RideConnect Campus Carpool

A full-stack RideConnect experience for NIT Calicut students. The project is now split into a React client and a Node.js/Express backend so you can manage authentication, rides, and driver data from a single codebase.

Project Structure

.
├── client/   # Vite + React + TypeScript UI (Tailwind, shadcn/ui, React Query)
└── server/   # Express + TypeScript API (JWT auth, JSON-file persistence)

The API owns the source of truth for rides, driver profiles, and sign-ups. The UI consumes those endpoints via a lightweight fetch wrapper and React Query.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (install via nvm or the official installers)
• npm (ships with Node). You can swap npm for pnpm/yarn if you prefer—just regenerate the lockfiles inside each package.

Environment Variables

Client

Create client/.env from the template:

cp client/.env.example client/.env

VITE_API_URL should point at the backend API (defaults to http://localhost:5000/api).

Server

Create server/.env from the template:

cp server/.env.example server/.env

You can customize:

• PORT – API port (default 5000).
• CLIENT_ORIGIN – allowed CORS origin for the React dev server.
• JWT_SECRET – secret used to sign access tokens.
• MONGODB_URI – MongoDB Atlas (or any MongoDB) connection string used by the API.

Installation & Local Development

Install dependencies for each workspace once:

# Client dependencies
cd client
npm install

# Server dependencies
cd ../server
npm install

Run both apps in separate terminals:

# Terminal 1 – backend (http://localhost:5000)
cd server
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 – frontend (http://localhost:5173)
cd client
npm run dev

The client uses VITE_API_URL to talk to the API, so make sure the backend is running before testing forms such as “Post Ride” or “Join Ride”.

Production Builds

• Client: cd client && npm run build && npm run preview
• Server: cd server && npm run build && npm start

Backend Overview

• Auth: /api/auth/signup, /api/auth/login, /api/auth/me with JWT tokens + bcrypt hashes stored in MongoDB.
• Rides: /api/rides (list), POST /api/rides (create, requires auth), POST /api/rides/:rideId/join (reserve a seat). Rides + participants live in MongoDB and are tied to the posting user.
• Drivers: GET /api/drivers returns the curated driver list stored in MongoDB.

On the first boot, the API seeds the MongoDB collections with the sample rides and drivers from server/data/*.json so you still get rich demo data. Delete the relevant documents if you’d like to re-seed.

Frontend Overview

• React Router pages for Landing, Rides, Post Ride, Find Driver, My Rides, Auth, etc.
• @tanstack/react-query keeps ride/driver data fresh and invalidates lists after mutations.
• Auth context stores { user, token } in localStorage and re-validates the token via /api/auth/me on load.
• Pages that previously used mock data now read/write through the API:
  • Rides fetches live data, filters client-side, and opens a modal to join seats.
  • Post Ride requires an authenticated user and persists rides to the backend.
  • Find Driver pulls verified driver profiles from the API and surfaces contact info.
  • My Rides separates rides you host vs. rides you have joined using server data.

Tips

• If you need to reset the backend state, delete the JSON files under server/data (they will be re-created with seed data on next boot).
• Adjust CLIENT_ORIGIN and VITE_API_URL when deploying to ensure CORS and fetch URLs stay in sync.
• The API currently stores sessions with JWTs only; no refresh tokens or cookies are set. Include the Authorization: Bearer <token> header for any protected route.

Happy hacking! Let me know if you want deployment scripts (Docker, Railway, etc.) or automated tests next.