Technology Stack
Project Overview
This project is a full-stack social media web app, inspired by Threads and I named it YASAC (Yet Another Social App Clone) for fun, designed to foster user engagement through thread creation, nested commenting, community interactions, and real-time notifications. Users can sign up, post threads, follow/unfollow other users, join communities, and manage profiles while enjoying a smooth and responsive experience across all devices. Features like private profiles, community management, and admin-specific content add depth to the platform, making it more interactive and scalable.
The application is built using Next.js 14+ with Server Side Rendering (SSR) for optimized performance and SEO benefits. MongoDB handles complex data structures, while Clerk provides secure authentication, supporting social logins. UploadThing enables seamless media uploads, and ShadCN UI & TailwindCSS create a modern and intuitive interface. The backend utilizes serverless APIs, webhooks, and middleware for efficient request handling, and Zod & React Hook Form ensure data validation and form management.
Objectives
The project had several key objectives that motivated me:
- Develop a Full-Stack Social Media Platform – Enable users to create, engage, and interact with threads, comments, and communities.
- Implement Secure Authentication – Use Clerk to support email/password and social logins (Google, Facebook) with profile management.
- Enhance User Engagement Features – Introduce thread creation, nested commenting, user activity, follow/unfollow users, like threads, and real-time search to improve interaction.
- Build a Responsive and Intuitive UI – Utilize ShadCN UI & TailwindCSS for a modern, seamless user experience across all devices.
- Optimize Performance with SSR – Implement Next.js 14+ Server Side Rendering (SSR) for faster load times and better SEO.
- Enable Media Uploads – Integrate UploadThing for smooth image and file sharing within threads and communities.
- Develop Community Management Features – Allow users to create/join communities, and invite members.
- Implement Private Profiles & Access Control – Let users control their visibility and restrict thread access when needed.
- Improve API Architecture – Use serverless APIs, middleware, and webhooks to optimize request handling and sync data.
- Ensure Data Integrity & Validation – Utilize Zod & React Hook Form for structured data validation and secure user input.
- Enhance Deployment & Scalability – Deploy on Vercel for high performance and scalability.
- Follow Best Practices in Code Reusability & Structure – Implement a modular, maintainable codebase following modern development standards.
Features
Landing Page
The landing page provides users with some basic details of the platform. Built with Next.js 14+ and TailwindCSS, it features a modern UI with smooth animations, taken from unDraw and animated in figma.
Authentication System
Secure authentication is implemented using Clerk, supporting email/password sign-ups and social logins (Google & Facebook). Users can manage their profiles effortlessly with a fully integrated profile management system, ensuring a seamless and secure onboarding experience. An use Clerk Webhooks with Svix to sync data with MongoDB database.
Home & Feed Page
A dynamic homepage showcases the latest threads from followed users and communities. Using Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Next.js, the feed loads efficiently with optimized API calls to improve performance. The feed is continuously updated to ensure users stay engaged with real-time discussions.
Thread Creation
Users can create new threads with Tiptap integrated text editor. Each thread supports nested comments, enabling structured conversations and have feature to create thread either by Users or by Community. The comment section allows real-time interactions, including liking, replying, and deleting comments, creating an interactive discussion experience.
Activity Page
A dedicated Activity Page notifies users when someone interacts with their threads through comments, replies, or mentions. This feature uses webhooks for real-time updates, ensuring users are instantly informed of important interactions.
Community Creation & Management
Users can create new communities, invite members, and assign admin roles for better group management. Members can create exclusive threads visible only to community members, fostering focused discussions.
User Search Page
A powerful search feature with pagination helps users discover other user profiles efficiently. The search functionality is built using React Query, ensuring smooth and responsive results with real-time updates.
Community Search Page
A powerful search feature with pagination helps users discover new communities. The search functionality is built using React Query, ensuring smooth and responsive results with real-time updates.
User Profile & Community Profiles
Users have personalized profile pages where they can update their details, view their activity, and manage privacy settings. Community profiles showcase members, posts, and interactions, offering a central hub for group discussions.
Private Profile & Access Control
Users can set their profile to private, restricting visibility of their posts to only approved followers. This feature provides enhanced control over content sharing and privacy settings. User can Edit its details whenever he wants. Same page is opened when user is login first time as Onboarding Page to get user details.
Follow & Unfollow System
Users can follow and unfollow others to curate their content feed. Following a user ensures their threads appear in the home
feed, helping build a personalized experience tailored to the user’s interests. If user has set it’s profile to private, user’s
threads can only be seen after following them.
Responsive Design – Optimized for All Devices
Tailwind’s breakpoint utilities make it easy to create a fluid and adaptive UI ensuring a fully responsive and visually consistent experience across laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Breakpoints & Layout Adaptation
-
Desktop
- Full-width layouts with sidebars for navigation and user interactions.
- Expanded thread view for better content visibility.
- Hover effects and tooltips enhance user interactions.
-
Tablet
- Adaptive grid system to fit medium-sized screens.
- Sidebar collapses into a bottom-style navigation with small text and icons to maximize space.
- Larger touch targets for better accessibility.
-
Mobile
- Bottom-style navigation with only icons and focus on vertical scrolling for easy navigation.
- Optimized typography and buttons for touch interactions.
Blazing-Fast Performance with Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
By leveraging Next.js SSR, the application delivers faster load times and improved SEO, ensuring a smooth browsing experience even on low-bandwidth connections. Lazy-loading and code-splitting further optimize performance.
Middleware, API Actions & Authorization
Security is a top priority, with middleware and API actions ensuring proper authentication and authorization for sensitive actions, such as thread creation and profile modifications.
External Resources
Illustrations
Articles
Conclusion
Building the YASAC was an invaluable experience that strengthened my skills as a full-stack developer. This project allowed me to work with Next.js 14+, leveraging Server Side Rendering (SSR), Server Side Functions, and middleware to optimize performance and security. Implementing MongoDB with complex schemas and role-based access control deepened my understanding of database management and efficient data handling.
Through Clerk authentication, webhooks, and real-time event listening, I gained hands-on experience in managing secure user sessions and interactive user engagement. Working with UploadThing for media uploads, React Hook Form & Zod for form validation, and ShadCN UI with TailwindCSS for responsive design helped me create a seamless, scalable, and visually appealing application across all devices. One of the key aspects of this project was integrating the Tiptap text editor, which provided a rich-text editing experience for users creating and formatting their threads.
This project also refined my skills in Git workflow, CI/CD deployment on Vercel, automated testing, and scalable API architecture. Overall, it significantly improved my ability to design, develop, and deploy full-stack applications, reinforcing my expertise in modern web development, performance optimization, and user-centric design.