ZFlix

Movie tracker, media discovery app, and subscription platform.

ZFlix is a full-stack hobby project with a Netflix-inspired architecture for browsing movies, series, and channels, tracking user activity, managing profiles, saving bookmarks, and handling subscription/payment flows from a shared monorepo.

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About

ZFlix is built as a JavaScript/TypeScript monorepo inspired by Netflix-style product architecture:

• packages/app: Expo + React Native app with web, Android, and iOS targets.
• packages/server: Node.js + Express backend service with Sequelize models, migrations, Redis caching, auth, media routes, payments, and subscription management.

The app uses a backend API for accounts, profiles, bookmarks, plans, media data, channel data, payment checkout, billing webhooks, and subscription state. The web build can be deployed to GitHub Pages, while the API is designed to run on Render or any Node hosting service.

Features

• Movie, series, and channel discovery.
• User authentication and profile management.
• Bookmarks, watch activity, and personalized app data.
• TMDB-powered metadata flows.
• Redis-backed cache layer.
• Sequelize/MySQL persistence.
• Backend service for Stripe and PayPal payments, billing webhooks, and subscription flows.
• Expo web export for static hosting.

Project Structure

.
+-- packages
|   +-- app       # Expo / React Native client
|   +-- server    # Express API server
+-- .github       # GitHub Actions workflows
+-- render.yaml   # Render backend deployment blueprint
+-- package.json  # Root workspace scripts

Requirements

• Node.js 22+
• npm
• MySQL database
• Redis server
• TMDB API token/key
• Optional: Stripe, PayPal, SMTP, and media-service credentials

Environment Setup

Create local env files from the examples:

cp packages/app/.env.example packages/app/.env
cp packages/server/.env.example packages/server/.env

On Windows PowerShell:

Copy-Item packages/app/.env.example packages/app/.env
Copy-Item packages/server/.env.example packages/server/.env

Important env rule:

• packages/server/.env contains private runtime secrets.
• packages/app/.env only uses EXPO_PUBLIC_* values, which are bundled into web/native builds and are public.

Never put database passwords, Redis URLs, JWT private keys, Stripe secrets, PayPal secrets, or mailer passwords in EXPO_PUBLIC_* variables.

Install

npm install

Cookie Configuration

The API uses HTTP-only cookies for session and refresh tokens. When the API and the frontend run on different domains (e.g. Render + GitHub Pages), browsers block cookies unless SameSite=None; Secure is set. Browsers that block third-party cookies may also require Partitioned.

Add these to packages/server/.env:

# Cross-domain deployment (different API and frontend domains)
COOKIE_SAME_SITE=none
COOKIE_SECURE=true
COOKIE_PARTITIONED=true

For local development (both on localhost):

COOKIE_SAME_SITE=lax
COOKIE_SECURE=false
COOKIE_PARTITIONED=false

Note: COOKIE_SECURE=true is required when COOKIE_SAME_SITE=none. Browsers silently drop SameSite=None cookies that are not marked Secure. Use COOKIE_PARTITIONED=true when your frontend and API are on unrelated sites, such as GitHub Pages and Render. If both are under the same registrable domain, such as app.example.com and api.example.com, keep it false and prefer same-site cookies.

Database

The backend is configured for Sequelize with MySQL.

Update packages/server/.env:

SEQUELIZE_DB=zflix
SEQUELIZE_USER=root
SEQUELIZE_PASS=your_password
SEQUELIZE_HOST=127.0.0.1
SEQUELIZE_DIALECT=mysql
SEQUELIZE_PORT=3306

Run migrations:

npm --workspace server run db:migrate

Run seeders when needed:

npm --workspace server run db:seed

Redis

For local development, run Redis and use:

REDIS_MODE=local
REDIS_LOCAL_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_LOCAL_PORT=6379

This repo also includes WSL helper scripts:

npm run start:redis
npm run stop:redis

For hosted deployments, use:

REDIS_MODE=external
REDIS_EXTERNAL_URL=rediss://default:password@host:port

Run Locally

Start both the API and Expo app:

npm run start:dev

Or run each workspace separately:

npm run start:dev:server
npm run start:app

Useful app commands:

npm --workspace app run start:web
npm --workspace app run android
npm --workspace app run ios

Build

Build everything that has a build script:

npm run build

Build only the backend:

npm run build:server

Export the web app:

npm run build:app:web

The Expo web output is generated in:

packages/app/dist

Quality Checks

npm run typecheck
npm run lint

Deployment

• Frontend: GitHub Pages via .github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml.
• Backend: Render via render.yaml.
• Database: MySQL provider such as Aiven.
• Redis: Upstash Redis or another Redis-compatible service.

For the full deployment walkthrough, see:

DEPLOYMENT.md

For payment setup details, see:

• Stripe integration guide
• PayPal integration guide

License

This project is licensed under CC-BY-NC-4.0.