Glense

A microservice-based video streaming platform built with .NET 8, React, and PostgreSQL.

Architecture

                        ┌─────────────────┐
                        │    Frontend      │
                        │   (React/Vite)   │
                        └────────┬─────────┘
                                 │
                      ┌──────────▼──────────────┐
                      │      API Gateway        │
                      │      YARP :5050         │
                      │                         │
                      │ /api/auth/*    → Account │
                      │ /api/profile/* → Account │
                      │ /api/videos/*  → Video   │
                      │ /api/donation/*→ Donation│
                      │ /api/chats/*   → Chat    │
                      │ /hubs/chat     → Chat(WS)│
                      └──┬───┬───┬───┬──────────┘
           ┌─────────────┘   │   │   └──────────┐
           ▼                 ▼   ▼              ▼
    ┌─────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐
    │   Account   │  │  Donation  │  │    Video    │  │    Chat     │
    │    :5001    │  │   :5100    │  │  Catalogue  │  │    :5004    │
    │             │  │            │  │    :5002    │  │             │
    │ Auth        │  │ Wallets    │  │ Upload      │  │ Rooms       │
    │ Profiles    │  │ Donations  │  │ Comments    │  │ Messages    │
    │ Notifs      │  │            │  │ Playlists   │  │ SignalR     │
    │ gRPC server │  │            │  │ gRPC client │  │             │
    └──────┬──────┘  └──────┬─────┘  └──────┬──────┘  └─────────────┘
           │                │               │
           │         ┌──────┴──────┐        │
           │         │  RabbitMQ   │        │
           │         │ :5672/:15672│        │
           │         └─────────────┘        │
           │                                │
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ──── Donation        wallet create on registration
           │◄─── HTTP ──────── Donation        validate recipient
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ──── Donation        donation notification
           │◄─── gRPC ──────────────── Video   resolve usernames
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ─────────── Video    subscription notification

Services

Service	Port	Database	What it does
API Gateway (YARP)	5050	--	Routes all requests, CORS whitelist, health checks
Account	5001 (REST), 5003 (gRPC)	PostgreSQL :5432	Auth, profiles, notifications, user search, gRPC username server
Video Catalogue	5002	PostgreSQL :5433	Upload, search, comments, playlists, subscriptions
Donation	5100	PostgreSQL :5434	Wallets, donations, balance transfers
Chat	5004	PostgreSQL :5435	Chat rooms, messages, real-time via SignalR
RabbitMQ	5672 / 15672	--	Async event broker (MassTransit)

Inter-service communication

Flow	Protocol	Why
Wallet creation on registration	Account → Donation via RabbitMQ	Fire-and-forget
Donation notifications	Donation → Account via RabbitMQ	Async, doesn't block payment
Subscription notifications	Video → Account via RabbitMQ	Async
Recipient validation	Donation → Account via HTTP	Sync check before transfer
Username resolution	Video → Account via gRPC	High-perf batch lookups (Protobuf)

All inter-service calls (HTTP and gRPC) are authenticated with a shared API key (INTERNAL_API_KEY).

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Docker or Podman
• Node.js v22 (for frontend)

1. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your secrets (defaults work for local dev)

2. Start everything

# Using the dev script:
./dev.sh

# Or manually:
docker compose up --build -d

3. Start the frontend

cd glense.client && npm install && npm run dev

Verify it works

# Health checks
curl http://localhost:5050/health          # Gateway
curl http://localhost:5001/health          # Account
curl http://localhost:5002/health          # Video
curl http://localhost:5100/health          # Donation
curl http://localhost:5004/health          # Chat

# Register + login
curl -X POST http://localhost:5050/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"test","email":"test@test.com","password":"Password123!"}'

curl -X POST http://localhost:5050/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernameOrEmail":"test","password":"Password123!"}'

Seed test data

./scripts/seed.sh

Creates 3 users (password: Password123!): keki, irena, branko -- each with $500 wallets.

Other commands

./dev.sh down          # Stop everything
./dev.sh restart       # Clean restart + seed
./dev.sh logs          # Follow all logs
./dev.sh logs gateway  # Follow one service
./dev.sh prune         # Wipe everything (containers, volumes, images)

Configuration

All secrets live in .env (gitignored). The .env.example template shows every variable:

Variable	Used by	Purpose
JWT_SECRET_KEY	All services	JWT token signing (min 32 chars)
JWT_ISSUER / JWT_AUDIENCE	All services	Token validation
INTERNAL_API_KEY	Account, Video, Donation	Service-to-service auth
POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD	All databases	DB credentials
RABBITMQ_USER / RABBITMQ_PASS	RabbitMQ + consumers	Broker credentials
*_DB_CONNECTION_STRING	Each service	Full Npgsql connection string

Services read from environment variables first, then fall back to appsettings.json.

Security

• CORS: All services restrict origins to a configurable whitelist (default: localhost:5173, :3000, :50653, :50654)
• JWT: BCrypt password hashing, 7-day token expiry, validated on all services
• Inter-service auth: gRPC and HTTP calls between services require INTERNAL_API_KEY header
• Secrets: No credentials in code or config files -- all in .env (gitignored)

Search

The platform supports searching across videos and channels from a single search bar.

Backend: GET /api/videos/search?q={query}&category={category}

• Searches video titles and descriptions (case-insensitive, DB-level filtering)
• Optional category parameter to narrow results
• Returns videos with resolved uploader usernames (via gRPC)

Swagger docs

Service	URL
Account	http://localhost:5001/swagger
Video Catalogue	http://localhost:5002/swagger
Donation	http://localhost:5100
Chat	http://localhost:5004/swagger

Development

# Setup pre-commit hook for C# formatting
./scripts/setup-hooks.sh

# Setup git pp branch prefixes
./scripts/setup-pp.sh yourname

PRs require at least one approval before merge.