Meet - Scalable Event Platform for the Java Noroeste Community

Meet is a production-grade event management platform built from the ground up for the Java Noroeste community. Developed entirely solo, it showcases modern software engineering and architectural practices—from clean modular design and robust authentication to payment integrations and automated certificate generation.

Vision

The goal behind Meet was to create a community-first platform that simplifies how organizers and participants interact, from event discovery and registration to check-in and post-event certificates, all while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability, security, and maintainability.

Architectural Overview

Meet follows a Clean Architecture foundation, combined with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles. Each layer, domain, application, infrastructure, and presentation, remains independent and testable, ensuring long-term maintainability and clear boundaries of responsibility.

Core Architectural Decisions

Clean Architecture & DDD:

Pure business logic in the domain layer, fully decoupled from frameworks and databases.

Tech Stack:

Java 21 with Spring Boot 3.x, Spring Security + JWT, PostgreSQL + JPA/Hibernate, Docker, and Coolify for CI/CD on Oracle Cloud VPS.

Payment Integration:

Integrated with PagSeguro for secure ticketing and workshop payments, handling transaction callbacks and ensuring ticket issuance integrity.

QR Code Ticketing:

Each ticket is bound to a unique, verifiable QR code used during event check-in.

Automated Certificate Generation:

Post-event, attendees who have actually attended and been checked in by event organizers automatically receive personalized PDF certificates, complete with event metadata and participant data.

Scalability & Performance

Architected for high throughput (1,000+ req/s) with a focus on efficient resource usage and stable vertical scaling.

Key design choices:

• Optimized SQL queries and caching for read-heavy operations.
• Connection pooling and asynchronous workflows for ticketing and notifications.
• Lightweight, containerized deployment enabling zero-downtime updates.
• Production-tested under real traffic from community events.

Development Journey

Meet was designed and developed entirely by a solo engineer, with mentorship from leading Java professionals in Brazil. This guidance shaped critical decisions around architecture, observability, and production readiness.

During development, I focused on:

• Balancing Clean Code principles with pragmatic trade-offs.
• Establishing automated testing and continuous deployment early on.
• Learning to think holistically about performance, reliability, and developer experience.

Key Challenges Overcome

• Modeling a flexible domain for diverse event types (meetups, workshops, tech talks).
• Maintaining transactional integrity between payments and ticket generation.
• Building a simple yet powerful CI/CD pipeline using Coolify on Oracle Cloud.
• Handling high concurrency during peak registration bursts.

Lessons Learned

Building Meet reinforced the importance of:

• Architectural consistency over premature optimization.
• Investing early in observability, metrics, logs, and error tracking.
• Leveraging mentorship and community feedback to evolve design quality.
• Balancing product velocity with clean, maintainable codebases.

In Production

Meet currently powers Java Noroeste’s event ecosystem, handling ticketing, payments, and certificate automation for hundreds of participants across multiple live events.

It continues to evolve as a real-world example of Clean Architecture in production, demonstrating how thoughtful engineering decisions translate into a resilient, maintainable platform.