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CourseHub – Group 8 Final Project

A cloud-native microservice-based web app that lets users log in and manage a course catalog. Features both Google OAuth and traditional username/password authentication, and is deployed on IBM Cloud.

Tech Stack

  • Frontend: React (Vite)
  • Backend: Node.js with Express.js
  • Database: MongoDB Atlas
  • Authentication: Google OAuth & JWT (passport.js)
  • Deployment: IBM Cloud (Cloud Foundry + Toolchain)

Architecture & Components

1. Backend - server/app.js

  • Uses Express to handle HTTP requests.
  • Connects to MongoDB Atlas via Mongoose using MONGO_URI.
  • Seeds initial courses from initialCourses.json if DB is empty.
  • Middleware:
    • cors with dynamic FRONTEND_URL
    • express-session (for Google OAuth sessions)
    • passport for authentication
  • Routes:
    • /auth: Handles login/signup & Google OAuth
    • /api: Handles course-related endpoints
  • In production, serves React frontend from dist/.

2. Authentication - routes/auth.js, config/passport.js

  • Username/Password Auth:
    • POST /signup: Registers user, hashes password, returns JWT
    • POST /login: Authenticates and returns JWT
  • Google OAuth:
    • GET /auth/google: Redirects to Google login
    • GET /auth/google/callback: Handles callback, issues JWT, redirects to frontend
  • JWT Auth:
    • Tokens signed with JWT_SECRET, expire in 1 hour
  • Passport Strategy:
    • Configured for Google, stores user in MongoDB

3. Course Management - routes/courses.js

  • Handles core app functionality:
    • GET /api/items: Fetch all courses
    • POST /api/item: Add a course
    • PUT /api/item: Edit a course
    • DELETE /api/item: Remove a course

4. Frontend (React via Vite)

  • Local Dev: http://localhost:5173 using npm run dev
  • Production: Compiled to dist, served by backend
  • API calls use relative routes with credentials: "include"
  • Features include:
    • Course listing
    • Login/signup
    • User profile & possibly enrolled courses (if implemented)

5. MongoDB Models

  • User.js: Stores user credentials, cart, dark mode, etc.
  • Admin.js: Similar to User but with role: "admin"
  • Course.js: Defines schema for course objects

End-to-End Flow

  1. User Logs In

    • Google or username/password
    • JWT issued, frontend redirects

  2. Course Actions

    • Frontend calls /api routes to fetch/add/edit/delete

  3. Backend Handles Requests

    • Verifies JWT/auth
    • Interacts with MongoDB
    • Returns JSON responses

  4. Frontend Updates View

    • Displays data dynamically

Admin Access

The following admin accounts have been pre-seeded into the database for testing admin functionality:

  • Username: admin1 | Password: adminpass1
  • Username: admin2 | Password: passadmin123

To test admin features:

  1. Start the application with npm run dev.
  2. Log in using one of the above credentials via the login page.
  3. Access admin-only routes (course management,number and people who have enrolled , number of views for the course) to verify restricted access.

Local Deployment

Install dependencies

npm install

Run frontend (Vite)

npm run dev

Run backend (if separated)

cd server node app.js