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Noted - Rich Note-Taking Platform

Noted is a modern, premium card-based note-taking application designed for seamless digital organization. Built with a rich React frontend and a secure Node.js REST API backend, the platform supports custom checklists, sticker badges, dynamic color palettes, and calendar reminders.

Technology Stack

Layer Technology Key Service / Feature
Frontend React 19, Vite, Tailwind CSS v4 Hot Module Replacement (HMR), Lucide Icons
Backend Node.js, Express RESTful JSON API, MVC routing, Structured controllers
Database Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL) Connection pooling, session state persistency
Authentication Passport.js, Bcryptjs Session-based authentication, Salted password hashes
Email/SMTP Nodemailer, Brevo Account confirmation emails, secure password resets
Security Helmet, Express Rate Limit XSS mitigation, secure cookies, brute-force throttling

Repository Structure

noteapp-main/
├── client/                 # React Frontend Application (Vite dev server)
│   ├── public/             # Static assets (illustrations, avatars, favicon)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/     # Reusable UI widgets (NoteEditor, Sidebar, etc.)
│   │   ├── pages/          # Full-view layout routing (Login, ForgotPassword)
│   │   ├── App.jsx         # App container and state management
│   │   └── main.jsx        # App entry point
│   ├── package.json
│   └── vite.config.js      # Dev server port & API proxy setup
└── server/                 # Express Backend API Server
    ├── database/           # DB connection pools, migrations and cache stores
    ├── routes/             # Express API endpoints
    ├── services/           # Nodemailer integration
    ├── templates/          # Email transactional HTML templates
    ├── utils/              # Expiry token helpers
    ├── middleware.js       # Authentication and authorization guards
    ├── app.js              # Application entry, middleware stacks and server initialization
    └── package.json

Production & Security Standards

The application has been refined to follow industry-standard security checklist requirements:

  1. SQL Injection Protection: Fully parameterized queries for authorization checks and user note manipulation.
  2. Brute-Force & Abuse Mitigation: Throttling configured via express-rate-limit on endpoints such as login, signup, password-reset, and email verification.
  3. HTTP Header Security: Hardened headers set via helmet (Disables content type sniffing, enforces XSS protection, restricts frame embedding).
  4. Secure Sessions: Enforced httpOnly, secure: true (requires HTTPS), and sameSite: 'none' (facilitates cross-origin cookies) configurations when NODE_ENV=production.
  5. No Data Leakage: Standard Express error handlers are overridden in production to return generic messages and keep raw stack traces or database details redacted from logs sent to client.
  6. Strict Validation: Registration validation checking syntax formatting on emails and password strength complexity.

Environment Configuration

Create a .env file in the server directory using the following keys:

# Database Credentials (MS SQL/Azure SQL Server)
HOST=your-azure-db.database.windows.net
USER=your_db_user
PASSWORD=your_db_password
DATABASE=Noted
DB_PORT=1433

# Application Port
PORT=3000

# Express Session Encryption Key
SESSION_SECRET=your_complex_session_secret_key

# Brevo SMTP Configuration
SMTP_SERVER=smtp-relay.brevo.com
BREVO_PORT=587
BREVO_LOGIN=your_brevo_smtp_login
BREVO_API_KEY=your_brevo_api_key
BREVO_FROM_EMAIL=noreply@yourdomain.com

# Client and Token Expirations
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
TOKEN_EXPIRY_HOURS=16

Setup & Local Execution

Follow these steps to run both the frontend and backend in your local environment.

1. Database Migrations

Make sure you have Microsoft SQL Server running. Run the following migrations inside the server/ directory to create the tables and alter email/token columns:

cd server
npm install
node database/migrate.js
node database/migrateEmailColumns.js

2. Run Backend API

With dependencies installed and migrations complete, start the Nodemon dev server:

npm run dev

The server will boot up on http://localhost:3000.

3. Run Frontend Client

Open a new terminal window, navigate to the client/ folder, install packages and start the Vite development server:

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

The client will open up on http://localhost:5173. Vite is preconfigured to proxy all /api/* fetch requests directly to the backend port.

Deployment Build

To build the client bundle for production deployment, run:

cd client
npm run build

This generates a flat static directory inside client/dist/ ready to be served from any CDN or static hosting platform.