Milestones

• Home Screen & Navigation

  Laid down the basic hero layout, Navbar and routing using Next.js App Router, setting the tone for the entire site.

• User Registration & Login

  Built out secure signup and login flows powered by JWT, letting new users create accounts and return safely.

• Add Post Functionality

  Enabled creating journal entries with custom font styling, photo uploads, saving to MongoDB, and displaying posts in the users profile feed.

• Profile Layout & Post Display

  Designed the user profile screen: avatar, bio, and a grid/list of their own posts with responsive styling.

• Personalized Themes & Dark/Light Mode

  Added theme-switching capability so each user can toggle between light and dark, and color themes with their choice persisting across sessions.

• Basic Chat with Real‑Time Messaging & Likes

  Integrated WebSockets for live one‑to‑one chats, complete with typing indicators and the ability to “like” individual messages.

• Profile Search & Friend Requests

  Built a search interface to find other users, and send/accept friend requests.

• Settings Layout & Preferences

  Created a settings page for updating email, password, notification prefs, and default post visibility, functionality to come.

• What’s Next?

  Add post UI update, better rich‑text editor with inline photo functionality, bookmarks & advanced notifications are all in the pipeline—stay tuned!