Jobby

Jobby is a full-stack recruitment platform that lets employers post openings, track applicants, and gives job seekers a personalized board that blends internal listings with real-time remote jobs from external APIs. The project is split into a Vite + React frontend and an Express + MongoDB backend, with automated health checks for Render and deploy-ready configs for Vercel.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, Vite, Tailwind utility classes
Backend	Node 18+, Express 4, Mongoose 8
Auth	JWT (Access + Refresh Token Rotation), HTTP-only Cookies, bcryptjs
Storage	MongoDB Atlas (or any MongoDB 6+)
APIs	Remotive, Serper (Google SERP)
Tooling	Axios, Multer, Nodemon

Feature Highlights

Job Seekers

• Unified job search with keyword, location, employment type, and work-style filters.
• Toggle between internal (database) jobs and remote roles sourced from Remotive + Serper.
• Realtime refresh: interval polling plus a browser event when new jobs are posted.
• Application history with status badges (submitted, selected, rejected).
• Smart fallbacks that keep showing relevant suggestions even if third-party APIs fail.

Employers

• Role-gated dashboard with KPI cards (jobs, applications, views, response rate).
• Quick “Post New Job” modal with salary + location normalization and server-side validation.
• Manage jobs (edit, soft delete, stats) and inspect applicant summaries per posting.
• Automatic refresh when new postings are created from any session.

Platform

• JWT-authenticated APIs with layered role authorization middleware and secure Token Rotation (using short-lived Access Tokens and HTTP-only Refresh Cookies).
• Rich job filters handled server-side (text search, location regex, salary bounds, experience, pagination, sorting).
• Remote job aggregator that merges external APIs, caches results, and falls back to curated mock data when needed.
• Market intelligence endpoints that transform Serper search results into insights (salary trends, demand, skills, top employers) and power the dashboard widget.
• Health endpoint (/api/health) for Render/Vercel uptime checks.

Project Structure

Jobby/
├── backend/         # Express API, Mongo models, controllers, routes
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── middleware/
│   ├── model/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── services/
│   └── server.js
├── frontend/        # Vite + React app
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   └── services/
│   └── vite.config.js
├── render.yaml      # Render service config sample
└── vercel.json      # Vercel deployment settings

Environment Variables

Backend (backend/.env)

Variable	Description
PORT	API port (defaults to 5000)
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Secret for signing short-lived access tokens
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET	Secret for signing long-lived refresh tokens
SERPER_API_KEY	Key for google.serper.dev search API
FRONTEND_ORIGIN	(Optional) Comma-separated additional CORS origins

Frontend (frontend/.env)

Variable	Description
VITE_API_BASE_URL	Points to the running backend (e.g., http://localhost:5000/api)

Never commit secrets. Use .env.local files or platform-specific secret managers in production.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm 9+
• MongoDB instance (local or Atlas)
• Serper API key (optional, required for live Google SERP data)

Clone & Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/devlohani99/Jobby.git
cd Jobby

# Install backend deps
cd backend
npm install

# Install frontend deps
cd ../frontend
npm install

Run the Backend

cd backend
cp .env.example .env   # create and fill in values if you maintain an example file
npm run dev            # or npm start for production mode

The API boots on http://localhost:5000. Confirm with GET /api/health.

Run the Frontend

cd frontend
npm run dev

Vite serves the UI on http://localhost:5173 (or next free port). Set VITE_API_BASE_URL to your backend origin if it differs.

Recommended Workflow

1. Start MongoDB and the backend (npm run dev).
2. Start the frontend (npm run dev).
3. Sign up two users: one jobseeker, one employer.
4. Publish a job via the employer dashboard; the seeker view will refresh automatically.

Key API Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
POST	/api/auth/signup	Create account and receive JWT pair
POST	/api/auth/signin	Authenticate and receive JWT pair
POST	/api/auth/logout	Invalidate session client-side & clear refresh cookie
GET	/api/auth/refresh	Rotate refresh token and get new access token
GET	/api/jobs	List jobs with filters/pagination
POST	/api/jobs	Create job (employer)
PUT	/api/jobs/:id	Update job (employer)
DELETE	/api/jobs/:id	Soft delete job
GET	/api/jobs/employer/my-jobs	Employer’s postings
GET	/api/jobs/employer/stats	Aggregate dashboard metrics
GET	/api/remotive-jobs	Aggregated remote roles (Remotive + Serper + fallback)
GET	/api/market-intelligence/:jobTitle/:location	Serper-backed insights
GET	/api/health	Liveness probe

Additional routes exist for applications and market stats—use the source for the exact contract.

Deployment Notes

• Backend (Render/Fly/Any Node host): use npm install && npm run start, set all environment variables, and ensure MongoDB is reachable. The included render.yaml shows a sample service definition with health check.
• Frontend (Vercel/Netlify): build with npm run build; set VITE_API_BASE_URL to the deployed backend URL. The repo includes a vercel.json for clean routing.
• CORS: update backend/server.js origins to include any new frontend domains.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
Network error - backend server may be unavailable	Confirm backend is running and VITE_API_BASE_URL is correct.
Session expired. Please log in again.	Token rotation failed, likely due to an expired or revoked refresh token. Re-authenticate.
No remote jobs returned	Verify SERPER_API_KEY and network access to Remotive. The UI will fall back to curated data if both fail.
Mongo connection errors	Ensure MONGODB_URI is correct and accessible from your environment.

Contributing

1. Fork the repo and create a feature branch.
2. Follow the existing code style (lint before committing).
3. Add or update documentation/tests when introducing changes.
4. Open a Pull Request with a clear summary and screenshots/GIFs where helpful.

License

This project is released under the ISC license. Feel free to build on it, but attribution is appreciated.

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Feel free to open issues for bugs, questions, or feature requests. Happy building!