Insta

A full-stack Instagram-inspired social media application built with a microservices architecture, containerized with Docker, and deployed through a secure CI/CD pipeline powered by Jenkins.

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Architecture Overview

The application is split into independent backend microservices, a frontend client, and an Nginx reverse proxy that routes traffic between them.

                        ┌─────────────┐
                        │    Nginx    │  :80
                        │ (API Gateway)│
                        └──────┬──────┘
               ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
               ▼               ▼               ▼               ▼
        ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐
        │auth-service│  │user-service│  │post-service│  │media-service│
        └────────────┘  └────────────┘  └────────────┘  └────────────┘

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Project Structure

Insta/
├── Backend/
│   ├── auth-service/       # Authentication & JWT handling
│   ├── user-service/       # User profiles & relationships
│   ├── post-service/       # Posts, likes, comments
│   └── media-service/      # Image/video upload & storage
├── Frontend/               # Client-side app (JavaScript/HTML/CSS)
├── nginx/                  # Nginx config files
├── nginx.conf              # Reverse proxy routing rules
├── docker-compose.yml      # Multi-service orchestration
├── Dockerfile              # App container definition
├── Jenkinsfile             # CI/CD pipeline definition
└── sonar-project.properties # SonarQube code quality config

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Backend	Node.js (microservices)
Reverse Proxy	Nginx
Containerization	Docker & Docker Compose
CI/CD	Jenkins
Code Quality	SonarQube
Security Scanning	OWASP Dependency-Check, Trivy

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• Node.js (for local development)

Run with Docker Compose

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/dvanhu/Insta.git
   cd Insta

2. Create .env files for each service:

   Backend/auth-service/.env
   Backend/user-service/.env
   Backend/post-service/.env
   Backend/media-service/.env
   

3. Start all services:

   docker-compose up --build

4. The application will be available at http://localhost

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Services

auth-service

Handles user registration, login, and JWT token issuance/validation.

user-service

Manages user profiles, followers, and following relationships.

post-service

Handles creating, reading, liking, and commenting on posts.

media-service

Manages file uploads (images/videos) and serves media assets.

Nginx (Gateway)

Acts as a reverse proxy, routing incoming requests to the appropriate microservice based on path prefixes.

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CI/CD Pipeline (Jenkins)

The Jenkinsfile defines a fully automated pipeline with the following stages:

1. Checkout Code — Pulls the latest code from the main branch
2. Install Dependencies — Runs npm install in the Frontend directory
3. SonarQube Analysis — Static code analysis for code quality and bugs
4. Quality Gate — Fails the build if code quality standards are not met
5. OWASP Dependency Check — Scans for known CVEs in dependencies (fails on CVSS ≥ 7)
6. Trivy Filesystem Scan — Scans source files for HIGH/CRITICAL vulnerabilities
7. Docker Build — Builds the application Docker image
8. Trivy Image Scan — Scans the final Docker image for HIGH/CRITICAL vulnerabilities
9. Deploy Container — Runs the container on port 3000

Dependency check reports are archived as build artifacts after every run.

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Security

This project takes a DevSecOps approach, integrating security checks directly into the pipeline:

• SonarQube for static application security testing (SAST)
• OWASP Dependency-Check to detect vulnerable third-party libraries
• Trivy for both filesystem and Docker image vulnerability scanning
• Each microservice uses isolated .env files to manage secrets — never commit these to source control

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