iAlerta – Back-end

Overview

This repository contains the back-end of iAlerta, responsible for receiving content in multiple formats, performing text extraction and normalization, and integrating with AI services to detect AI-generated content.

The application was designed with a strong focus on data processing pipelines, clean architecture and software quality.

---

Technologies

• Node.js
• Express
• Docker

Project Architecture

The codebase follows a clear responsibility-driven structure:

src/
├── config/            # Application and environment configurations
├── controllers/       # HTTP controllers (request/response handling)
├── exceptions/        # Custom application errors and exception handling
├── services/          # Business logic and AI integrations
├── middlewares/       # Request middlewares (upload, validation, auth)
├── routes/            # API route definitions
├── utils/             # Utility functions (parsing, normalization, helpers)
├── tests/             # Unit and integration tests
├── uploads/           # Uploaded files and temporary storage

---

Processing Pipeline

1. Content is received via HTTP request

2. File type and size validation

3. Text extraction:

   • PDFs: pdf-parse
   • Plain text: direct reading

4. Text normalization for consistent analysis

5. Content analysis via Hugging Face APIs

6. Results returned to the front-end

---

Middlewares

• File upload handling
• Validation and sanitization
• Text extraction pipeline
• Centralized error handling

---

AI Integration

• Integration with Hugging Face APIs
• Decoupled service layer for AI providers
• Easy extension to support additional models or services

---

Testing Strategy

• Unit tests for services and utilities
• Integration tests for main API routes
• End-to-end validation of the processing pipeline

---

Infrastructure & Deployment

• Docker-based containerization
• Automated CI/CD pipelines
• Continuous deployment on Google Cloud

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have Node.js (v18 or higher) installed on your machine.

You can download it from: https://nodejs.org

To verify the installation:

node -v
npm -v

---

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ryannardelli/IAlerta_back_end.git

---

2. Navigate to the project directory

cd IAlerta_back_end

---

3. Install dependencies

npm install

---

4. Run the application

npm run dev

Roadmap

• Result caching
• Monitoring and logging
• Support for additional AI models