Project Summary
Imaginify was built to provide users with an intuitive, AI-driven image transformation platform. With resources from a comprehensive YouTube tutorial by Javascript Mastery, I built this full-stack SaaS application to demonstrate a seamless journey from user authentication and authorization through to secure credit purchases and advanced image editing. Through a diverse set of AI-powered features and a robust application infrastructure, Imaginify was a great addition my portfolio.
Project Goals and Challenges
The primary goal of Imaginify was to deliver a secure, scalable SaaS platform that could showcase a suite of AI-driven image editing features while managing user access and monetization. I built a polished user experience that combined secure authentication flows with real-time credit and image generation, ensuring users could engage with each transformation without interruption.
Several challenges arose during development. Integrating a variety of AI endpoints demanded centralized API handlers capable of routing requests to the correct microservice. Designing a credits system tied to Stripe purchases required careful setup between front-end state updates and server-side webhook handling. Ensuring performant uploads and downloads via Cloudinary meant optimizing image delivery and leveraging automatic format conversion. Finally, I implemented rate limiting and security features to safeguard both user data and AI service usage against abuse.
Tech Stack Overview
On the front end, Imaginify is powered by Next.js and TypeScript, with TailwindCSS and Shadcn UI components driving the responsive and accessible interface. The back end consists of Node.js API routes, MongoDB for persistent data storage, and Clerk for seamless, secure authentication and route protection. All media assets and AI-processed images are stored and delivered through Cloudinary, which handles transformations and optimizations automatically. Stripe integration enables users to purchase credits via a secure checkout flow, while Vercel and GitHub provides streamlined deployment, environment configuration, and continuous integration for a fullstack codebase.
Core Features
Authentication
Imaginify leverages Clerk to manage user registration, login, and protected routes with ease. Clerk's SDK simplifies session handling on both the client and server, ensuring that only authenticated users can initiate image transformations or access their personal profiles.
Community Image Showcase
A key social feature is the community gallery, where users can browse paginated collections of AI transformations submitted by others. By fetching data server-side and paginating on the client, the gallery remains performant while encouraging exploration of Imaginify’s full capabilities.
Advanced Image Search
To help users find relevant examples, I built an advanced AI search interface that queries image metadata and AI-generated tags. Utilizing Google AI tagging via Cloudinary, the search supports queries based on objects or scene content, enabling users to quickly locate examples of restoration, object removal, and more.
AI-Powered Transformations
Imaginify provides five main transformation modes provided through Cloudinary:
- Restoration breathes new life into old or damaged photographs by reconstructing missing details and improving image quality.
- Recoloring allows users to recolor specific areas and objects and apply custom color palettes.
- Generative Fill seamlessly expands images or incomplete regions guided by AI context.
- Object Removal precisely eliminates unwanted elements from an image whilst preserving surrounding detail.
- Background Removal isolates subjects against a transparent backdrop for easy compositing and image editing.
Credits and Payments
Imaginify's monetization model offers both free starter credits upon account creation and additional credits for purchase. On the profile page, users see their real-time balance, which updates immediately after checkout. The Stripe integration follows best practices: payment sessions are generated securely on the server, and Stripe webhooks automatically credit user accounts once transactions complete, ensuring no discrepancy between front-end displays and back-end records.
Image Management
Users can view, download, delete, or re-run any of their past transformations directly from their profile page. This centralized management interface not only enhances usability but also demonstrates the power of combining CRUD operations, secure file access via Cloudinary, and clear UI feedback.
Key Learnings and Takeaways
Building Imaginify taught me to utilize multiple microservices into a coherent, user-friendly application. I refined my ability to structure APIs for diverse AI endpoints, ensuring code reusability and a scalable codebase. Integrating Stripe for a credit-based payment model deepened my understanding of secure transaction flows and real-time account updates. Finally, the project reinforced best practices in full-stack architecture—melding server-side rendering, client interactivity, and third-party services into a maintainable application ready for future expansion.