UniSphere: The All-in-One College Community Platform

A full-stack web application designed to be the central hub for college life, connecting students and clubs through events, real-time communities, and direct messaging.

✨ About The Project

UniSphere is a comprehensive platform built to enhance the college experience. It addresses the scattered nature of campus communication by providing a single, integrated solution where college clubs can announce and manage events, and students can discover opportunities, engage with peers, and build a vibrant community. From event registration to a real-time social feed, UniSphere is the digital heartbeat of the campus.

🚀 Key Features

• 🎉 Event Management: Clubs can create and manage events, specifying details like volunteer needs and participant capacity.
• ✍️ User Registration: Students can easily create a profile and register for events as either a participant or a volunteer.
• 💬 Real-Time Community: A dynamic, Twitter-like feed where users and clubs can post updates, share experiences, and interact through likes, comments, and shares. This feature is powered by Ably for live, instantaneous updates.
• 📩 Direct Messaging: A private chat feature for users to connect and communicate one-on-one.
• 💳 Stripe Payment Integration: Secure and seamless payment processing for ticketed events.
• ☁️ Cloud Media Storage: Efficiently handles image and media uploads using Cloudinary.
• 🔐 Secure Authentication: Utilizes bcrypt for password hashing to ensure user data is secure.

🛠️ Tech Stack

This project is built using a modern MERN-like stack, with PostgreSQL as the database.

Category	Technology
Frontend	React, Redux, Vite, Axios, Tailwind CSS
Backend	Node.js, Express.js
Database	PostgreSQL
Authentication	bcrypt
Third-Party APIs	Ably (Real-time), Stripe (Payments), Cloudinary (File Storage)

🏛️ Database Schema

The database is designed to efficiently manage the relationships between users, clubs, events, posts, and messages.

📸 Application Screenshots

Event Feed & Details:

Real-time Community Hub:

Direct Messaging:

🚀 Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a local copy of the project up and running for development and testing.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or newer recommended)
• npm or yarn
• A running instance of PostgreSQL

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/Akarsh1412/UniSphere.git
   cd UniSphere
   

2. Set Up Backend

   cd backend
   npm install
   

   Create a .env file in the /backend directory and add the following variables:

   # Aiven PostgreSQL Database Configuration
   DB_USER=db_user
   DB_PASSWORD=db_password
   DB_HOST= db_host
   DB_PORT=dp_port
   DB_NAME=dp_name
   DB_CA_CERT=-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
               xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               -----END CERTIFICATE-----
   
   # JWT Configuration
   JWT_SECRET=jwt_secret
   JWT_EXPIRE=nd
   
   # Bcrypt Configuration
   BCRYPT_ROUNDS=10
   
   # Server Configuration
   NODE_ENV=development
   PORT=5000
   
   # Cloudinary Configuration
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=api_secret
   
   # Admin User Configuration
   ADMIN_ID=admin_id
   ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin_password
   
   ABLY_API_KEY=ably_api_key
   
   # Frontend URL (for CORS and email links)
   FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173
   
   # App Configuration
   APP_NAME=UniSphere
   
   STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=stripe_key
   

3. Set Up Frontend

   cd ../frontend
   npm install
   

   Create a .env file in the /frontend directory and add the following variables:

   VITE_ABLY_API_KEY=api_key
   VITE_API_BASE_URL=your_backend_url
   VITE_STRIPE_PUBLISH_KEY=stripe_key
   

4. Set Up Admin

cd ../client
npm install

Create a .env file in the /admin directory and add the following variables:

 VITE_EMAILJS_SERVICE_ID=service_id
 VITE_EMAILJS_TEMPLATE_ID=template_id
 VITE_EMAILJS_PUBLIC_KEY=public_key

 VITE_API_URL=https://uni-sphere-backend-kappa.vercel.app

5. Run the Application
   • Start the backend server (from the /backend directory):

     npm run dev
     

   • Start the frontend development server (from the /frontend directory):

     npm run dev
     

   • Start the admin development server (from the /admin directory):

     npm run dev
     

The application should now be accessible at http://localhost:5173. and the admin dashboard should now be accessible at http://localhost:5174.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make the open-source community an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement".

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

📧 Contact

Akarsh - LinkedIn

Project Link: https://github.com/Akarsh1412/UniSphere Live Link: UniSphere