Eduban Backend

API & services layer for Eduban — decentralized learning & credential verification on Stellar.

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Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Repository Layout
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Database & Migrations
• Available Scripts
• API Overview
• Testing
• Deployment
• Contributing
• Related Repositories
• License

About

This repository is the backend for Eduban — an open-source platform for issuing and verifying tamper-proof educational credentials on the Stellar blockchain. It exposes a REST API (with realtime support) consumed by the Eduban frontend and coordinates on-chain operations against the Eduban smart contracts.

The core API in src/ runs standalone. Optional microservices in services/ exist for horizontal scale-out and are not required for local development.

Features

• 🎓 Credential API — issue, verify, and manage on-chain educational credentials
• 📚 Course management — CRUD, enrollment, content, and a moderation workflow
• 🔎 Search & recommendations — full-text search with personalized recommendations (see docs/COURSE_DISCOVERY.md)
• 📈 Analytics — enrollment/completion aggregation with PII-safe reporting
• ✉️ Email notifications — pluggable provider (SendGrid / AWS SES / SMTP) with templates
• 🔗 Transaction queue — reliable Stellar transaction submission with retries & backoff
• 🔐 Auth & security — JWT auth, rate limiting, Helmet, bcrypt
• 🧩 Modular services — optional gateway/auth/courses/analytics microservices

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 18+
Language	TypeScript 5
Framework	Express
Datastores	PostgreSQL, Redis (queues/cache), MongoDB (select modules)
Blockchain	Stellar SDK / Soroban
Auth	JWT, bcrypt
Realtime	Socket.io
Media	FFmpeg, Sharp
Testing	Jest
Tooling	ESLint, ts-node, nodemon

Repository Layout

src/            # Core Express API — primary entry point
services/       # Optional scale-out microservices (gateway, auth, courses, analytics)
apps/           # Companion apps: developer portal + content-player components
migrations/     # SQL database migrations
scripts/        # Operational & maintenance scripts
tests/          # Test suites (unit, integration, api, performance)
docs/           # Architecture & system documentation

See services/README.md and apps/README.md for details on the optional pieces.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+
• PostgreSQL v13+
• Redis v6+
• A Stellar keypair for on-chain operations (testnet is fine for development)
• (optional) Docker, for running Postgres/Redis locally

Installation

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/millystellar/Eduban_backend.git
cd Eduban_backend

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env — see the Environment Variables section

# 4. Apply database migrations
npm run migrate:up

# 5. Start the API in watch mode
npm run dev

The API listens on http://localhost:3001 by default.

💡 Need Postgres & Redis quickly?

docker run -d --name eduban-pg -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=eduban -p 5432:5432 postgres:15
docker run -d --name eduban-redis -p 6379:6379 redis:7

Environment Variables

A complete reference lives in .env.example and SETUP_GUIDE.md. The essentials:

Variable	Description	Default
NODE_ENV	Environment	development
PORT	API port	3001
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string	—
REDIS_HOST / REDIS_PORT	Redis connection	localhost / 6379
JWT_SECRET	Signing secret (use a strong value)	—
JWT_EXPIRES_IN	Token lifetime	24h
STELLAR_NETWORK	testnet or public	testnet
STELLAR_HORIZON_URL	Horizon endpoint	—
EMAIL_PROVIDER	smtp / sendgrid / ses	—
EMAIL_FROM	Sender address	—
FRONTEND_URL	Allowed CORS origin	http://localhost:3000

Database & Migrations

Migrations live in migrations/ and are applied with the migrate scripts:

npm run migrate:up       # apply pending migrations
npm run migrate:down     # roll back the last migration
npm run migrate:status   # show migration status

Available Scripts

Script	Description
npm run dev	Start API with hot reload (nodemon + ts-node)
npm run build	Compile TypeScript to dist/
npm start	Run the compiled build
npm run lint / lint:fix	Lint (and auto-fix)
npm run typecheck	TypeScript type checking
npm test	Run the full test suite
npm run test:coverage	Tests with coverage
npm run test:api	API/route tests only
npm run test:integration	Integration tests only
npm run migrate:up / :down / :status	Database migrations

API Overview

Common endpoints (see route modules under src/routes for the full surface):

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/health	Service health check
POST	/api/auth/login	Authenticate and receive a JWT
GET	/api/courses	List / search courses
POST	/api/credentials	Issue a credential
GET	/api/credentials/:id/verify	Verify a credential
GET	/api/v1/analytics/enrollment-trends	Enrollment aggregation
POST	/api/transactions/submit	Submit a Stellar transaction

Testing

npm test                    # everything
npm run test:coverage       # with coverage
npm run test:api            # route/API tests
npm run test:integration    # integration tests

Tests requiring a database expect a reachable Postgres/Redis (the CI workflow spins these up as service containers). New features should include tests — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Deployment

npm run build      # produces dist/
npm start          # node dist/index.js

A Dockerfile is provided for container deployments. Production guidance (Nginx, SSL, PM2, scaling) is documented in SETUP_GUIDE.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct first.

1. Fork and branch: git checkout -b feat/short-description
2. Ensure npm run lint && npm run typecheck && npm test pass
3. Use Conventional Commits
4. Open a PR with a clear description and linked issue

Related Repositories

• 🖥️ Eduban_frontend — web dashboard
• ⚙️ Eduban_backend — this repo
• 📜 Eduban_contract — Soroban contracts

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

© 2026 Meshmulla