CCAPDEV MCO

This repository contains the CCAPDEV MCO project. The runnable Express application lives in CCAPDEV-MCO-RubberDuckGroup, a duck-themed community forum built with Express, Handlebars, MongoDB, and session-based authentication.

Project Structure

.
|-- CCAPDEV-MCO-RubberDuckGroup/   # Main application
`-- README.md

Features

• User registration, login, logout, and session persistence
• Profile editing with profile photo uploads
• Post creation, editing, deletion, voting, and image uploads
• Nested comments with edit and delete support
• Search and filtering for posts by keyword, author, date range, and sort order
• Activity feed per user
• Server-rendered pages using Handlebars partials and layouts

Tech Stack

• Node.js + npm
• Express 5
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• Handlebars (hbs)
• express-session with a Mongo-backed session store
• express-fileupload for image uploads

Prerequisites

Before running the project, install:

• Node.js
• npm
• MongoDB, or access to a MongoDB Atlas cluster

Setup

1. Open a terminal in the repository root.
2. Move into the application folder:

cd CCAPDEV-MCO-RubberDuckGroup

3. Install dependencies:

npm install

4. Create a local environment file from the example:

Copy-Item .env.example .env

5. Update .env with your own values:

MONGODB_URI=your-mongodb-connection-string
SESSION_SECRET=your-session-secret

Available Scripts

Run these inside CCAPDEV-MCO-RubberDuckGroup:

• npm start starts the production server with node server.js
• npm run dev starts the app with nodemon
• npm run seed populates the database with sample users, posts, comments, and activity data

Database Seeding

The seed script only runs when the database is empty. If users, posts, comments, or activity records already exist, seeding is skipped.

Sample seeded accounts use password password123. You can log in with either username or email, for example:

• JohnDuck
• johnduck@email.com

Running the App

1. Make sure your MongoDB instance is accessible through the MONGODB_URI in .env.
2. Optionally seed the database:

npm run seed

3. Start the server:

npm start

4. Open the app in your browser:

http://localhost:3000

Main Routes

Pages

• / home feed
• /login login page
• /register registration page
• /profile profile page
• /create-post post creation page
• /search-results filtered search results
• /about dependency and third-party library credits

API / Server Routes

• /auth authentication endpoints
• /users user profile endpoints
• /posts post, vote, and upload endpoints
• /api/comments comment endpoints
• /activity user activity feed endpoints

Application Layout

Inside CCAPDEV-MCO-RubberDuckGroup:

controllers/   request handlers
models/        Mongoose schemas
public/        static assets, uploaded images, CSS, and client JS
routes/        Express route definitions
utils/         shared helpers such as uploads and session storage
views/         Handlebars pages, partials, and layouts
server.js      application entrypoint
seed.js        database seed script