CSUnite - CSU - Carig Community & Discussion Platform

A community forum web app built with React, featuring user authentication, community discovery, discussions with nested comments, upvoting/downvoting, and profile management.

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Features

• User Authentication with protected routes and auth redirect hooks
• Community Discovery with tag filtering and joining communities
• Top Communities display with member counts
• Create Community page to allow users to start new communities
• Discussion Threads with nested comments and replies up to 3 levels
• Voting System for upvoting/downvoting discussions and comments
• Profile Sidebar for viewing and editing user profile info
• Responsive UI with Framer Motion animations and Material UI components
• Toast notifications with MUI Snackbar and Alert

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Technologies Used

• MongoDB – NoSQL database for storing users, communities, discussions, and comments
• Express.js – Backend web framework for REST API development
• React – Frontend library for building user interfaces with functional components & hooks
• Node.js – JavaScript runtime environment for backend server
• React Router DOM – Client-side routing/navigation
• Framer Motion – Animations and gesture support in React
• Material UI – Component library for React UI elements and icons
• Lucide React – Icon library used alongside Material UI
• Axios or Fetch API – For making HTTP requests to backend
• CSS Modules – Scoped CSS styling for React components

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Setup Instructions

• Clone the repository:

  git clone https://github.com/Dubuu03/CSUForum.git

• Install dependencies:

  npm install

• Configure environment variables

• Run the development servers:

  Open two terminals:

  1. In the backend folder:

     cd backend
     npm run dev

  2. In the frontend folder:

     cd frontend
     npm run dev

• Open the app in your browser:

  Visit http://localhost:5173

• Build the app for production (optional):

  npm run build