STIS-V 2025 Conference Platform

Production full-stack platform built for the Fifth International Conference on the Science and Technology of Ironmaking and Steelmaking (STIS-V), hosted by the Department of Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, from December 9-12, 2025.

Live post-event site: materials.iisc.ac.in/stis2025

The public site now serves as a conference archive with the programme, proceedings, speakers, sponsors, venue information, and event media. The repository also documents the protected workflows used during the event.

What Was Built

Area	Capability
Public website	Responsive conference pages, announcements, programme, speakers, sponsors, travel and venue information
Participant accounts	Registration, login, profile management and expiring password-reset links
Abstract workflow	Document upload, multiple submissions per author, status tracking, finalization and organizer review
Registration workflow	Multi-step delegate details, category selection and student-document upload
Payments	Razorpay order flow, signed payment verification, webhook processing, bank-receipt upload and receipt generation
Administration	Role-protected abstract review dashboard and status updates
Operations	MongoDB persistence, Cloudinary uploads, transactional email and Google Sheets synchronization

Engineering Highlights

• Route-level JWT authentication with resource ownership checks
• Separate administrator authorization for participant-data exports
• Server-side registration-fee calculation and Razorpay HMAC verification
• Origin allowlisting for credentialed cross-origin requests
• Time-limited, single-use password reset tokens
• MIME and upload-size restrictions for conference documents
• Environment-based frontend and backend configuration
• Automated frontend build and backend security tests in GitHub Actions

Architecture

flowchart LR
    Browser["React conference portal"] --> API["Express REST API"]
    API --> MongoDB["MongoDB"]
    API --> Cloudinary["Cloudinary document storage"]
    API --> Razorpay["Razorpay"]
    API --> Email["Microsoft 365 email"]
    API --> Sheets["Google Sheets operations log"]

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Technology

Frontend: React 18, React Router, Axios, Bootstrap, jsPDF

Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB/Mongoose, JWT, bcrypt, Multer

Integrations: Razorpay, Cloudinary, Nodemailer, Google Sheets

Delivery: IISc web infrastructure, Render API deployment, GitHub Actions

Repository Layout

.
|-- public/                 Static conference assets
|-- src/
|   |-- components/         Public pages and participant/admin workflows
|   `-- config/             Browser-safe runtime configuration
|-- server/
|   |-- config/             CORS and external-service configuration
|   |-- controllers/        Integration logic
|   |-- middleware/         Authentication and authorization
|   |-- tests/              Backend security-focused tests
|   |-- utils/              Signature verification helpers
|   `-- server.js           Express application and conference routes
|-- .github/workflows/      Continuous integration
`-- SECURITY.md

Run Locally

Requirements: Node.js 20+ and MongoDB.

git clone https://github.com/VishwasPrabhakara/STISV_Server.git
cd STISV_Server
npm ci
Copy-Item .env.example .env

cd server
npm ci
Copy-Item .env.example .env
npm start

In a second terminal:

cd STISV_Server
npm start

The frontend runs at http://localhost:3000 and the API at http://localhost:5000. External integrations require your own development credentials; no production secrets or participant data are included.

Verification

npm run build
cd server
npm test

Backend tests cover JWT enforcement, administrator role checks, ownership isolation, and timing-safe HMAC validation.

Privacy and Scope

This is a source-code showcase. Participant records, payment details, organizer credentials, private service-account files, and operational exports are intentionally excluded. See SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure guidance.

Contribution

Vishwas Prabhakara contributed to the full-stack implementation, backend integrations, deployment, and production support for the live conference platform. The live site credits Vishwas Prabhakara, Kumar Harsh, and Swaraj Kumar for design and development.

• GitHub
• LinkedIn

Usage

Built for the STIS-V 2025 organizing committee at the Indian Institute of Science. Conference content and branding remain the property of their respective owners.