📧 Personal Email Backup Tool (using Microsoft Graph API + MERN stack)

A full-stack MERN application designed to fetch and back up your Microsoft 365 emails that have attachments. It provides a simple web interface to connect to your account, list relevant emails, and save them to a MongoDB database.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• MongoDB: NoSQL database for storing email backups.
• Express.js: Backend framework for the server-side API.
• React.js: Frontend library for building the user interface.
• Node.js: JavaScript runtime environment for the backend.
• Vite: Frontend tooling for a fast development experience.
• PNPM: Fast, disk space-efficient package manager.

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⚙️ Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get the application up and running on your local machine.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed on your system:

• Node.js (v18 or later recommended)
• PNPM
• MongoDB

Installation & Setup

1. Clone the Repository

   Clone this project to your local machine.

   git clone https://github.com/bhattaraiprayag/mern-email-backup
   cd mern-email-backup

2. Install Dependencies

   Install the project dependencies for both the client and server using pnpm in the root directory.

   pnpm install

3. Start Your MongoDB Server

   Before launching the app, you need a running MongoDB instance. Create a directory for the database and then start the server. Run these commands from the project's root directory:

   # Create a directory to store database files
   mkdir -p mongodb/data
   
   # Start the MongoDB server on a specific port (e.g., 27018)
   mongod --dbpath $(pwd)/mongodb/data --port 27018

   Keep this terminal window open.

4. Run the Application

   In a new terminal window (from the project root), start both the backend and frontend servers concurrently with a single command:

   pnpm run dev

   • The backend API will be running on http://localhost:5001.
   • The frontend React app will be available at http://localhost:5173.

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📖 How to Use the App

1. Open the App

   Navigate to http://localhost:5173 in your web browser.

2. Get Your Credentials

   You'll need two things for the initial setup page:

   • Microsoft Graph Access Token:

     • Go to the Microsoft Graph Explorer.
     • Sign in with your Microsoft account.
     • Ensure you have granted permissions for at least Mail.Read.
     • Copy the Access Token. Note: This token is short-lived (usually valid for 1 hour).

   • MongoDB Connection URI:

     • Since you started a local MongoDB server in the previous step, your URI will be: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27018/email_backups

3. Connect and Backup

   • Paste the Graph Access Token and the MongoDB URI into the input fields on the setup page and click Connect.
   • If the connection is successful, you will be directed to the dashboard, which lists all emails from your account that contain attachments.
   • From here, you can select emails and click Backup Selected or back them up individually.
   • You can view the contents of an already backed-up email by clicking on its title. ✨