Question-Answer API Backend

A Node.js + Express RESTful API backend for a question-answer platform. Features user registration, JWT-based authentication, question and answer posting, password reset via email, and more.

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🚀 Live Demo

The frontend is currently under development and will be available soon.
In the meantime, you can explore and test the API using Postman or any REST client.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• Node.js – Runtime environment
• Express.js – Web framework
• MongoDB & Mongoose – Database & ODM
• JWT (JSON Web Token) – Authentication system
• NodeMailer – Email handling
• dotenv – Environment variable management
• Postman – API testing

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📄 Example config.env

Server

PORT=5000 NODE_ENV=development

MongoDB

MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://:@.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority

JWT

JWT_SECRET_KEY=your_jwt_secret_key JWT_EXPIRE=10m JWT_COOKIE=10

Password Reset Token Expiry (in ms)

RESET_PASSWORD_EXPIRE=3600000

Email (SMTP) Configuration

SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com SMTP_PORT=587 SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com SMTP_PASS=your_app_specific_password

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🗄️ MongoDB URI Setup

If you're using MongoDB Atlas, follow these steps:

1. Create a free cluster and a database user.
2. Whitelist your IP address in Atlas settings.
3. Use the following URI structure:

mongodb+srv://:@.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority

For example:

mongodb+srv://admin:myPassword123@cluster0.abcde.mongodb.net/qa-platform?retryWrites=true&w=majority

Replace <username>, <password>, <cluster>, and <dbname> with your actual MongoDB credentials.

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📦 Installation

Follow these steps to run the project locally:

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/qa-api-backend.git cd qa-api-backend

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Configure environment variables

• Copy env.example to config/env/config.env (see above).
• Update config.env with your MongoDB URI, JWT secret, and SMTP credentials.

4. Run the server

npm run dev

Ensure nodemon is installed globally (npm install -g nodemon) or as a dev dependency.

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🧪 API Testing (via Postman)

Test endpoints using Postman or any API client.

🔗 Base URL (local): http://localhost:5000/api

✨ Example Routes

✅ Auth

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register	Register a new user
POST	/auth/login	Login and receive JWT
GET	/auth/logout	Logout user

❓ Questions

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/questions	Create new question
GET	/questions	Get all questions
GET	/questions/:id	Get single question
DELETE	/questions/:id	Delete a question

💬 Answers

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/questions/:id/answers	Answer a question
DELETE	/questions/:id/answers/delete	Delete an answer

Note: Protected routes require a JWT token in the Authorization: Bearer <token> header.

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📫 Contact

Maintained by emiryuksel. Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

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🛡️ License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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