In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the development of my latest project: Link Sharing App. This full-stack application was designed to allow users to create and share personalized profiles with links to their social media accounts. The app features secure authentication, real-time updates, and a fully responsive design, showcasing the power of modern web development technologies.
Overview
The Link Sharing App is a fully functional full-stack application where users can:
- Create, edit, and delete their social media links.
- Reorder links via drag-and-drop functionality.
- Upload and manage profile pictures.
- Customize their profiles by editing their first name, last name, and email address.
- View a real-time preview of their profiles while editing.
- Share their profiles via a public URL.
- Experience a seamless, responsive design on any device.
This project serves as a great example of how to combine modern frontend and backend technologies into a single, cohesive application.
Tech Stack
The app is built using a range of modern tools and frameworks, ensuring scalability, performance, and a great user experience:
- Frontend & Backend: Next.js for server-side rendering, routing, and server actions.
- TypeScript: Strongly typed programming for better maintainability and fewer runtime errors.
- Tailwind CSS: Utility-first CSS framework for responsive, clean, and fast UI development.
- Zustand: Lightweight state management for syncing app state with form state in real-time.
- React Hook Form: Simplified form handling with performance optimization.
- Zod: Schema validation to ensure data integrity on both client and server sides.
- Prisma: An ORM (Object Relational Mapper) for efficient and secure database interactions.
- PostgreSQL: Reliable and scalable relational database for storing user data and links.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): Used for storing profile pictures in S3 buckets.
- Storybook: For documenting and testing UI components.
Key Features
1. User Authentication
The app provides a secure login and registration system using NextAuth. User credentials are validated on both the client and server sides to ensure security and reliability.
2. Link Management
Users can add, edit, delete, and reorder their social media links. A real-time preview updates instantly with every change, providing immediate feedback to users.
3. Drag-and-Drop Reordering
The app includes drag-and-drop functionality for rearranging links. This feature updates the app state in real-time and syncs with the database once saved.
4. Profile Customization
Users can update their profile details, including their first and last name, email address, and profile picture. The profile picture upload feature uses AWS S3 for secure and scalable storage.
5. Responsive Design
The app is fully responsive, adapting to mobile, tablet, and desktop screens seamlessly. Tailwind CSS ensures consistent and clean UI design across devices.
6. Form Handling and Validation
All forms in the app are powered by React Hook Form for efficient handling of form states, with Zod providing robust schema validation. This ensures that data is always valid and secure.
7. Public Profile Sharing
Users can generate a sharable public link to their profile. Clicking the "Share Link" button copies the link to the clipboard, making it easy to share with others.
Challenges and Solutions
1. Real-Time Updates
Keeping the preview synced with the form state was a priority. Using Zustand for state management allowed me to maintain a lightweight and responsive app, ensuring all changes were reflected immediately in the UI.
2. Profile Picture Management
Uploading images directly to AWS S3 required careful configuration to handle file size limits and provide real-time feedback for users. Integrating this with Prisma ensured that uploaded file URLs were securely stored in the database.
3. Drag-and-Drop Functionality
Adding drag-and-drop for reordering links was challenging, especially when syncing the new order to the database. Using Zustand for real-time updates and Prisma for database integration provided a seamless solution.
Lessons Learned
This project helped me strengthen my understanding of integrating frontend and backend technologies into a cohesive full-stack application. Key takeaways include:
- The importance of schema validation with tools like Zod to prevent invalid data entry.
- Leveraging Next.js for building full-stack applications with server actions and efficient routing.
- The power of Tailwind CSS for creating responsive designs quickly and effectively.
- The value of Zustand for managing app state without overcomplicating the architecture.
Explore the Project
You can explore the source code and live demo here:
- GitHub Repository: GitHub Link
- Live Demo: Live Demo Link
- Video Demo: YouTube Link
Conclusion
The Link Sharing App is more than just a portfolio piece—it’s a production-ready application showcasing modern web development practices. It combines performance, scalability, and an excellent user experience into one cohesive project. I’m proud of how it turned out and excited to build even more robust applications in the future.
Thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts or connect with me!