Ferro

Ferro is a high-performance, full-stack social networking platform built with a modular Rust backend, a native Android client using Jetpack Compose, and a modern Next.js web application.

---

Key Capabilities

• Ephemeral Stories: 24-hour auto-expiring media stories with real-time viewer analytics, author-restricted viewer lists, and unread indicator rings.
• Direct Messaging (DM): Real-time 1:1 private conversations featuring unread counters, message snippets, and read receipt checkmarks.
• Interactive Feed and Posts: Dual feed modes (Following and Explore), live voting polls with real-time percentages, quote posts, multi-media attachments, nested comments, and optimistic bookmarking and liking.
• Discovery and Search: Full-text post content search, trending hashtags, and creator recommendations with instant follow actions.
• Security and User Profiles: Two-factor authentication (2FA TOTP), handle-based user queries, customizable banners, avatars, bios, and follower statistics.

---

Technical Stack

Component	Layer	Technologies
Serve	Backend API	Rust 2024, Axum 0.8, async-graphql 7.2, SQLx 0.9, Tokio, Tower-HTTP, Argon2, JWT, DataLoader
Vision	Web Client	Next.js 15 (App Router), React 19, TypeScript 5, Custom CSS Design System, Lucide Icons
Infrastructure	Database & Runtime	SQLite (Default for local development), PostgreSQL 16 Alpine, Podman / Docker Compose

---

Repository Structure

Ferro/
├── Serve/                         # Rust GraphQL Backend API
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   ├── podman-compose.yml         # Containerized PostgreSQL service
│   ├── compose.prod.yml           # Production Compose setup
│   ├── migrations/                # SQLx database schema migrations
│   ├── tests/                     # Integration tests
│   └── src/
│       ├── application/           # Application and business services
│       ├── domain/                # Entities, domain models, and error definitions
│       ├── graphql/               # GraphQL schema, queries, mutations, and resolvers
│       ├── infrastructure/        # Database pools, DataLoaders, security, and configuration
│       └── routes/                # Axum route handlers and health endpoints
│
└── Vision/                        # Next.js 15 Web Application
    ├── package.json
    ├── next.config.ts
    └── src/
        ├── app/                   # Next.js App Router pages and global design system
        ├── components/            # UI components and modals
        └── lib/                   # Auth context, Toast context, GraphQL client, types

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust: 1.80+ (Rust 2024 edition)
• Node.js: 20.x or later with npm
• Android Studio: Ladybug / Meerkat or compatible with Android SDK 35
• Container Engine (Optional): Podman or Docker

---

1. Running the Backend (Serve)

From the Serve directory:

# Start backend using SQLite (default)
cargo run --bin serve

• GraphQL Endpoint: http://localhost:8080/graphql
• GraphiQL Playground: http://localhost:8080/graphiql

To populate the database with seed data for testing:

cargo run --bin seed

---

2. Running the Web Client (Vision)

From the Vision directory:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 in your web browser.

---

3. Native Android Client (Vision/Android - Roadmap)

A native Android client using Jetpack Compose and MVI / Clean Architecture is planned. When available:

1. Open Vision/Android in Android Studio.
2. Sync the project with Gradle files.
3. Run on an Android Emulator (connected via http://10.0.2.2:8080/graphql).

---

License

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