Fix MongoDB connection and remove deprecated options - Remove deprecated useNewUrlParser and useUnifiedTopology options - Add error handling for missing MONGODB_URI environment variable - Only load dotenv in non-production environments

Author: E1iteCoder

src/server/db.js

@@ -2,12 +2,16 @@ const mongoose = require('mongoose');
 
 const connect = async () => {
   try {
-    const mongoURI = process.env.MONGODB_URI || 'mongodb://localhost:27017/abugida';
+    const mongoURI = process.env.MONGODB_URI;
 
-    await mongoose.connect(mongoURI, {
-      useNewUrlParser: true,
-      useUnifiedTopology: true,
-    });
+    if (!mongoURI) {
+      console.error('MONGODB_URI environment variable is not set!');
+      console.error('Please set MONGODB_URI in Railway environment variables.');
+      process.exit(1);
+    }
+    
+    // Remove deprecated options - they're not needed in Mongoose 6+
+    await mongoose.connect(mongoURI);
 
     console.log('MongoDB connected successfully');
   } catch (error) {

src/server/server.js

@@ -3,8 +3,11 @@ const cors = require('cors');
 const mongoose = require('mongoose');
 const path = require('path');
 
-// Load environment variables from project root
-require('dotenv').config({ path: path.join(__dirname, '../../.env') });
+// Load environment variables from project root (for local development only)
+// In Railway, environment variables are set directly, so this is optional
+if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production') {
+  require('dotenv').config({ path: path.join(__dirname, '../../.env') });
+}
 
 const authRoutes = require('./routes/auth');