Mini Message Board

A simple message board built with Express, EJS, and PostgreSQL where users can post short messages.

---

Features

• Add new messages via a simple form
• View messages on the home page
• Persistent storage with PostgreSQL (no data loss on server restart)
• Express routing with EJS templates

---

Tech Stack

• Node.js & Express for the backend
• express-validator for server side validation
• EJS for server-side templates
• Lucide Icons for inline SVG icons
• dotenv for loading environment variables
• PostgreSQL for data storage
• node-postgres PostgreSQL client for Node.js

---

Database Setup

This project uses PostgreSQL for message storage.

1. Create a new database (e.g. mini_message_board):

   CREATE DATABASE mini_message_board;

2. Add your PostgreSQL credentials to a .env file in the project root:

   PGUSER=your_username
   PGPASSWORD=your_password
   PGHOST=localhost
   PGPORT=5432
   PGDATABASE="mini_message_board"
   

---

Populate the Database

A helper script db/seedDB.js is included to create the table and insert initial data. Run it with your Postgres connection string as the argument:

node db/seedDB.js "postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/mini_message_board"

Development

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Start the app:

   npm run start

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

Icon Credits

Icons used in this project are sourced from Lucide Icons and embedded as raw SVG for and customization.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.