Social Network Apps
By Daniel Abebe, co-founder of HuggyStudio
Social Networks serve the main purpose of connecting people or businesses together. Most of the time, they are built to scale and have a business model focused on ad revenues. Their form and target audience can vary greatly. Famous examples include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Linkedin.
In this guide, we take you through the creation of the data structure for a social network like LinkedIn called “NoCodeLinkedin”. Good to know: NoCodeLinkedin is a real use case built on Bubble.io that you can check out here: https://nocodelinkedin.com/.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn, here is a quick introduction into our use case with an overview of the basic functionality:
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. LinkedIn helps professionals find talent, job opportunities, stay in touch with their contacts and extend their network.
Basic functionality includes:
Sign up / Log in
Edit profile (Name, Bio, Headline, Experience)
Connection requests (Send, accept, ignore)
Create a new post
React to a post (Like, Celebrate, Support, …)
Comment on a post
Private chats
Notifications
Data types recommended
After signing up, users will edit their profile and start sending connection requests. Later on, users will create posts and will scroll through the latest activity of his/her network. Last but not least, the user will also react and comment on other users’ posts. The data structure we are creating needs to take all of these actions into account.
User (default)
The Data Type “User” is by default already available on any Bubble app. It helps you handle user authentication. As a rule of thumb, if someone needs to signup/login to your platform, this person is considered to be a User. In our case, all NoCodeLinkedin profiles are actual Users.
Suggested fields on this type
email (text) - this is a built-in field, i.e. it’s already there for you
Modified date (date) - also a built-in field
Created date (date) - also a built-in field
First name (text)
Last name (text)
Profile picture (image)
Headline (text)
Bio (text)
Invitations (list of invitations): Connection requests received
Chats (list of chats): Actual chats that this specific user has with other users
Notifications (list of notifications): Notifications received about relevant activities
Privacy rules for this data type
This User is Current User
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (checked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Everyone else
View all fields (unchecked)
First name (checked)
Last name (checked)
Profile picture (checked)
Headline (checked)
Bio (checked)
Experiences (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Experience
The Data Type “Experience” is used to store working experience on a user profile; each record is a separate past work experience for a given user.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Company (text): In the real LinkedIn, this would be another Data Type that holds all information about the company
Company Logo (image)
Current position? (yes/no): When this is true, the job experience will need no end date
Job title (text)
Description (text)
Location (geographic address)
Start date (date)
End date (date)
Privacy rules for this data type
No privacy rules → All Working Experiences are visible to all users when looking at a profile. If you want to be restrictive, you could add a Privacy Rules to make it only visible to Logged in Users.
Post
The data type Post holds all the information about a user post. Note, a user can add an image to a post.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Text (text)
Image (image)
Comments (list of Comments): Comments made under this specific post
Reactions (list of Reactions): Reactions on this specific post
Activities (list of Activities): This is a combined list of all comments and reactions made on this specific post
Tagged users (list of User): Users that are tagged on this post
Privacy rules for this data type
No privacy rules → All Posts are visible to all users. They don’t necessarily show on the user's feed but they should be accessible to all.
Comment
The data type “Comment” holds all the information about a user comment.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Text (text)
Post (post): We link this Comment back to the Post to avoid orphaned comments (a comment saved in the database with no link to a post).
Likes (list of Users): We can show the number of Likes by simply showing the count of Users in this list.
Privacy rules for this data type
No privacy rules → All Comments are visible to all users when looking at a Post (likes, comments, …)
Activity
The data type “Activity” holds all the information about a post reaction (incl. comment).
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Activity Type (Activity Option Set): There are different types of “Activity Type” that we can pick from in our Option Sets.
Post (post): We link this Activity back to the Post to avoid orphaned Activities (an Activity saved in the database with no link to a post).
Reaction Type (Reaction Option Set): There are different types of “Reaction Type” that we can pick from in our Option Sets.
Comment (Comment): If this activity was a comment, we will link back to the comment. If not, this field will be empty.
Privacy rules for this data type
No privacy rules → All Activities are visible to all users when looking at a Post (likes, comments, …)
Notification
The data type “Notification” is necessary to better organize notifications and offer a better User Experience on the platform.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Receiver (User)
Activity (Activity): We link back to the activity to enrich the Notification message and give more context to the receiver. With that link back to an Activity, we can also go back to the Post on which that activity took place. Linking back to this activity creates several possible call-to-actions.
Read? (yes/no): We store this value to know if the Receiver has unread notifications or whether he/she is up to date.
Privacy rules for this data type
This Notification’s Receiver is Current User
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (unchecked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
This Notification’s Creator is Current User → The sender should see if an invitation is already pending
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (unchecked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Everyone else
No permission
Chat
The Data Type “Chat” is used to store messages between users so that we can easily display a relevant discussion as a thread of messages.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Users (list of Users)
Messages (list of Messages)
Privacy rules for this data type
This Chat’s Users contains Current User
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (checked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Everyone else
No permission
Message
The Data Type “Message” is used to store text messages sent between users. A message doesn’t need to hold information about the message receiver as it is saved in a chat that holds that information already.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Text (text)
Chat (chat): We link this Message back to the Chat to avoid orphaned Messages (a Message saved in the database with no link to a Chat).
Viewed? (yes/no): We store this value to know if the receiver has unread messages or whether he/she is up to date.
Privacy rules for this data type
This Message’s Chat’s Users contains Current User
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (checked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Everyone else
No permission
Invitation
The Data Type “Invitation” is used to store connection requests. This data type makes it possible to confirm a connection request before connecting two users together.
Suggested fields on this type
Creator (User, built-in)
Modified date (date, built-in)
Created date (date, built-in)
Slug (text, built-in)
Receiver (User)
Note (text): A user can send a note with the connection request.
Status (Invite Status Option Set): This status is “pending” by default as all connection requests need to be approved. The user can then accept or ignore the request, which will change this status.
Privacy rules for this data type
This Invitation’s creator is Current User OR This Invitation’s Receiver is Current User
View all fields (checked)
Find this in search (checked)
View attached files (unchecked)
Allow auto-binding (unchecked)
Everyone else
No permission
Option sets recommended
Activity Type
Posted
Commented
Reacted
Reaction Type
Like
Celebrate
Support
Love
Insightful
Curious
Invite Status
Pending
Accepted
Ignored
Additional notes
When naming your options sets, data types and fields, we recommend using simple terms you will remember over time. Also, avoid repetition in your names as it will make it difficult to work efficiently when building your workflows. Finally, keep in mind that working with data is an ongoing process. Start small, adjust when necessary and improve as your product grows in terms of users and/or complexity.
About HuggyStudio
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