Resource Adda

The academic resource-sharing platform — designed to help students discover study materials, contribute notes, and connect with communities organised by branch and semester.

🌐 Live: https://resource-adda.onrender.com

📖 About

Resource Adda is a full-stack platform built with React and Node.js for:

• Browsing study materials filtered by branch, semester, subject, and unit
• Contributing resources — students submit notes/files for admin review and approval
• Admin operations — managing uploads, reviewing contributions, and controlling access
• Community groups — connecting students around shared academic interests

It replaces scattered, manual note-sharing with a unified system including JWT-based admin auth, cloudinary Cloud Storage for files, real-time upload progress via Socket.io, and a contribution approval workflow.

Key Problems Solved

• Fragmented resource discovery — Hierarchical filter (branch → semester → subject → unit) for fast lookup
• Unverified contributions — Admin-gated approval workflow before resources are published
• Large file handling — Chunked upload over Socket.io with real-time progress feedback
• Access control — JWT-authenticated admin routes; super-admin-only admin provisioning
• Cross-branch content — Query files common across multiple branches in one request

Who Is This For?

• Students searching for notes and past papers by their branch and semester
• Top performers / contributors submitting their notes for community benefit
• Department admins reviewing, approving, or rejecting submitted resources
• System maintainers extending upload, auth, and contribution workflows

✨ Features

Resource Discovery ✅

• Filter resources by branch, semester, subject, and unit
• Cross-branch query support (returns files common to multiple branches)
• In-browser PDF viewer
• One-click file download via proxied backend endpoint

Contribution System ✅

• Students upload files with metadata (branch, sem, subject, unit, email)
• Contributions enter a pending queue for admin review
• Admin can approve or reject with optional comments
• Lifecycle: pending → approved / rejected

Admin Operations ✅

• JWT-based admin login (1-hour token expiry)
• Admin panel for browsing, deleting, and managing uploaded resources
• Pending contribution queue with approval/rejection actions
• Super-admin-only endpoint to provision new admins (password-protected)

Real-time Upload ✅

• Chunked file streaming via Socket.io (up to 200 MB per file)
• Per-chunk progress events back to the client
• Authenticated admin uploads vs. public contribution uploads handled on the same socket

Analytics ✅

• Daily request counter with midnight reset
• Historical request-count lookup by date stored in MongoDB

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• npm / yarn
• Cloudinary cloud storage
• MongoDB instance

Installation

# Frontend
cd frontend
npm install

# Backend
cd backend
npm install

Configure Environment

Create a .env file in the backend/ directory:

# MongoDB
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/resource-adda

# Super-admin password (bcrypt hash stored in DB manually or via /server/addAdmin)
PASSWORD=your-bcrypt-hashed-super-admin-password

# JWT
JWT_SECRET=your-jwt-secret

# cloudinary
CLOUDINARY_URL=your-cloudinary-url

Configure Frontend

In frontend/src/constants.jsx, set the backend server URL before running:

export const SERVER_URL = "http://localhost:3333";

Run the Project

# Start the backend (from /backend)
npm run dev

# Start the frontend (from /frontend)
npm run dev

Frontend: http://localhost:5173
Backend: http://localhost:3333

Build Frontend into Backend

To serve the frontend through the Express backend:

cd frontend
npm run build   # outputs to ../backend/dist

Docker Compose

docker-compose up --build

This starts the backend on port 3333 and the frontend on port 80.

🔐 Access Model

Route	Access
GET /server/files	Public
GET /server/subjects	Public
GET /server/download	Public
GET /server/request-count	Public
GET /server/validate-token	Token holder
DELETE /server/delete	Admin (JWT)
GET /server/pending-requests	Admin (JWT)
POST /server/approve	Admin (JWT)
POST /server/admin_login	Credential-based
POST /server/addAdmin	Super-admin password

Socket.io upload events distinguish admin uploads (type: "upload", requires JWT) from public contributions (type: "contribute", requires email).

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 18, Vite, React Router DOM v6, Framer Motion, React PDF, Axios, Socket.io-client
• Backend: Node.js 22, Express, Mongoose (MongoDB), JWT, bcrypt, Multer, Socket.io, Axios
• Storage: Cloudinary cloud storage
• Deployment: Docker, Render
• Analytics: MongoDB-backed daily request counting

🏗️ Architecture Highlights

Layered Design

• API Layer: Express route handlers in backend/app.js
• Data Layer: Mongoose models in backend/document.js, backend/admin.js, backend/contrbution.js, backend/requestCount.js
• Auth Layer: JWT middleware (authenticateJWT) protecting admin-only routes
• Upload Layer: Socket.io chunked streaming to Cloudinary Cloud Storage with per-socket upload state

Core Modules

• Resource Module — Fetch, filter (branch/sem/subject/unit), download, and delete documents
• Contribution Module — Student submission flow, pending queue, admin approval/rejection
• Admin Module — JWT login, token validation, super-admin-controlled admin provisioning
• Upload Module — Chunked Socket.io streaming, GCS write streams, upload progress events

📁 Project Structure

backend/
  app.js              # Express server, Socket.io, all route handlers
  document.js         # Mongoose model: uploaded resource documents
  admin.js            # Mongoose model: admin accounts
  contrbution.js      # Mongoose model: student contribution requests
  requestCount.js     # Mongoose model: daily request analytics
  Dockerfile

frontend/
  src/
    pages/
      Home.jsx        # Landing page
      Resources.jsx   # Branch/semester selector
      Contribute.jsx  # Student contribution upload form
      AdminPannel.jsx # Admin dashboard
      SuperAdmin.jsx  # Add-admin page (super admin only)
      About.jsx
      View.jsx        # In-browser PDF viewer
      Requests.jsx    # Pending contribution requests (admin)
      Upload.jsx      # Admin file upload page
    components/
      Navbar.jsx
      LoginDialog.jsx
      ProgressMenu.jsx
      AdminNavbar.jsx
      ...
    fileexplorer.jsx  # Subject/unit/file hierarchy browser
    groups.jsx        # Community groups
    constants.jsx     # SERVER_URL and other config
  Dockerfile

docker-compose.yml

✅ Validation Commands

Run from each sub-directory:

# Frontend lint
cd frontend && npm run lint

# Frontend build
cd frontend && npm run build

# Backend start (no dedicated test suite yet)
cd backend && npm start

📚 Documentation

• MongoDB Setup Guide
• MongoDB Migration Guide
• Implementation Summary
• API Reference
• Testing Suite Documentation
• Testing Status Report

🎯 Roadmap Snapshot

• ✅ Resource discovery with multi-filter and cross-branch queries
• ✅ Student contribution flow with admin approval queue
• ✅ JWT-authenticated admin panel and super-admin provisioning
• ✅ Chunked Socket.io uploads to Cloudinary Cloud Storag
• ✅ Docker and Render deployment
• 🟡 Automated unit/integration test suite
• 📋 Rate limiting, input sanitisation hardening, and email notifications on contribution status changes

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please keep changes aligned with:

• Existing module boundaries (resources, contributions, admin, upload)
• Mongoose schema conventions in the backend model files
• Root validation checks (npm run lint, npm run build in frontend/)
• Documentation updates for any behaviour changes