📰 Insight — Personalized News Aggregator (MERN Stack)

Insight is a distraction-free, personalized news briefing platform built using the MERN Stack .Unlike traditional news portals filled with random headlines, Insight gives users full control by letting them curate feeds based on Topics (AI, Technology, Startups, etc.) and Regions (India, USA, UK, etc.).

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🚀 Features

Secure Authentication

• Sign Up & Login using JWT Authentication
• Password hashing using Bcrypt

Modern "Glass" UI

• Stunning Glassmorphism-based interface
• Fully Responsive
• Light/Dark mode with OS-level sync

Smart Filtering

• Filter news by Country + Topics in combination
• Fetches only the latest 3 days of news

Persistent User Preferences

• User topics and region preferences stored in MongoDB
• Auto-loaded feed upon login

Performance Optimization (Redis Caching)

• Implements Redis (Upstash) caching strategy
• Reduces API response time from ~500ms to <50ms
• Drastically reduces external API calls

Real-Time News Fetching

• Uses NewsAPI
• Sorted by freshness (newest first)

Responsive Across All Devices

• Desktop, Tablet and Mobile optimized

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React.js (Vite)
• Context API (Global Auth State)
• CSS3 Variables (Dynamic Theming)
• Axios

Backend

• Node.js + Express.js
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT + Bcrypt
• Redis (Upstash) for Caching
• CORS, Dotenv

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🛠️ High-Level Architecture (HLA)

+---------------------+          +----------------------+
|   Client (Frontend) |          |   External World     |
|   (React.js App)    |          |   (NewsAPI.org)      |
|  [Browser/User UI]  |          |   [3rd Party Data]   |
+----------+----------+          +-----------+----------+
           |                                 ^
           | HTTP Request (JSON)             | API Call (Only on Miss)
           v                                 |
+--------------------------------------------+----------+
|              Server (Backend)                         |
|             (Node.js + Express)                       |
|                                                       |
|    [   Security Guard (Middleware)  ]                 |
|    [   Brain / Logic (Controllers)  ]                 |
+---------------------+--------------+------------------+
                      |              |
                      |              | Check / Save
       Mongoose Query |              |
                      v              v
           +-----------------+    +-----------------+
           |    Database     |    |      Cache      |
           | (MongoDB Atlas) |    | (Upstash Redis) |
           | [Users & Prefs] |    |  [News Data]    |
           +-----------------+    +-----------------+

🛠️ Low-Level Architecture (LLA)

INCOMING REQUEST (e.g., GET /api/news)
                  ||
                  \/
      +---------------------------+
      |      1. ROUTES            |  <-- "The Traffic Controller"
      |  (Checks URL: /news)      |
      +-----------+---------------+
                  |
                  v
      +---------------------------+
      |    2. MIDDLEWARE          |  <-- "The Security Guard"
      |  (Checks JWT Token)       |
      +-----------+---------------+
                  |
                  v
      +---------------------------+
      |    3. CONTROLLER          |  <-- "The Decision Maker"
      |  (Smart Fetch Logic)      |
      +-----+-------------+-------+
            |             |
   (Get User Prefs)   (Check Cache)
            |             |
            v             v
    +-------------+   +-------------+
    |  4. MONGODB |   |   5. REDIS  |
    | (User Model)|   | (Cache Hit?)|
    +-------------+   +------+------+
                             |
                    (No? Cache Miss)
                             |
                             v
                      +-------------+
                      |  6. AXIOS   |
                      | (NewsAPI)   |
                      +-------------+   

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⚙️Installation & Setup Guide

Follow these steps to run the project locally. 1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/nikhilr-r/insight-aggregator.git
cd insight-aggregator 

2. Backend Setup Navigate to the backend folder:

cd server
npm install 

Create a .env file inside server/:

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_key
NEWS_API_KEY=your_newsapi_key

# Redis - Make sure there are no spaces after the equal sign
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL=[https://your-db-url.upstash.io](https://your-db-url.upstash.io)
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN=your_long_token_here

Start backend:

npm run dev 

3. Frontend Setup Open a new terminal and run:

cd client
npm install

Create .env inside client:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000

Start the frontend:

npm run dev

Your app will run on:

http://localhost:5173 

🔗 API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Access
POST	/api/users	Register a new user	Public
POST	/api/users/login	Authenticate user & get Token	Public
GET	/api/users/me	Get current user details	Private (Token)
PUT	/api/users/preferences	Update Topics & Country	Private (Token)
GET	/api/news	Fetch personalized news feed	Private (Token)

👨‍💻 Author Nikhil Rajput