LnkZoo 🌌

LnkZoo is a modern, high-performance community platform designed for sharing, discussing, and discovering the best links on the web. Built with cutting-edge web technologies, it features a premium glassmorphism UI and a highly interactive, customizable particle physics engine.

🚀 Key Features

• Advanced Discovery Engine: Navigate the web through tags, community leaderboards, or spin the Internet Roulette for an automated, auto-playing slideshow of top-tier content.
• Premium Interactive UI: Experience a sleek dark-mode interface with glassmorphism, dynamic scaling, and a fully customizable "antigravity" background particle system that reacts to your cursor.
• Robust Social Features: Follow users, track streaks, and earn verification badges. Dive deep into infinite nested comment threads with real-time upvoting and downvoting.
• Cloudinary Image Cropping: Seamlessly upload and crop high-quality avatar and cover images directly from your profile, stored securely via Cloudinary.
• Curated Topics Taxonomy: 60 pre-defined topics organized under categories — every link must be assigned a topic, keeping the feed organised.
• URL Shortener: On-demand short links with tracking, auto-expire after 24 hours, rate-limited (10/min guests, 30/min users).
• Admin Analytics Dashboard: Sectioned dashboard with d3-based charts, global time-range selector (7D/30D/90D/All), gap-filled daily series, and empty-state handling.
• Smart Search & Tag Graphing: Find exactly what you're looking for with instantaneous search and explore dynamic relationships between content tags.
• Authentication: Secure JWT-based session management with support for Google OAuth and standard credential logins.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js 16 (App Router), React 19, Custom HTML5 Canvas (Physics Engine)
• Styling: Vanilla CSS with modern variables and Glassmorphism techniques
• Backend: Next.js API Routes (Serverless)
• Database: PostgreSQL (Neon Serverless)
• Image Management: Cloudinary API & react-easy-crop
• Authentication: Custom JWT Session Management

⚙️ Local Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lnkzoo.git
   cd lnkzoo

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Configure Environment Variables: Create a .env file in the root directory and add the following:

   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@host/db
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
   NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3000
   
   # Google OAuth (Optional)
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_google_client_secret
   GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost:3000/api/auth/google/callback
   
   # Cloudinary Keys (For image uploads)
   CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://key:secret@cloudname
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret

4. Initialize Database: Run the provided schema in database/init.sql against your PostgreSQL database to set up the required tables.

5. Start the Development Server:

   npm run dev

   Open http://localhost:3000 to view the application in your browser.

🎨 Customizing the Background Physics

You can customize the density, speed, repulsion, and visibility of the background particles in real-time. Simply click the Settings icon located in the bottom-left of the sidebar to access the advanced visual controls. These settings are saved locally to your device.