What is social_dev_connect_app?

Dev Connector is a full stack web application built for developers to create a social profile, similar to a resume, where they can list their work experience, education, and skills, and post comments or short updates for other users to see. It works like a mix between LinkedIn and a small social network, aimed specifically at developers building out their online presence. The project uses the MERN stack: MongoDB as the database, accessed through Mongoose schemas, Express.js as the backend web framework, Node.js as the server runtime, and Preact.js on the frontend, which the README describes as a lightweight alternative to React. Logging in and staying logged in is handled with JSON Web Tokens combined with the Passport authentication middleware. On the frontend, the app relies on Redux and React Redux for managing application state, Bootstrap 4 for styling, react-router-dom for navigating between pages, and axios for talking to the backend API. On the backend, it adds security and convenience libraries like bcryptjs for password hashing, helmet for basic security headers, and gravatar for pulling in profile pictures automatically based on a user's email. To run it locally, a single command starts both the frontend and backend together, or you can run either one on its own: the backend listens on port 5000 and the frontend on port 3000. There is also a lint command set up with eslint to check code style across the project. This is presented as a bootstrapping template more than a finished product: something a developer could clone and build on to speed up starting a new full stack project, or study to see how a MERN application with authentication and profiles is put together. A live demo was hosted on Heroku, though hosted demos like this often go offline over time.