Socialflow/replit.md

# Social Flow - AI-Powered Social Media Management Platform

## Overview

Social Flow is a comprehensive social media automation platform designed to streamline content creation and publication across Facebook and Instagram. It enables users to manage multiple social media pages, generate AI-powered post content, process and optimize media for different platform formats, and schedule posts with automated publishing. The platform aims to automate the entire social media content workflow, from creation to publication, utilizing AI for text generation and intelligent media formatting tailored for platform-specific requirements. Key capabilities include multi-photo carousel posts with drag-and-drop reordering, a preview modal for realistic platform rendering, and an integrated media library.

## User Preferences

Preferred communication style: Simple, everyday language.

## System Architecture

### Frontend Architecture

The frontend is built with **React** and **TypeScript**, using **Vite** for bundling. **Wouter** handles client-side routing, including protected routes. State management primarily uses **TanStack Query (React Query)** for server state and caching. UI components are built with **Radix UI primitives** and **shadcn/ui** (New York style), styled with **Tailwind CSS**. The design emphasizes a component-based structure, custom path aliases, responsive design with a mobile-first approach, and real-time data synchronization. Dark mode is the default theme.

### Backend Architecture

The backend runs on **Node.js** with **Express.js**, fully implemented in **TypeScript**. It follows a **RESTful API design** with clear endpoints for authentication, user management, AI content generation, media handling, social page management, and post scheduling. **Multer** is used for file uploads, integrating with Cloudinary for cloud storage. **Node-cron** handles background processing for scheduled post publication. Architectural patterns include a service layer (e.g., OpenRouterService, CloudinaryService), storage abstraction, and a middleware-based request processing pipeline. Session management is handled by `express-session`, using `MemoryStore` for development and `connect-pg-simple` with PostgreSQL for production.

### Database Architecture

**PostgreSQL** is the chosen database, utilizing **Drizzle ORM** for type-safe operations and **Neon serverless driver** for WebSocket support. The schema includes core tables for `users`, `cloudinary_config`, `social_pages`, `media`, `posts`, `post_media` (for multi-photo carousels with display order), `scheduled_posts`, and `ai_generations`. Enumerations define `platform`, `post_type`, `post_status`, and `media_type`. Relationships are defined with foreign key cascading deletes for data integrity. **Drizzle Kit** manages schema migrations.

### Media Processing Pipeline

The platform leverages **Cloudinary** for cloud-based image and video storage and transformation. Original files are uploaded to Cloudinary, which then automatically generates transformation URLs for various platform-specific formats (e.g., Facebook Feed: 1200x630px, Instagram Feed: 1080x1080px, Instagram Story: 1080x1920px). These public IDs and transformation URLs are stored in the database, allowing optimized images to be served via Cloudinary's CDN.

### Authentication & Authorization

Authentication uses **Passport.js** with local strategy and `bcrypt` for password hashing. User roles (`admin`, `user`) control access, with `admin` having full access and `user` limited to publishing features. Session management is via `express-session` with HTTP-only cookies, `sameSite: 'lax'`, and a 7-day duration, secured by a `SESSION_SECRET` environment variable. Routes are protected on both the backend (middleware `requireAuth`, `requireAdmin`) and frontend (`ProtectedRoute` component).

### UI/UX Decisions

The UI is built with **Radix UI** and **shadcn/ui**, leveraging **Tailwind CSS** for styling. The default theme is dark mode. Key design decisions include a component-based architecture for reusability, custom path aliases, and a responsive, mobile-first approach. The platform supports multi-photo carousel posts with drag-and-drop reordering, and a **PreviewModal** offers realistic rendering of posts across Facebook and Instagram formats before publishing. The calendar view is responsive, with a grid layout for desktop and an expandable list view for mobile, allowing editing and deletion of scheduled posts directly from the calendar.

## External Dependencies

### AI Content Generation

- **OpenRouter API**: Used for AI text generation, specifically with Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet, to create multiple post text variations. Requires `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`.

### Cloud Storage

- **Cloudinary**: Provides cloud-based image and video storage, automatic transformations for platform-specific formats, and a global CDN. User-configurable via settings.

### Social Media APIs

- **Facebook Graph API**: Intended for publishing posts to Facebook pages.
- **Instagram Graph API**: Intended for publishing posts and stories to Instagram.
(Both integrations are prepared but not fully implemented in the codebase.)

### Database Service

- **Neon Serverless PostgreSQL**: The primary database service, utilizing a WebSocket-based connection pooling and the `@neondatabase/serverless` driver. Connection string via `DATABASE_URL`.

### UI Component Libraries

- **Radix UI**: Accessible UI primitives.
- **React Hook Form**: Form state management with validation.
- **Zod**: Schema validation.
- **date-fns**: Date manipulation.
- **react-dropzone**: Drag-and-drop file uploads.
- **Lucide React**: Icon library.
- **@dnd-kit**: Drag and drop functionality for photo carousel reordering.