Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

NPM / Yarn and Node.js installed

Installing

Installing NPM modules on both client and server folders

Execute these commands from the project directory

cd client && npm install

cd server && npm install

Running the app

Open a terminal on server directory

npm run start:dev

and open another terminal on client directory

npm run start

Access the web app at http://localhost:3000/

What this project is

AuroraMart is a MERN e‑commerce app:

• Client: React (shop UI, admin UI, auth, checkout)
• Server: Node/Express (REST API), MongoDB with Mongoose, Braintree payments

Key capabilities:

• Admin: create categories and products (with images), view orders, dashboards
• Users: sign up/sign in, browse products, wishlist/cart, checkout, reviews, profile and orders

First‑time data flow (why the app looks empty at start)

When you first run the app, the shop is empty because there are no categories/products yet. To populate:

1. Create an admin account (see server/README.md “Admin signup note”).
2. Log in and open the admin panel in the UI.
3. Add categories (with images) and then products under those categories.
4. Return to the shop — products now appear for customers.

All data is stored in MongoDB. Uploaded images are stored under server/public/uploads/ and served statically by the server.

Environment and configuration

Create a server/.env with at least:

DATABASE=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<cluster>.mongodb.net/AuroraMart?retryWrites=true&w=majority
PORT=8000
BRAINTREE_MERCHANT_ID=your_sandbox_merchant_id
BRAINTREE_PUBLIC_KEY=your_sandbox_public_key
BRAINTREE_PRIVATE_KEY=your_sandbox_private_key
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_here

See server/README.md for MongoDB Atlas setup and Braintree Sandbox details.

Common local issues

• Client on Node 18/20 may show OpenSSL/webpack error. Quick fix (PowerShell):

$env:NODE_OPTIONS="--openssl-legacy-provider"; npm start

• Server shows “Database Not Connected !!!” → set a valid DATABASE connection string and ensure your IP is allowed in Atlas.

Useful links

• Client docs: client/README.md
• Server docs: server/README.md

Sample Project Demo