🌍 Wanderlust

🚀 Live Demo: https://ani-wanderlust.onrender.com

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📖 What this project does

Wanderlust is a full-stack property listing web application (inspired by Airbnb) where users can explore available properties, view detailed information, read and post reviews, and even create their own listings.

The platform includes:

• 📱 Fully responsive UI optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop
• 🔐 Secure user authentication & authorization
• 🕒 Session management
• ☁️ Cloud-based image uploading for property photos
• ✏️ Full CRUD operations for listings and reviews

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🎯 Why it exists

This project was built as the Major Project for the ApnaCollege web development curriculum. It serves to showcase practical, hands-on learning of:

• Backend web architecture
• MVC (Model-View-Controller) design patterns
• RESTful API conventions
• Database management using MongoDB
• Security practices like password hashing and route authorization

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🚀 How to run it

1. Clone the repository

Open your terminal and run the following command to clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/apnacollege---major-project.git
cd apnacollege---major-project

(Note: Please replace the URL with your actual GitHub repository URL if it differs.)

2. Install dependencies

Ensure you have Node.js installed, then run from the root directory:

npm install

3. Set up Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory and configure the following credentials:

NODE_ENV=development
SECRET=your_session_secret_string
CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
CLOUD_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUD_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

4. Start the Server

node app.js

The server will log Server is listening to port 8080. Open your browser and go to http://localhost:8080/listings.

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🛠️ What tech it uses

• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Database: MongoDB (using Mongoose ODM) with connect-mongo for session storage
• Authentication: Passport.js (passport-local, passport-local-mongoose)
• Templating Engine: EJS (Embedded JavaScript) with ejs-mate for standardized page layouts
• Image Storage: Cloudinary (integrated via cloudinary and multer)
• Data Validation: Joi schema validation
• Styling/UI: CSS/Bootstrap (served statically from the public directory) and Flash messages (connect-flash) for user alerts.

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📂 How it’s structured

The project strictly follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. Here is a high-level overview of the directory structure:

📦 apna-college-major-project
 ┣ 📂 controllers       # Core logic handling requests and DB operations
 ┣ 📂 init              # Scripts and dummy data to seed the database
 ┣ 📂 models            # Mongoose schemas (Listing, User, Review)
 ┣ 📂 public            # Static assets (CSS, JS, Images)
 ┣ 📂 routes            # Express routers (Listings, Reviews, Users)
 ┣ 📂 utils             # Helper functions (Error Wrappers, Custom Errors)
 ┣ 📂 views             # EJS templates for UI rendering
 ┃ ┣ 📂 includes        # Reusable view partials (navbar, footer, flash)
 ┃ ┣ 📂 layouts         # Boilerplate HTML layouts (ejs-mate)
 ┃ ┣ 📂 listings        # Listing specific views (index, show, new, edit)
 ┃ ┗ 📂 users           # Authentication views (login, signup)
 ┣ 📜 .env              # Environment variables
 ┣ 📜 app.js            # Main entry point and server configuration
 ┣ 📜 cloudConfig.js    # Cloudinary integration configuration
 ┣ 📜 middleware.js     # Custom Express middlewares (Auth & Validation)
 ┗ 📜 schema.js         # Server-side Joi validation schemas

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Developed with ❤️ for the ApnaCollege Web-Dev Bootcamp.