🥾 HikeHub

HikeHub is a full-stack web application for discovering, reviewing, and managing trekking destinations.
It demonstrates real-world backend engineering concepts such as authentication, payments, geolocation, role-based access, and secure data handling.

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🧠 What This Project Demonstrates

• Building a production-style Node.js application
• Secure authentication with email verification
• Payment integration using Stripe
• Geospatial data handling with maps
• Clean RESTful API design
• End-to-end CRUD workflows
• Scalable MongoDB schema design

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🛠️ Tech Stack (with Rationale)

🌐 Frontend

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript — Core web technologies for building a responsive and accessible UI
• EJS — Server-side templating to dynamically render pages with backend data

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⚙️ Backend

• Node.js — Event-driven runtime ideal for scalable I/O-heavy applications
• Express.js — Minimal and flexible framework for building RESTful APIs

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🗄️ Database

• MongoDB — NoSQL database suited for hierarchical data like posts, comments, and users
• Mongoose — ODM for schema validation, relationships, and query abstraction

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🔐 Authentication & Security

• Passport.js — Handles authentication strategies and session management
• JWT / Sessions — Secure user sessions and access control
• Email OTP Verification — Ensures verified users during registration
• Role-Based Access Control — Differentiates admin and regular user privileges

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💳 Payments

• Stripe — Secure and industry-standard payment processing for user registration

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🗺️ Maps & Geolocation

• Google Maps API — Displays trek locations using real-world coordinates
• Geocoding — Converts human-readable locations into latitude/longitude

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🖼️ Media Handling

• Cloudinary — Cloud-based image storage and optimization
• Multer — Middleware for handling multipart file uploads

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🔍 Search

• Fuzzy Search — Improves user experience by allowing flexible text matching

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🧪 Tooling & Dev Practices

• dotenv — Environment-based configuration for secrets and keys
• Nodemon — Faster development with auto-reload
• Git & GitHub — Version control and collaboration

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✨ Core Features (Tech-Oriented)

• Secure user registration with OTP email verification
• Stripe-powered payment flow during signup
• Full CRUD operations for trek posts and comments
• Geospatial visualization of treks on interactive maps
• Ratings and reviews system
• Admin moderation tools
• Search and filtering capabilities

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🖼️ Demo Screenshots

🏕️ Landing Page

🏞️ Trek Details Page

⭐ Ratings & Comments

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🎥 Demo GIFs

🔐 User Registration (OTP Email + Stripe Payment)

🗺️ Trek Posts, Geolocation & Comments

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⚙️ Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• MongoDB (local installation)

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1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/Rakmo33/HikeHub_Blog_App.git
cd HikeHub_Blog_App

2️⃣ Install Dependencies

npm install

3️⃣ Environment Configuration

Create a .env file in the root directory:

# Database
DATABASE_URL=mongodb://localhost/yelp_camp

# Email (OTP Verification)
GMAILPW=your_gmail_app_password

# Payments (Stripe)
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=your_stripe_secret_key

# Geocoding / Maps
GEOCODER_API_KEY=your_geocoder_api_key

# Real-time Features
PUSHER_APP_ID=your_pusher_app_id
PUSHER_APP_KEY=your_pusher_app_key
PUSHER_APP_SECRET=your_pusher_app_secret
PUSHER_APP_CLUSTER=your_pusher_app_cluster

# Media Storage
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

4️⃣ Start MongoDB

mongod

5️⃣ Run the Application

npm start

6️⃣ Visit 👉 http://localhost:8000

💳 Stripe Test Card (Development Only)

Use the following Stripe test card details for testing the registration payment flow:

Card Number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
Expiry Date: 12 / 34
CVV: 123
ZIP Code: 12345

🚀 Why This Project Matters

HikeHub is not a UI demo — it reflects real-world backend challenges:

• Authentication flows
• Payments
• Secure data handling
• API design
• External service integrations
• This project mirrors how production applications are built and maintained.

🤝 Acknowledgements

HikeHub is inspired by the YelpCamp project from the Full Stack Web Developer Bootcamp by Colt Steele on Udemy.
This project was built independently, adding trekking-focused features, custom UI, and personal enhancements.