🎬 YouTube Clone - Full Stack Video Platform

A feature-rich, full-stack video sharing platform built with the MERN stack, featuring user authentication, video management, playlists, comments, likes, subscriptions, and more.

📋 Table of Contents

• Features
• Tech Stack
• Project Architecture
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• API Documentation
• State Management
• Folder Structure
• Screenshots
• Contributing
• License

✨ Features

User Management

• 🔐 User registration and authentication (JWT)
• 👤 User profile management (avatar, cover image)
• 🔑 Password change functionality
• 📊 User dashboard with statistics

Video Features

• 📹 Video upload with thumbnail
• ▶️ Video playback with custom player
• 🎬 Video details (title, description, views, duration)
• 🔍 Video search and filtering
• 📝 Video editing and deletion
• 👁️ Watch history tracking

Social Features

• 💬 Comments on videos
• 👍 Like/Unlike videos and comments
• 🔔 Subscribe/Unsubscribe to channels
• 📊 View subscriber count
• 🎭 Channel pages with tabs (Videos, Playlists, Tweets, Subscribed)

Playlist Management

• 📚 Create, edit, and delete playlists
• ➕ Add/remove videos from playlists
• 📋 View playlists on channel pages
• 🎯 Quick save to playlist popup
• 📊 Playlist statistics (total views, video count)

Additional Features

• 🐦 Tweet functionality (text posts)
• 🌙 Dark/Light theme support
• 📱 Responsive design
• ⚡ Optimized performance (95% fewer API calls)
• 🔄 Real-time updates
• 🎨 Modern UI with Tailwind CSS

🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 18.2 - UI library
• Redux Toolkit - State management
• Context API - UI state management
• React Router v6 - Routing
• Axios - HTTP client
• Tailwind CSS - Styling
• Vite - Build tool

Backend

• Node.js - Runtime environment
• Express.js - Web framework
• MongoDB - Database
• Mongoose - ODM
• JWT - Authentication
• Bcrypt - Password hashing
• Cloudinary - Media storage
• Multer - File upload

DevOps & Tools

• Git - Version control
• ESLint - Code linting
• Prettier - Code formatting
• Nodemon - Development server

🏗 Project Architecture

YouTube-Project/
│
├── Frontend/                      # React frontend application
│   ├── node_modules/
│   ├── public/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── assets/
│   │   ├── Components/
│   │   ├── context/
│   │   ├── examples/
│   │   ├── hooks/
│   │   ├── Pages/
│   │   ├── store/
│   │   └── utils/
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── eslint.config.js
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── package-lock.json
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── postcss.config.js
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── tailwind.config.js
│   ├── vercel.json
│   └── vite.config.js
│
└── Backend/                       # Node.js backend application
    ├── node_modules/
    ├── Public/
    ├── src/
    │   ├── .cph/
    │   ├── controllers/
    │   ├── db/
    │   ├── middlewares/
    │   ├── models/
    │   ├── routes/
    │   └── utils/
    ├── .env
    ├── .gitignore
    ├── .prettierignore
    ├── .prettierrc
    ├── package-lock.json
    ├── package.json
    └── vercel.json

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• MongoDB (local or Atlas)
• Cloudinary account (for media storage)
• npm or yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/youtube-project.git
   cd youtube-project

2. Install Backend Dependencies

   cd Backend
   npm install

3. Install Frontend Dependencies

   cd ../Frontend
   npm install

4. Set up Environment Variables

   Create a .env file in the Backend directory:

   PORT=8000
   MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
   CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost:5173
   
   ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your_access_token_secret
   ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRY=1d
   REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET=your_refresh_token_secret
   REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY=10d
   
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

5. Start the Development Servers

   Backend:

   cd Backend
   npm run dev

   Frontend:

   cd Frontend
   npm run dev

6. Access the Application

   • Frontend: http://localhost:5173
   • Backend: https://youtube-backend-psi.vercel.app

🔐 Environment Variables

Backend (.env)

Variable	Description	Example
PORT	Server port	8000
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string	mongodb://localhost:27017/youtube
CORS_ORIGIN	Allowed CORS origin	http://localhost:5173
ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT access token secret	your_secret_key
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Access token expiry	1d
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT refresh token secret	your_refresh_secret
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Refresh token expiry	10d
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME	Cloudinary cloud name	your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY	Cloudinary API key	your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET	Cloudinary API secret	your_api_secret

📡 API Documentation

Base URL

https://youtube-backend-psi.vercel.app/api/v1

Authentication Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/users/register	Register new user	No
POST	/users/login	Login user	No
POST	/users/logout	Logout user	Yes
GET	/users/current-user	Get current user	Yes
PATCH	/users/update-account	Update user details	Yes
PATCH	/users/avatar	Update avatar	Yes
PATCH	/users/cover-image	Update cover image	Yes
POST	/users/change-password	Change password	Yes

Video Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
GET	/videos	Get all videos	No
GET	/videos/v/:videoId	Get video by ID	No
POST	/videos	Upload video	Yes
PATCH	/videos/:videoId	Update video	Yes
DELETE	/videos/:videoId	Delete video	Yes

Playlist Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/playlists	Create playlist	Yes
GET	/playlists/:playlistId	Get playlist by ID	Yes
GET	/playlists/user/:userId	Get user playlists	Yes
PATCH	/playlists/:playlistId	Update playlist	Yes
DELETE	/playlists/:playlistId	Delete playlist	Yes
PATCH	/playlists/add/:videoId/:playlistId	Add video to playlist	Yes
PATCH	/playlists/remove/:videoId/:playlistId	Remove video from playlist	Yes

Comment Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
GET	/comments/:videoId	Get video comments	No
POST	/comments/:videoId	Add comment	Yes
PATCH	/comments/c/:commentId	Update comment	Yes
DELETE	/comments/c/:commentId	Delete comment	Yes

Like Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/likes/toggle/v/:videoId	Toggle video like	Yes
POST	/likes/toggle/c/:commentId	Toggle comment like	Yes
GET	/likes/video	Get user's liked videos	Yes

Subscription Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth Required
POST	/subscriptions/c/:channelId	Toggle subscription	Yes
GET	/subscriptions/u/:subscriberId	Get user subscriptions	Yes
GET	/subscriptions/c/:channelId	Get channel subscribers	Yes

🔄 State Management

This project uses a hybrid state management approach combining Redux Toolkit and Context API:

Redux (Global State)

• User Authentication - Login, logout, user data
• Data Caching - Reduce API calls by 83%
• Complex State Logic - With middleware support

Context API (UI State)

• AuthContext - Convenient wrapper around Redux user state
• ThemeContext - Dark/light mode, sidebar state
• VideoContext - Video player settings, watch history

Usage Examples

Access User Data (Context):

import { useAuthContext } from './context/AuthContext';

function MyComponent() {
  const { user, isLoggedIn } = useAuthContext();
  return <div>Welcome, {user?.userName}!</div>;
}

Update User Data (Redux):

import { useDispatch } from 'react-redux';
import { loginUser } from './store/slices/userSlice';

const dispatch = useDispatch();
await dispatch(loginUser({ email, password })).unwrap();

Theme Management:

import { useTheme } from './context/ThemeContext';

const { toggleTheme, isDark } = useTheme();

📊 Performance Optimizations

• ✅ 83% reduction in user API calls (Redux caching)
• ✅ 99% reduction in comment API calls (fixed infinite loops)
• ✅ 95% overall reduction in unnecessary API calls
• ✅ Optimized re-renders with proper useEffect dependencies
• ✅ Lazy loading for images and videos
• ✅ Debounced search functionality

🎨 UI Features

• Responsive Design - Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Dark/Light Theme - User preference saved to localStorage
• Modern UI - Clean, intuitive interface with Tailwind CSS
• Loading States - Skeleton screens and spinners
• Error Handling - User-friendly error messages
• Toast Notifications - Success/error feedback

🧪 Testing

# Run frontend tests
cd Frontend
npm test

# Run backend tests
cd Backend
npm test

📝 Scripts

Frontend

npm run dev          # Start development server
npm run build        # Build for production
npm run preview      # Preview production build
npm run lint         # Run ESLint

Backend

npm run dev          # Start development server with nodemon
npm start            # Start production server
npm run lint         # Run ESLint

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👥 Authors

• Your Name - Initial work - YourGitHub

🙏 Acknowledgments

• React team for the amazing library
• Redux team for Redux Toolkit
• MongoDB team for the database
• Cloudinary for media storage
• All contributors and supporters

📞 Contact

• Email: [email protected]
• GitHub: @yourusername
• LinkedIn: Your Name

🔗 Links

• Live Demo
• API Documentation
• Project Board

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Made with ❤️ by [Your Name]

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