Go-Social

Go-Social is a social networking platform built with Go. It allows users to register, create posts, follow/unfollow other users, comment on posts, and manage user roles. The project includes features like user authentication, email invitations, and role-based access control. PostgreSQL is used as the database, and SendGrid is integrated for sending email notifications.

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🚀 Features

• User registration, login, and authentication
• Role-based access control
• Follow/unfollow users
• Create, update, and delete posts
• Comment on posts
• Email activation and invitations via SendGrid
• User feed with pagination, search, and tag filtering

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🛠 Installation Guide

Prerequisites

• Go (>=1.20) – Install Go
• Docker & Docker Compose – Install Docker
• SendGrid API Key – Create a SendGrid account

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🔧 Setup Instructions

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/satyamkale27/Go-social.git
   cd Go-social

2. Set Up Environment Variables

   Create a .envrc file in the root directory and add the following:

   ADDR=:8080
   API_URL=http://localhost:8080
   FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:4000
   DB_ADDR=postgres://admin:adminpassword@localhost/socialnetwork?sslmode=disable
   FROM_EMAIL=your-email@example.com
   SENDGRID_API_KEY=your-sendgrid-api-key
   TOKEN_SECRET=example

3. Start PostgreSQL Database

   docker-compose up -d

• Install Go Dependencies: Run go mod tidy to install and clean up dependencies.
• Run go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest for live reloading(optional)
• Run go install -tags 'postgres' github.com/golang-migrate/migrate/v4/cmd/migrate@latest

4. Run Database Migrations

   source .envrc
   make migrate -up

5. Build and Run the Application

   go build -o bin/main ./cmd/api

6. Access the API

   The backend API is available at: http://localhost:8080

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📡 API Endpoints

🧑 Authentication

• POST /v1/authentication/user – Register a new user

  {
    "username": "example",
    "email": "example@example.com",
    "password": "password123"
  }

• POST /v1/authentication/token – Login and get token

  {
    "email": "example@example.com",
    "password": "password123"
  }

👤 User Management

• GET v1/users/{userId} – Get user details
• POST v1/users/{userId}/follow – Follow a user
• POST v1/users/{userId}/unfollow – Unfollow a user
• GET v1/users/activate/{token} – Activate a user account

📝 Posts

• POST v1/posts – Create a new post

  {
    "title": "Post Title",
    "content": "Post Content",
    "tags": ["tag1", "tag2"]
  }

• GET v1/posts/{postId} – Get post by ID

• PUT v1/posts/{postId} – Update post

  {
    "title": "Updated Title",
    "content": "Updated Content"
  }

• DELETE v1/posts/{postId} – Delete post

💬 Comments

• POST v1/posts/{postId}/comments – Add a comment

  {
    "content": "This is a comment."
  }

• GET v1/posts/{postId}/comments – Get all comments on a post

📰 Feed

• GET /v1/users/feed – Get user feed
  • Query Parameters:
    • limit: Number of posts to fetch (default: 20)
    • offset: Offset for pagination (default: 0)
    • sort: Sorting order (asc or desc)
    • tags: Filter by tags (comma-separated)
    • search: Search by title or content

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🧠 Conclusion

Through this project, I learned how to build a backend using Go and explored Go concepts in depth. I applied these concepts to create APIs and implement the repository pattern for clean and maintainable code. I also gained hands-on experience with PostgreSQL and database migrations. Throughout development, I wrote SQL queries, debugged various issues, and dealt with complex database errors — especially the tricky ones that occur when migrations or queries fail. This project was a valuable learning experience that strengthened my understanding of backend development in Go.