Arqonara Web Platform & Client Hub

Context & Overview

As the Arqonara community expanded to thousands of members, operational staff spent hours handling repetitive inquiries regarding server provisioning status, payment confirmations, node uptime, and credential resets. The Arqonara Web Platform was engineered as a self-service client dashboard that bridges backend hypervisors, billing records, and community communication channels into a unified interface.

My Role & Responsibilities

• Designed the information architecture and responsive interface for both desktop and mobile clients.
• Built backend REST APIs in Node.js connecting customer accounts with billing databases and hypervisor status proxies.
• Developed an automated Discord OAuth2 login integration and role synchronization bot.
• Implemented real-time server cluster status checks with cached health queries to prevent database thrashing.
• Deployed and secured web services behind reverse proxies with TLS certificates and rate limiting.

The Problem & Operational Challenges

• Support Ticket Bottlenecks: Over 60% of daily community inquiries were routine questions: “Is Node 3 online?”, “Where is my server login?”, and “How do I claim my customer role in Discord?”.
• Manual Role Granting: Community moderators manually assigned customer roles on Discord after reviewing transaction screenshots.
• Fragmented User Experience: Customers had to navigate between third-party billing links, Discord announcements, and individual server control panels without a single source of truth.

Architectural Approach & Engineering Decisions

1. Unified Discord OAuth2 Authentication: Allowed users to sign in with their existing Discord identity, eliminating friction and directly tying community IDs to hosting accounts.
2. Asynchronous Discord Bot Integration: Configured an internal daemon that watches user account states; upon purchase verification, customer Discord roles are granted within seconds via the Discord REST API.
3. Decoupled Node Status Proxy: Built a cached status endpoint that queries hypervisor daemons asynchronously every 30 seconds. Public dashboard visitors query cached state rather than hitting production game ports directly, preventing denial-of-service vulnerabilities against backend daemons.
4. Resilient Data Architecture: Chose MongoDB with strict indexing on user IDs and active service contracts, ensuring rapid dashboard page loads even during peak weekend traffic.

System Architecture

[ Client Browser ]
        │
        ▼ (HTTPS / TLS)
[ Nginx Reverse Proxy & Rate Limiter ]
        │
        ▼
[ Node.js REST API Service ]
        │
        ├───> [ MongoDB Document Store ] (Users, Services, Audit Logs)
        │
        ├───> [ In-Memory Node Health Cache ] <─── (Async polling every 30s) ─── [ Hypervisor Nodes ]
        │
        └───> [ Discord Integration Bot ] ─── (REST API / OAuth2) ───> [ Discord Servers ]

Measurable Outcomes & Limitations

• Support Load Reduction: Shifted repetitive status inquiries to self-service status pages, resulting in a dramatic decrease in basic ticket volume.
• Instant Role Sync: Automated Discord role assignment for new customers within 5 seconds of payment confirmation, removing human moderator delays.
• High Uptime Under Spikes: Successfully withstood community launch announcements without degradation thanks to cached status proxies and Nginx rate-limiting layers.
• Honest Limitations: Billing reconciliation currently relies on payment gateway webhook delivery; occasional webhook retries occur during upstream gateway maintenance windows.

Technologies Used

• Frontend: React, HTML5, Modern CSS, Responsive Grid Systems
• Backend: Node.js, Express REST API, Discord.js
• Database: MongoDB (Replica Set Configuration, Index Optimization)
• Web Server & Security: Nginx, Certbot SSL, Fail2ban, UFW
• Identity & Protocols: OAuth2 (Discord API), JSON Web Tokens (JWT)