📬 Portfolio Backend

REST API backend for Rishabh Paudel's Portfolio — handles contact form submissions, stores them to MongoDB, and sends email notifications.

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🚀 Tech Stack

• Runtime — Node.js
• Framework — Express.js
• Database — MongoDB Atlas (Mongoose)
• Email — Resend
• Security — Helmet.js, express-rate-limit, express-validator
• Deployment — Render

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📁 Project Structure

portfolio-backend/
├── src/
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── contact.js        # POST /api/contact
│   ├── models/
│   │   └── Contact.js        # Mongoose schema
│   └── middleware/
│       ├── validate.js        # Input validation rules
│       └── rateLimiter.js     # IP + email rate limiting
├── .env                       # Environment variables (not committed)
├── .gitignore
├── server.js                  # Entry point
└── package.json

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⚙️ API Endpoints

POST /api/contact

Accepts a contact form submission, saves to MongoDB, and sends an email notification.

Request Body

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "organization": "Acme Inc",
  "message": "Hey, I'd love to connect!"
}

Success Response 201

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Message received! I will get back to you soon."
}

Validation Error Response 400

{
  "success": false,
  "errors": [
    { "field": "email", "message": "Invalid email address" }
  ]
}

Rate Limited Response 429

{
  "success": false,
  "message": "Too many messages sent from your IP. Please try again after an hour."
}

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GET /health

Health check endpoint — used by Render to keep the service alive.

Response 200

{
  "status": "ok"
}

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🔒 Security

• Helmet.js — sets 14 secure HTTP response headers
• IP Rate Limiting — max 5 submissions per IP per hour
• Email Rate Limiting — max 3 submissions per email per 24 hours
• Input Validation — all fields validated and sanitized before touching the database
• CORS — restricted to the portfolio frontend URL only

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🛠️ Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+
• MongoDB Atlas account
• Resend account
• Gmail account with App Password

Setup

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/portfolio-backend.git
cd portfolio-backend

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Create .env file

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://username:password@cluster0.xxxxx.mongodb.net/portfolio?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster0
EMAIL_USER=yourgmail@gmail.com
RESEND_API_KEY=re_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5500

4. Run the server

node server.js

Server runs on http://localhost:5000

Test the endpoint

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri http://localhost:5000/api/contact -Method POST -ContentType "application/json" -Body '{"firstName":"Test","lastName":"User","email":"test@example.com","organization":"Test","message":"This is a test message"}'

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☁️ Deployment (Render)

1. Push repo to GitHub
2. Go to render.com → New Web Service → connect repo
3. Set:
   • Runtime: Node
   • Build Command: npm install
   • Start Command: node server.js
   • Root Directory: backend (if repo has a subfolder)
4. Add environment variables:
   • MONGO_URI
   • EMAIL_USER
   • RESEND_API_KEY
   • FRONTEND_URL (your Netlify URL, no trailing slash)
5. Deploy 🎉

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📦 Dependencies

Package	Purpose
express	Web framework
mongoose	MongoDB ODM
resend	Email delivery
cors	Cross-origin requests
helmet	Security headers
express-rate-limit	Rate limiting
express-validator	Input validation
dotenv	Environment variables

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📄 License

MIT — feel free to use this as a reference for your own portfolio backend.

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Part of rishabh-2d-portfolio.netlify.app