EduCourse

EduCourse is a small full-stack tutorial web application (Node.js + Express) that demonstrates a simple course-exploration frontend and a minimal authentication API backed by a JSON file.

What this repository contains:

• Frontend: static HTML/CSS/JS pages in the public/ folder (landing page, login/register, user profile, course pages).
• Backend: a lightweight Express server in server3.js that exposes authentication endpoints and a login-status endpoint.
• Demo credentials: stored in SRC/cred.json (this is for demonstration only — do NOT use in production).

Quick Start

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (v14+ recommended)

Install dependencies:

npm install

Start the API server (uses nodemon as configured in package.json):

npm start

The server listens on port 8000 by default. Open your browser to:

• http://localhost:8000/ — root landing page (served from the project root)

Notes about serving the frontend:

• The frontend pages are in the public/ folder. server3.js currently serves the root landing page but does not automatically expose the entire public/ folder.
• To serve the static frontend from the same Express server, add this line to server3.js (near other app.use(...) calls):

const path = require('path');
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

Alternatively you can serve the public/ folder with a static file server and run the API server concurrently. Example using http-server:

npx http-server public -p 8080
npm start
# then open http://localhost:8080 for frontend and http://localhost:8000 for API

API Endpoints (server3.js)

• GET / — returns the root landing page (landing-page.html from repository root).
• GET /isLogedIn — returns the currently logged-in user as JSON or null.
• POST /login — expects JSON { username, password }. On success the server responds with a redirect path (frontend will redirect). On failure it returns an error message.
• POST /logout — logs out the current user and returns a redirect.
• POST /register — expects JSON { name, username, password, email } and appends a new user to SRC/cred.json.

Authentication / Data

• User credentials and session state are stored in SRC/cred.json (this is a simple JSON file used for the demo). Example default accounts are included (e.g. username: admin, password: admin).
• The server-side auth logic lives in SRC/AUTH.js, SRC/loginStatus.js, and SRC/Logout.js.

Security NOTE: This project is for learning/demo purposes only. Storing plaintext passwords in a JSON file and using isLogedIn flags is NOT secure. Do not use this pattern in production.

Known issues & suggested fixes

• Static files: as noted above, server3.js does not call express.static(...) by default so many files in public/ will 404 if you only run the server as-is. Add the app.use(express.static(...)) line shown earlier to serve the frontend from the same server.
• validateLogin behavior: SRC/AUTH.js sometimes calls res.json(...) inside the helper, but server3.js also expects a return value from validateLogin. This can produce inconsistent behavior. Recommended fix: make validateLogin return a result object and let the route handler call res.json(...) (or keep the helper responsible for sending the response but adjust server3.js accordingly).

Project file map (important files)

• server3.js — Express server and API routes (port 8000).
• package.json — project scripts and dependencies (npm start runs nodemon server3.js).
• public/ — frontend HTML/CSS/JS files (landing, login, profile, course pages).
• SRC/cred.json — demo user database (JSON array of users).
• SRC/AUTH.js — registration and login helper functions.
• SRC/loginStatus.js — helper to read which user is flagged as logged in.
• SRC/Logout.js — helper to clear isLogedIn for the current user.

How the auth flow works (quick explanation)

1. Frontend (e.g. public/Login.html) sends POST /login with { username, password }.
2. Backend checks SRC/cred.json for a matching user and sets isLogedIn: true on success.
3. Frontend uses GET /isLogedIn to decide whether to show user profile elements and to populate user-profile.html.
4. POST /logout clears isLogedIn for the user.

If you'd like, I can: add the express.static line to server3.js so the server serves public/ automatically, and/or fix the validateLogin return/response inconsistency. Tell me which change you prefer and I will make it.

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If you want me to update the code (serve static files, fix auth response), say which change to apply and I'll patch the files and run quick checks.