🚗 RideShare MERN App

A full-stack carpooling application that allows users to post, find, and request rides. Built with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js), it supports real-time ride discovery, geo-based filtering, notifications, and user interaction.

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🧩 Features

• User System: Register and manage users using email lookup.
• Ride Creation: Post rides with seats, timing, pickup/drop locations, and status flags.
• Ride Discovery: View all rides, filter by location, and see upcoming ones.
• Ride Requests: Request seats in posted rides and get notified upon approval/denial.
• Geo Search: Find rides near specific geographic coordinates.
• Soft Delete: Mark rides inactive without removing them from the database.
• Notification System: Users receive alerts when ride requests are made or updated.

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📁 Project Structure

CAR_POOLING/
├── client/               # Frontend (Vite + React)
│   ├── src/              # React source files
│   ├── .env.local        # Vite environment vars
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── package.json
│   └── vite.config.js
│
├── server/               # Backend (Express.js + MongoDB)
│   ├── APIs/             # API endpoint handlers
│   ├── models/           # Mongoose schemas
│   ├── .env              # Backend environment vars
│   ├── server.js         # Express app entry point
│   └── package.json
│
├── README.md

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🖥️ Frontend

Built using Vite and React, the client app allows users to interact with the platform through a modern and responsive UI.

Setup

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

• Environment variables go in .env.local (e.g., API base URL).
• Uses Axios or Fetch to communicate with the backend.

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⚙️ Backend

Powered by Node.js, Express, and MongoDB, the backend handles all ride logic, user management, and notifications.

Setup

cd server
npm install
npm start

• Environment variables go in .env (e.g., MongoDB URI, port).
• Uses Mongoose for MongoDB modeling.
• Implements geospatial queries with $geoNear.

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🧪 Sample Environment Files

client/.env.local

VITE_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY = your_key

server/.env

DBURL = your_mongo_connection_string
PORT = 5000

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🚀 Deployment

• nihesh-ride-share

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📌 Notes

• MongoDB collections use geospatial indexing to allow geo-based ride filtering.
• Notifications are stored and fetched via API.
• Seat availability is automatically updated based on accepted requests.
• Each ride can be soft-deleted (marked inactive) instead of being removed.
• The frontend dynamically filters rides based on user location or time.

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🙌 Contributing

Pull requests and feedback are welcome. Feel free to fork the repo, improve functionality, or polish UI/UX.

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🧑‍💻 Author

Developed with ❤️ by Nihesh.

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