DevEvil Search

DevEvil Search is a fast, simple, open-source search engine powered by public APIs. It delivers web, image, video, and news search results using the Brave Search API, enriched with instant summaries from Wikipedia and definitions from Free Dictionary API. It also supports dynamic background images via the Pexels API.

✨ Features
📸 Screenshots
⚙️ Requirements
🔑 How To Get API Keys
- Brave Search API
- Pexels API
🛠️ Installation
🧪 Local Development
🌐 Production Deployment Guide (IMPORTANT)
- 🖥 Backend Deployment (VPS)
- 🌍 Configure Nginx Reverse Proxy
🎨 Customization
🔐 CORS Configuration
📡 API Documentation
- 🔎 Search Endpoint
- 🖼 Background Endpoint
🤝 Contributing

✨ Features

🔎 Multi-type search: Web, Images, Videos, News
📖 Instant Wikipedia summaries (when relevant)
📚 Instant word definitions from Free Dictionary API
🖼️ Dynamic high-quality random background images (Pexels)
🌍 Country-specific results (region biasing)
🌗 Dark / Light mode support
🛡️ SafeSearch filtering (on/off)

📸 Screenshots

⚙️ Requirements

You need:

Node.js 18+
A VPS (for backend API server)
A web host (for frontend)
Nginx (or Apache reverse proxy)
API Keys:
- Brave Search API
- Pexels API

🔑 How To Get API Keys

1️⃣ Brave Search API

Go to Brave Search API dashboard (Brave Search Developer Portal).
Create an account.
Subscribe to a plan (Free tier available with limited requests).
Generate your API key.
Copy the key.

You will use it as:

BRAVE_API_KEY=your_brave_api_key_here

2️⃣ Pexels API

Go to Pexels developer page.
Create an account.
Generate a free API key.
Copy the key.

You will use it as:

PEXELS_API_KEY=your_pexels_api_key_here

🛠 Installation

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/DevEvil-Universe/DevEvil-Search
cd devevil-search

2️⃣ Install Dependencies

npm install

3️⃣ Create Environment File

Rename .env.example file to .env and add your API keys to it:

BRAVE_API_KEY=your_brave_api_key
PEXELS_API_KEY=your_pexels_api_key

🧪 Local Development

You can run DevEvil Search locally on your computer without a VPS by using:

XAMPP (recommended for Windows)
WAMP
MAMP (Mac)
OR any normal PHP local server

This allows you to test the backend API (Node.js) and the frontend (PHP) together before deploying.

✔️ 1. Start Your Node.js Backend (API)

First, run the backend:

node server.js

Your API is available at:

http://localhost:5000

Keep this terminal window open.

✔️ 2. Install XAMPP (Windows / macOS / Linux)

Download XAMPP:

https://www.apachefriends.org/

Then:

Install XAMPP.
Start Apache from XAMPP Control Panel.

✔️ 3. Move the Frontend to XAMPP’s `htdocs`

Place all frontend files here:

C:\xampp\htdocs\devevil-search\

Now open:

http://localhost/devevil-search/

✔️ 4. Optional: Use PHP Built-in Server (No XAMPP Required)

If you have PHP installed:

php -S localhost:8000

Place your frontend files in the current folder.

Then visit:

http://localhost:8000

Backend remains at:

http://localhost:5000

✔️ 5. Optional: Use WAMP or MAMP

WAMP (Windows)

Install WAMP from wampserver.com
Put your frontend in:

C:\wamp64\www\devevil-search\

Visit:

http://localhost/devevil-search/

MAMP (macOS)

Install MAMP
Place frontend in:

/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/devevil-search/

Visit:

http://localhost:8888/devevil-search/

✔️ 6. Full Local Example

Backend (Node.js) → http://localhost:5000
Frontend (PHP via XAMPP) → http://localhost/devevil-search

🌐 Production Deployment Guide (IMPORTANT)

You need:

VPS → Backend (Node.js API)
Shared Hosting / Server → Frontend (PHP)
Reverse Proxy → Connect frontend to backend securely

🖥 Backend Deployment (VPS)

Step 1 — Install Node.js

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install nodejs

Step 2 — Install PM2 (Process Manager)

npm install -g pm2

Start your server:

pm2 start server.js --name devevil-search
pm2 save
pm2 startup

🌍 Configure Nginx Reverse Proxy

Install nginx:

sudo apt install nginx

Create config file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/devevil-search

Example configuration:

server {
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Enable it:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/devevil-search /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Now your backend API will be available at:

https://api.yourdomain.com/api/search

Replace all the api urls in the js folder with your own API URL.

🖥 Frontend Setup

Upload frontend files to your hosting, such as cPanel.

Things to Customize

🔹 index.php

Website name
Meta description
Logo
Title tags

🔹 search.php

Search result layout
Page title format
SEO tags

🔹 navbar.php

Brand name
Links

🎨 Customization

Change Colors

Edit:

/css/style.css
/css/result.css

Modify CSS variables or color values.

🖼 Images

Create folder:

/img

Upload your images
Replace image paths inside:
- index.php
- search.php

🔐 CORS Configuration

By default, backend allows:

const allowedOrigins = ['http://localhost'];

Change this to your real frontend domain:

const allowedOrigins = ['https://yourdomain.com'];

📡 API Documentation

🔎 Search Endpoint

GET /api/search

Query Parameters

Parameter	Description
q	Search query (required)
type	web, images, news, videos
safe	active / off
cr	countryUS, countryGB, countryDE, etc
start	pagination index

📌 Example Requests

Web Search

curl "http://localhost:5000/api/search?q=elon+musk&type=web"

Image Search

curl "http://localhost:5000/api/search?q=mountains&type=images"

With Country & Safe Search

curl "http://localhost:5000/api/search?q=ai&type=web&safe=active&cr=countryUS"

📦 Example Response Structure

{
  "search": {
    "items": [
      {
        "title": "Example Title",
        "link": "https://example.com",
        "displayLink": "example.com",
        "snippet": "Example description..."
      }
    ],
    "searchInformation": {
      "totalResults": "100"
    }
  },
  "searchInformation": {
    "totalResults": "100"
  },
  "wikipedia": {
    "title": "Artificial intelligence",
    "extract": "Artificial intelligence (AI) is...",
    "image": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/...",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence"
  },
  "definition": {
    "word": "intelligence",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "definition": "The ability to acquire knowledge..."
  }
}

🔎 Response Breakdown

search.items[] → Search results
wikipedia → Instant summary (if available)
definition → Dictionary result (if available)

🖼 Background Endpoint

GET /api/background

Example:

curl "http://localhost:5000/api/background"

Example Response:

{
  "imageUrl": "https://images.pexels.com/...",
  "photographer": "John Doe",
  "profileUrl": "https://pexels.com/@johndoe",
  "category": "nature"
}

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome!
Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

Give the repo a ⭐ if you find it useful!

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 9 Commits
.github		.github
css		css
js		js
.env.example		.env.example
.htaccess		.htaccess
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
index.php		index.php
manifest.json		manifest.json
navbar.php		navbar.php
package.json		package.json
search.php		search.php
server.js		server.js
service.js		service.js

Uh oh!

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

DevEvil Search

Table of Contents

✨ Features

📸 Screenshots

⚙️ Requirements

🔑 How To Get API Keys

1️⃣ Brave Search API

2️⃣ Pexels API

🛠 Installation

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

2️⃣ Install Dependencies

3️⃣ Create Environment File

🧪 Local Development

✔️ 1. Start Your Node.js Backend (API)

✔️ 2. Install XAMPP (Windows / macOS / Linux)

✔️ 3. Move the Frontend to XAMPP’s htdocs

✔️ 4. Optional: Use PHP Built-in Server (No XAMPP Required)

✔️ 5. Optional: Use WAMP or MAMP

WAMP (Windows)

MAMP (macOS)

✔️ 6. Full Local Example

🌐 Production Deployment Guide (IMPORTANT)

🖥 Backend Deployment (VPS)

Step 1 — Install Node.js

Step 2 — Install PM2 (Process Manager)

🌍 Configure Nginx Reverse Proxy

🖥 Frontend Setup

Things to Customize

🔹 index.php

🔹 search.php

🔹 navbar.php

🎨 Customization

Change Colors

🖼 Images

🔐 CORS Configuration

📡 API Documentation

🔎 Search Endpoint

Query Parameters

📌 Example Requests

Web Search

Image Search

With Country & Safe Search

📦 Example Response Structure

🔎 Response Breakdown

🖼 Background Endpoint

Example:

Example Response:

🤝 Contributing

About

Topics

Resources

License

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Sponsor this project

Uh oh!

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages

✔️ 3. Move the Frontend to XAMPP’s `htdocs`