Create multiple user login system with personal messages

Question

I want to create a multi user login system with private messages. I created the theory in JavaScript (just for sketching out the theory and functionalities), and I wonder if I am on the right track. Of course I will change it to a backend language later on with all the validations, this is purely for sketching.

// User database simulation
var users = [];

var defaultUser = {
    'rights': 1, /* 0 - 3: 0 is banned, 1 is default, 2 is moderator, 3 is admin */
  'activated': false,
  'createdAt': null,
  'updatedAt': null,
  'username': null,
  'userId': null,
  'email': null,
  'pass': null, /* will be encrypted */
  'profile': {
    'sex': null,
    'age': null,
    'avatar': null,
    'updatedAt': null,
  },
  'messages': {
    'inbox': [],
    'outbox': [],
    'trash': [],
    'drafts': []
  }
};

var defaultMessage = {
    'id': null, 
    'date': null,
    'from': null,
    'to': null,
    'message': null
};

var userManagement = {
    'register': function(username, email, pass){
        var user = $.extend({}, defaultUser);
        user.username = username;
        user.email = email;
        user.pass = pass;
        user.userId = username + '_' + Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
        // If everything is valid, register:
        // User database insert simulation
        users.push(user);
        console.log('Registered', user);
  },
    'login': function(username, pass) {
    // User database query simulation
    for(var i = 0, l = users.length; i < l; i++) {
        var user = users[i];
          if(user.username === username) {
        if(user.pass === pass) {
            console.log('Logged in', user);
        } else {
            console.log('Pass incorrect');
        }
      } else {
        console.log('User not found');
      }
    }
  },
  'forgotUsername': function(email) {
    // User database query simulation
    for(var i = 0, l = users.length; i < l; i++) {
        var user = users[i];
      if(user.email === email) {
        console.log('username ['+ user.username +'] send to ' + user.email);
      } else {
        console.log('User not found');
      }
    }   
  },
  'forgotPass': function(username) {
    // User database query simulation
    for(var i = 0, l = users.length; i < l; i++) {
        var user = users[i];
      if(user.username === username) {
        console.log('pass from user ['+ user.username +'] send to ' + user.email);
      } else {
        console.log('User not found');
      }
    }   
  },
  'getUserById': function(userId){
    var key;
    for(var i = 0, l = users.length; i < l; i++) {
        var user = users[i];
      if(user.userId === userId) {
        return user;    
      }
    }
    return null;
  },
  'getUserByUsername': function(username){
    for(var i = 0, l = users.length; i < l; i++) {
        var user = users[i];
      if(user.username === username) {
        return user;    
      }
    }
    return null;
  }
  /* TODO: updateProfile, activate */
}

var message = {
    'send': function(fromUserId, toUserId, msg){
    var sender = userManagement.getUserById(fromUserId);
    var receiver = userManagement.getUserById(toUserId);
    var message = $.extend({}, defaultMessage);
    message.id = fromUserId + '_' + Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
    message.from = sender.username;
    message.fromUserId = fromUserId;
    message.to = receiver.username
    message.toUserId = toUserId;
    message.message = msg;
    message.date = new Date();
    sender.messages.outbox.push(message);
    receiver.messages.inbox.push(message);
  }
  /* TODO: delete, move etc. */
}

userManagement.register('barry', 'barry@test.nl', 'bcf2ibc');
userManagement.register('john', 'john@test.nl', 'bahjscb');

userManagement.login('test', 'blabla'); // fail
userManagement.login('barry', 'blabla'); // fail
userManagement.login('barry', 'bcf2ibc'); // success
userManagement.login('John', 'bahjscb'); // success
//userManagement.forgotPass('barry');

var barry = userManagement.getUserByUsername('barry');
var john = userManagement.getUserByUsername('John');

message.send(barry.userId, john.userId, 'My test message.');
message.send(barry.userId, john.userId, 'You received my previous message?');
message.send(john.userId, barry.userId, 'Yes I did received them.');

console.log(users);

JS Fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/vmjs1n9n/12/

They way I setup the private message per user, is that a good thing to do? I would appreciate advice on the rest as well!

Answer 1

It's a start, if your primary intent is to facilitate private messages, then yes, private message per user is a good thing to do.

My first thoughts, you know you are re-inventing the wheel right? If I was given this as a business requirement I would integrate with an existing messaging service or protocol rather than have to deal with the long term management of this kind of data. Even authentication, in this day you should be attempting to implement some kind of open authentication standard, like OAuth, again to reduce the amount effort you need to spend to get this off the ground and keep it running long term.

I normally wouldn't put message data physically into the sender's outbox and then into the receivers inbox as well, primarily because your data storage would be double, but I guess like email, routing copies of the original message would make management of the messages really simple, whilst making it hard to accidentally give one user access to another's messages.

Here because you are prototyping, it's hard to provide decent comments because you have already alluded to the fact that you will do things differently in the backend so I don't want to second guess where you have already decided to go with this. For a simple system like this the UI should be really lite, with the logic in the backend, the specific logic is where I would like to provide future comments and insights.