25 Aug, 2025
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Building ShareBin: My Railway Hackathon Journey 🚀

Last week, I stumbled upon Railway’s User Hackathon announcement. $1000 prize for building something cool? Challenge accepted! With just a weekend to build something meaningful, I decided to create ShareBin - a privacy-focused alternative to pastebin that anyone can self-host. Here’s the story of how it came together.

The Idea 💡

We’ve all been there - you need to quickly share a code snippet with a colleague, send a config file to a friend, or paste some logs for debugging. Sure, there are plenty of pastebins out there, but most of them are:

Cluttered with ads
Tracking your every move
Requiring sign-ups for basic features
Not giving you control over your data

I wanted something different. Something clean, fast, and self-hosted. Something that respects privacy and just works. That’s how ShareBin was born.

The Challenge ⏰

Railway’s hackathon had specific requirements:

Build something between August 6-11
Create a deployable template
Write detailed content about it
Make it sophisticated enough to impress

With limited time and big ambitions, I had to be strategic. No over-engineering, no feature creep - just a solid MVP that solves a real problem.

Building ShareBin 🛠️

Day 1: Architecture & Setup

I started with a simple but robust architecture:

Frontend: Next.js 14 (because who doesn’t love React with superpowers?)
Backend: Express.js (simple, fast, battle-tested)
Database: PostgreSQL (Railway’s native database)

The beauty of this stack? It’s boring technology that just works. No fancy new frameworks to learn, no complex configurations - just solid tools that get the job done.

Day 2: Core Features

The MVP needed to nail the basics:

// The heart of ShareBin - generating unique IDs
function generateId() {
  return crypto.randomBytes(4).toString('hex');
}

Simple, right? But this little function powers the entire sharing mechanism. Each share gets a unique 8-character ID that’s practically impossible to guess.

I implemented:

Text sharing: Paste anything, get a link
File uploads: Up to 10MB, stored directly in PostgreSQL
Auto-expiration: 1 hour to never - your choice
View counting: Know how many times your share was accessed

Day 3: Making It Beautiful

A tool is only as good as its interface. I went with a modern glassmorphism design - those beautiful frosted glass effects that make everything look premium. Dark theme by default because, let’s be honest, we’re all developers here.

/* The magic of glassmorphism */
.card {
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
  backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  border: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2);
}

The result? A UI that looks like it belongs in 2025, not 2005.

Day 4: Railway Deployment

This is where Railway really shines. Deployment was literally:

Push to GitHub
Connect to Railway
Add environment variables
Done

No Docker configs, no Kubernetes yamls, no server management. Just pure developer happiness.

The Technical Deep Dive 🔧

Database Design

I kept it simple with a single table:

CREATE TABLE shares (
  id VARCHAR(8) PRIMARY KEY,
  content TEXT,
  filename VARCHAR(255),
  mimetype VARCHAR(100),
  file_data BYTEA,
  is_file BOOLEAN DEFAULT false,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  expires_at TIMESTAMP,
  views INTEGER DEFAULT 0
);

Files are stored as BYTEA directly in PostgreSQL. Is it the most scalable solution? No. Does it work perfectly for a self-hosted pastebin? Absolutely.

Security Considerations

Security wasn’t an afterthought:

SQL Injection Prevention: Parameterized queries everywhere
File Validation: Strict type and size checking
CORS Configuration: Properly configured for the frontend
Input Sanitization: Never trust user input

// Example of parameterized query
await pool.query(
  'INSERT INTO shares (id, content, expires_at) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)',
  [id, text, expiresAt]
);

Performance Optimizations

Even though it’s a hackathon project, I couldn’t help but optimize:

Automatic cleanup: Background job removes expired shares
Indexed queries: Database indexes on frequently queried fields
Efficient file handling: Streaming for large files
Next.js optimization: Static generation where possible

The Result 🎉

ShareBin is now live and ready for anyone to deploy. With Railway’s template system, you can have your own instance running in literally 5 minutes:

What Makes It Special?

Privacy First: Your data, your server, your rules
No Bloat: Just the features you need, nothing more
Beautiful Design: A UI that sparks joy
One-Click Deploy: Railway makes it ridiculously easy
Open Source: Fork it, modify it, make it yours

Lessons Learned 📚

What Went Right

Choosing boring technology: Next.js + Express + PostgreSQL = no surprises
Starting simple: MVP first, features later
Railway’s platform: Deployment was never a bottleneck
Time management: Setting daily goals kept me on track

What I’d Do Differently

Start with TypeScript: Type safety would have saved debugging time
Add tests earlier: Even basic tests would help with confidence
Better error handling: Some edge cases need more love
Redis caching: Would improve performance for popular shares

What’s Next? 🚀

ShareBin is just getting started. Here’s what’s on the roadmap:

Syntax highlighting: Automatic language detection for code
Password protection: Optional encryption for sensitive shares
S3 integration: For larger file support
API access: Let developers integrate ShareBin
Custom themes: Because everyone loves customization

The Open Source Journey

The code is open source and available on GitHub:

Contributions are welcome! Whether it’s fixing bugs, adding features, or improving documentation - every PR helps.

Try It Yourself!

Want to see ShareBin in action? You can:

Deploy your own instance: One-click deploy on Railway
Check the source code: Repos linked above
Contribute: Open issues, submit PRs, share ideas

Final Thoughts 💭

Building ShareBin for Railway’s hackathon was an incredible experience. In just 4 days, I went from idea to deployed product with real users. It reminded me why I love building things - the thrill of creating something useful from nothing but code and creativity.

Railway’s platform made the impossible possible. No wrestling with deployments, no server configuration nightmares - just pure focus on building. If you’re a developer who hasn’t tried Railway yet, you’re missing out.

ShareBin might not win the hackathon, but it’s already a winner in my book. It solves a real problem, it’s beautiful, and most importantly - it’s something I’m proud to have built.

Thank You 🙏

Big thanks to:

Railway for hosting this awesome hackathon
The open source community for the amazing tools
Everyone who tries ShareBin - you make it worthwhile

Have questions or feedback? Reach out on ahmedsidimohammed78@gmail.com or open an issue on GitHub. Happy sharing!

#Railway #Hackathon #NextJS #NodeJS #PostgreSQL #OpenSource #WebDev #SaaS

Building ShareBin: How I Created a Pastebin Alternative for Railway's Hackathon