Case study / Project archive
Connect the Dots
A container integration exercise connecting API, database, object storage, and reverse proxy.
Historical project; AI-assisted development. Individual and team contribution has not been independently verified.
The idea
The problem
Practice the real integration boundary between browser uploads, API validation, metadata persistence, object storage, and container routing.
The implementation
What I built
The source implements the integration boundary between browser upload, API validation, object storage, metadata persistence, and container routing.
- Node.js
- MongoDB
- MinIO
- Docker
Features
- Upload multipart files to MinIO and return a retrievable object path.
- Stream a stored object back with its content type and length.
- Create and list metadata records through a separate API route.
Architecture
- React frontend and Express API run alongside MongoDB, MinIO, and an Nginx reverse proxy in Docker Compose.
- File bytes go to object storage while metadata uses a MongoDB model; upload middleware applies a 50 MiB file-size limit.
Engineering decisions
- Keep file storage and metadata persistence in separate services with explicit API routes.
Validation and measured results
- Source reviewed on 15 October 2026. The application and its external integrations were not executed in this review.
- Inspected upload/download, metadata routes, and Compose service definitions. The 50 MiB upload setting is a code limit, not a measured throughput result.
Limits and unfinished work
- Container startup, object round-trip behavior, access controls, and failure recovery were not rerun in this review.
- Older source can contain superseded descriptions. Numerical impact, adoption, awards, and deployment claims are not carried into this entry.
Evidence and sources
- Reviewed source and implementation
Public README and selected implementation files; source inspection only, without a reproduced runtime or benchmark. Inspected files: backend/src/routes/file.js, backend/src/routes/metadata.js, docker-compose.yml.