Navigation v6+
UI	React Native Paper, Vector Icons
Storage	AsyncStorage, Expo SecureStore
Notifications	Expo Notifications
Testing	Jest, Detox

DevOps & Cloud

Category	Technology
Containerization	Docker, Docker Compose
Orchestration	AWS ECS Fargate, Kubernetes (manifests included)
IaC	Terraform
Cloud	AWS (EC2, RDS, S3, CloudFront, ALB, ECS, ECR)
CI/CD	GitLab CI/CD
Container Registry	AWS ECR
Monitoring	Prometheus + Grafana

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Repository Structure

e20-CO528-Mini-Project/
├── README.md                          # This file
├── .gitlab-ci.yml                     # GitLab CI/CD pipeline
│
├── terraform/                         # AWS Infrastructure as Code
│   ├── main.tf                        # Root Terraform config
│   ├── variables.tf                   # Input variables
│   ├── outputs.tf                     # Output values
│   ├── providers.tf                   # AWS provider config
│   └── modules/
│       ├── vpc/                       # VPC, subnets, NAT gateway
│       ├── security-groups/           # Security groups
│       ├── ecr/                       # AWS ECR repositories
│       ├── ecs/                       # ECS Fargate cluster & services
│       ├── rds/                       # PostgreSQL RDS & Redis
│       ├── alb/                       # Application Load Balancer
│       └── s3/                        # S3 buckets
│
├── docs/                              # GitHub Pages site
│   ├── README.md                      # GitHub Pages landing page
│   └── data/index.json                # Project metadata (team, tags)
│
└── code/Mini Project/decp-platform/
    ├── backend/                       # All microservices
    │   ├── api-gateway/               # API Gateway (Port 3000)
    │   ├── auth-service/              # Authentication (Port 3001)
    │   ├── user-service/              # User Management (Port 3002)
    │   ├── feed-service/              # Social Feed (Port 3003)
    │   ├── jobs-service/              # Job Board (Port 3004)
    │   ├── events-service/            # Events (Port 3005)
    │   ├── research-service/          # Research Projects (Port 3006)
    │   ├── messaging-service/         # Chat / Messaging (Port 3007)
    │   ├── notification-service/      # Notifications (Port 3008)
    │   ├── analytics-service/         # Analytics (Port 3009)
    │   ├── shared/                    # Shared utilities & types
    │   ├── docker-compose.yml         # Full stack local dev
    │   ├── docker-compose.dev.yml     # Dev overrides
    │   ├── .env.example               # Environment template
    │   └── init-multiple-databases.sh # DB initialization script
    │
    ├── frontend/                      # React Web App
    │   ├── src/
    │   │   ├── pages/                 # 11+ pages
    │   │   ├── components/            # 28+ components
    │   │   ├── features/              # Redux feature slices
    │   │   ├── store/                 # Redux store
    │   │   ├── services/              # API service layer
    │   │   ├── hooks/                 # Custom React hooks
    │   │   ├── types/                 # TypeScript types
    │   │   └── utils/                 # Utilities
    │   ├── vite.config.ts
    │   ├── tailwind.config.js
    │   ├── Dockerfile
    │   └── .env.example
    │
    ├── mobile/                        # React Native / Expo App
    │   ├── src/                       # 26+ screens
    │   ├── package.json
    │   └── app.json
    │
    ├── infrastructure/                # Additional infra configs
    │   ├── k8s/                       # Kubernetes manifests
    │   ├── nginx/                     # NGINX configuration
    │   ├── monitoring/                # Prometheus & Grafana configs
    │   └── scripts/                   # Deployment helper scripts
    │
    ├── tests/                         # Test suite
    │   ├── unit/
    │   ├── integration/
    │   ├── e2e/                       # Cypress (web), Detox (mobile)
    │   ├── performance/               # k6 load tests
    │   └── security/                  # OWASP tests
    │
    ├── docs/                          # Comprehensive documentation (14+ docs)
    ├── diagrams/                      # Architecture diagrams (C4, DFD, etc.)
    ├── seed.js                        # Database seeding script
    ├── reset-db.js                    # Database reset script
    ├── start.bat                      # Windows one-click launcher
    ├── stop.bat                       # Windows service stopper
    └── CONTRIBUTING.md

---

Microservices Reference

Service	Port	Database	Key Responsibilities
API Gateway	3000	—	JWT auth middleware, rate limiting, reverse proxy to all services
Auth Service	3001	decp_auth	Registration, login, JWT tokens, Google OAuth, email verification, password reset
User Service	3002	decp_users	Profiles, connections, education, experience, skills, user search
Feed Service	3003	decp_feed	Posts (text/image/video), likes, comments, shares, infinite scroll
Jobs Service	3004	decp_jobs	Job postings, applications, resume management, recommendations
Events Service	3005	decp_events	Event creation, RSVP, calendar, automated reminders
Research Service	3006	decp_research	Research projects, documents, version control, collaborators
Messaging Service	3007	decp_messaging + Redis	Direct & group chat, real-time Socket.io, message history
Notification Service	3008	decp_notifications	Push, email, in-app notifications; user preference management
Analytics Service	3009	decp_analytics + Redis	Activity tracking, engagement metrics, admin dashboards

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Docker & Docker Compose
• Git

PostgreSQL and Redis do not need to be installed locally — Docker Compose starts them automatically.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/cepdnaclk/e20-CO528-Mini-Project.git
cd e20-CO528-Mini-Project

Start everything with Docker Compose (recommended)

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend"

# Copy and edit environment variables
cp .env.example .env

# Build and start all 10 services + PostgreSQL + Redis
docker-compose up -d

# Start the frontend (separate terminal)
cd ../frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Service	URL
Web App	http://localhost:5173
API Gateway	http://localhost:3000
Swagger / API Docs	http://localhost:3000/api/docs

Windows one-click launcher

cd "code\Mini Project\decp-platform"
start.bat

This script: checks prerequisites, creates databases, frees ports 3000–3009 and 5173, installs all dependencies, builds all services, opens 11 terminal windows, runs health checks, and launches the browser.

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Environment Configuration

Copy the template and fill in your values:

cp "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend/.env.example" \
   "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend/.env"

Required variables

Variable	Description	Example
JWT_SECRET	Access token signing secret	your-secret-key
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET	Refresh token signing secret	your-refresh-key
DB_HOST	PostgreSQL host	localhost
DB_PORT	PostgreSQL port	5432
DB_USER	PostgreSQL user	postgres
DB_PASSWORD	PostgreSQL password	12345
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	Google OAuth client ID	(from Google Console)
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	Google OAuth client secret	(from Google Console)
SMTP_HOST	SMTP server host	smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT	SMTP server port	587
SMTP_USER	SMTP user/email	you@gmail.com
SMTP_PASS	SMTP password / app password	(Gmail app password)
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY	Web Push public key	(generated)
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY	Web Push private key	(generated)
FRONTEND_URL	Frontend origin for CORS	http://localhost:5173

Frontend environment

cp "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/frontend/.env.example" \
   "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/frontend/.env"

Variable	Description	Default
VITE_API_URL	API Gateway base URL	http://localhost:3000/api/v1

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Running in Development

All services via Docker Compose

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend"
docker-compose up -d          # start
docker-compose logs -f        # follow logs
docker-compose down           # stop

Individual service (TypeScript hot-reload)

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend/auth-service"
npm install
npm run dev       # ts-node-dev with auto-reload

Available npm scripts per service:

Script	Action
npm run dev	Start with TypeScript hot-reload
npm run build	Compile TypeScript to dist/
npm start	Run compiled production build
npm test	Run Jest unit tests
npm run lint	ESLint check

Frontend

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/frontend"
npm install
npm run dev       # Vite dev server → http://localhost:5173
npm run build     # Production build
npm run preview   # Preview production build

Mobile

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/mobile"
npm install
npm start         # Start Expo Metro bundler
npm run android   # Run on Android emulator
npm run ios       # Run on iOS simulator
npm run web       # Run in browser

Database seeding & reset

cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform"
node seed.js      # Populate with demo data
node reset-db.js  # Reset to empty state

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Running in Production (AWS)

Infrastructure provisioning with Terraform

cd terraform

# Initialize (uses S3 remote state + DynamoDB lock)
terraform init \
  -backend-config="bucket=${TF_STATE_BUCKET}" \
  -backend-config="key=decp-platform/terraform.tfstate" \
  -backend-config="region=us-east-1" \
  -backend-config="dynamodb_table=${TF_LOCK_TABLE}"

# Plan
terraform plan \
  -var="project_name=decp-platform" \
  -var="environment=prod" \
  -var="db_username=${DB_USERNAME}" \
  -var="db_password=${DB_PASSWORD}" \
  -var="jwt_secret=${JWT_SECRET}" \
  -var="jwt_refresh_secret=${JWT_REFRESH_SECRET}" \
  -out=tfplan

# Apply
terraform apply tfplan

Resources created by Terraform

Resource	Details
VPC	Public + private subnets across 2 AZs, NAT gateway
RDS	PostgreSQL 16 on db.t3.micro (configurable)
ElastiCache	Redis 7
ECR	10 container repositories (one per service)
ECS Cluster	Fargate — one task per microservice
ALB	Application Load Balancer (HTTP/HTTPS)
S3	Media bucket + frontend static hosting
CloudWatch	Log groups for all services
IAM	ECS task roles and execution roles

Key Terraform variables

Variable	Default	Description
aws_region	us-east-1	AWS region
project_name	decp-platform	Used as prefix for all resources
environment	dev	dev / staging / prod
db_instance_class	db.t3.micro	RDS instance type
certificate_arn	—	ACM certificate ARN for HTTPS

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CI/CD Pipeline

The project uses GitLab CI/CD (.gitlab-ci.yml in the root).

Pipeline stages

Stage	Jobs	Trigger
validate	Terraform fmt + validate	All pushes
build	Build & push Docker images to ECR (one job per service)	Changed files or DEPLOY_ALL=true
deploy-infra	terraform plan (auto) → terraform apply (manual)	deploy branch
deploy-services	Force-redeploy ECS services	After infra deploy
deploy-frontend	Vite build → aws s3 sync	After infra deploy

Image tagging

{AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.{REGION}.amazonaws.com/{PROJECT_NAME}/{SERVICE_NAME}:{COMMIT_SHA}
{AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.{REGION}.amazonaws.com/{PROJECT_NAME}/{SERVICE_NAME}:latest

Required GitLab CI/CD variables

Variable	Description
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS credentials
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS credentials
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION	Deployment region
AWS_ACCOUNT_ID	AWS account number
TF_STATE_BUCKET	S3 bucket for Terraform state
TF_LOCK_TABLE	DynamoDB table for state locking
DB_USERNAME	RDS master username
DB_PASSWORD	RDS master password
JWT_SECRET	JWT signing secret
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET	JWT refresh signing secret

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API Reference

Base URL (development): http://localhost:3000/api/v1 Base URL (production): https://api.decp.eng.pdn.ac.lk/api/v1 Interactive docs: http://localhost:3000/api/docs (Swagger UI)

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register	Register new user
POST	/auth/login	Login, receive JWT tokens
POST	/auth/logout	Invalidate refresh token
POST	/auth/refresh-token	Get new access token
POST	/auth/forgot-password	Send password reset email
POST	/auth/reset-password	Reset with token
POST	/auth/verify-email	Verify email address
POST	/auth/google	Google OAuth login

Users

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/users/{id}	Get user profile
PUT	/users/{id}	Update own profile
GET	/users/{id}/connections	List connections
POST	/users/{id}/connect	Send connection request
GET	/users/search	Search users

Feed

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/feed	Get paginated news feed
POST	/feed/posts	Create post
GET	/feed/posts/{id}	Get single post
POST	/feed/posts/{id}/like	Like / unlike post
POST	/feed/posts/{id}/comment	Add comment

Jobs

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/jobs	List job postings
POST	/jobs	Create job posting
GET	/jobs/{id}	Get job details
POST	/jobs/{id}/apply	Submit application
GET	/jobs/recommendations	Personalized recommendations

Events

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/events	List events
POST	/events	Create event
GET	/events/{id}	Get event details
POST	/events/{id}/rsvp	RSVP to event

Research

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/research	List research projects
POST	/research	Create project
GET	/research/{id}	Get project
POST	/research/{id}/invite	Invite collaborator

Messaging (REST + WebSocket)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/messaging/conversations	List conversations
POST	/messaging/conversations	Create conversation
GET	/messaging/conversations/{id}/messages	Message history
WS	socket.io	Real-time message delivery

Notifications

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/notifications	List notifications
PUT	/notifications/{id}	Mark as read
POST	/notifications/preferences	Update preferences

Analytics

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/analytics/dashboard	Admin dashboard data
GET	/analytics/popular-posts	Trending content
GET	/analytics/job-stats	Job market statistics
GET	/analytics/user-activity	User activity metrics

Health checks

Endpoint	Description
GET /health	Per-service health check
GET /api/v1/health	API Gateway health

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Database Design

The platform uses 9 isolated PostgreSQL databases — one per service — following the database-per-service microservices pattern.

Database	Service	Key Tables
decp_auth	Auth Service	users, refresh_tokens
decp_users	User Service	profiles, connections, education, experience, skills
decp_feed	Feed Service	posts, comments, likes, shares
decp_jobs	Jobs Service	jobs, applications, job_recommendations
decp_events	Events Service	events, rsvps, event_reminders
decp_research	Research Service	research_projects, documents, collaborators
decp_messaging	Messaging Service	conversations, messages, participants
decp_notifications	Notification Service	notifications, notification_preferences
decp_analytics	Analytics Service	activity_logs, user_metrics, engagement_stats

Connection details (local Docker):

Setting	Value
Host	localhost
Port	5433 (external) / 5432 (internal)
User	postgres
Password	12345

Databases are initialized automatically by init-multiple-databases.sh on first Docker Compose start. On AWS, a dedicated ECS db_init task runs the initialization SQL on deploy.

Full schema is documented in docs/04-DATABASE_SCHEMA.md.

---

Testing

Test structure

tests/
├── unit/          # Jest unit tests (services, controllers, utilities)
├── integration/   # API integration tests
├── e2e/           # Cypress (web), Detox (mobile)
├── performance/   # k6 load & stress tests
└── security/      # OWASP Top 10 tests

Running tests

# Backend — individual service
cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/backend/auth-service"
npm test

# Frontend
cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/frontend"
npm run test            # Vitest
npm run test:watch      # Watch mode
npm run test:ui         # Vitest UI
npm run coverage        # Coverage report

# Mobile
cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform/mobile"
npm test

# Windows — run all backend tests
cd "code/Mini Project/decp-platform"
test.bat

Coverage targets

Layer	Target
Unit tests	85%+
Integration tests	20+ scenarios
E2E tests	15+ critical user flows
Performance	< 200ms p95 response time under 1,000 concurrent users

---

Security

Mechanism	Implementation
Authentication	JWT access tokens (15 min) + refresh tokens (7 days)
Authorization	Role-based access control (RBAC)
Transport	HTTPS/TLS on all production endpoints
Secrets	AWS Secrets Manager / environment variables
SQL Injection	Sequelize parameterized queries
XSS	Helmet CSP headers, output encoding
CSRF	SameSite cookies, token validation
Rate Limiting	express-rate-limit per IP and per user
Dependency scanning	npm audit in CI pipeline
OWASP Top 10	Dedicated security test suite

Full security documentation: docs/07-SECURITY.md

---

Performance Targets

Metric	Target
API response time (p95)	< 200 ms
Page load time	< 2 s
Concurrent users	10,000+
Availability	99.9% uptime
Database query time	< 50 ms

---

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation lives in code/Mini Project/decp-platform/docs/.

Document	Description
01-PROJECT_OVERVIEW.md	Executive summary, goals, stakeholders
02-ARCHITECTURE.md	Architecture patterns, service design decisions
03-API_DOCUMENTATION.md	Complete API reference with request/response examples
04-DATABASE_SCHEMA.md	Entity-relationship diagrams and table definitions
05-DEVELOPMENT_GUIDE.md	Local development setup and workflow
06-DEPLOYMENT_GUIDE.md	Step-by-step production deployment
07-SECURITY.md	Security architecture and controls
10-RESEARCH_FINDINGS.md	Platform research and analysis
openapi/	OpenAPI 3.0 / Swagger spec files

Architecture diagrams (C4 model, DFD, deployment, security) are in diagrams/.

---

Team

Update this section with actual team member details.

Name	E-Number	Email
Team Member 1	E/20/xxx	email@eng.pdn.ac.lk
Team Member 2	E/20/xxx	email@eng.pdn.ac.lk
Team Member 3	E/20/xxx	email@eng.pdn.ac.lk

Supervisors:

Name	Email
Dr. Supervisor 1	email@eng.pdn.ac.lk
Supervisor 2	email@eng.pdn.ac.lk

---

Acknowledgements

• Department of Computer Engineering, University of Peradeniya
• CO528 Applied Software Architecture course
• All contributors, reviewers, and testers

---

License

---

Department of Computer Engineering — University of Peradeniya — CO528 Mini Project