BRB: Better Resolve Bug — Real-Time Developer Collaboration

Independent developers, students, and hackathon participants often lack structured channels to find complementary teammates, discuss specific code bugs, and collaborate in real time with project context attached.

Built a comprehensive web platform integrating real-time messaging, project blogs, and collaboration requests in a decoupled MERN architecture.

Express.js REST API with Socket.IO room management, JWT authentication middleware, and MongoDB Mongoose models.

• Implemented JWT session authentication with bcrypt salt hashing and route-level authorization middleware
• Designed Socket.IO room lifecycle for direct developer chats and project discussion threads
• Configured Multer middleware for multipart file attachments and project screenshot uploads
• Added client-side message delivery states with optimistic rendering to eliminate perceived latency

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
  socket.on('join_project_room', ({ projectId, userId }) => {
    socket.join(projectId);
    io.to(projectId).emit('user_joined', { userId, timestamp: Date.now() });
  });

  socket.on('send_message', async (data) => {
    const saved = await Message.create(data);
    io.to(data.projectId).emit('receive_message', saved);
  });
});