CID-Cell — Collaborative Innovation & Development Cell

A full-stack platform for the Collaborative Innovation & Development Cell, Department of Computer Science & Engineering — enabling hands-on learning, real-world project collaboration, mentorship, and innovation-driven growth.

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✨ Features

🌐 Public Pages

• Home — Hero section, about preview, semester roadmap timeline, key activities, benefits & CTA
• About — Vision, mission, and detailed overview of CID-Cell
• Projects — Filterable project portfolio (Micro, Macro, Capstone, Open Source) with detail pages
• Events — Categorized events with status indicators (Upcoming / Completed) and detail pages
• Team — Showcase of CID-Cell members and leadership
• Roadmap — Interactive semester-wise learning roadmap
• Mentors — Browse and connect with faculty/industry mentors
• Contact — Reach out to the CID-Cell team
• Developers — Credits page for the development team

🔐 Authentication & Onboarding

• Google OAuth — Seamless sign-in via Google using @react-oauth/google
• JWT Authentication — Secure API access with JSON Web Tokens
• Onboarding Flow — New users are guided to complete their profile before accessing protected features
• Role-Based Access — Four user roles: student, mentor, faculty, admin

👤 Student Features

• Dashboard — Personalized overview with stats, projects, and activity
• Profile Management — Edit skills, social links, branch, batch, and bio
• Submit Projects — Propose new projects with rich-text descriptions
• My Projects — Track owned and contributed projects
• Join Requests — Request to join collaborative projects
• Chat Hub — Real-time direct messaging with other users
• Project Chat — Group chat within project teams
• Doubt Sessions — Ask and resolve doubts with mentors
• Find Mentor — Discover mentors by domain of expertise
• Notifications — Real-time bell notifications for activity updates

🎓 Mentor Features

• Mentor Dashboard — Overview of mentees, doubt sessions, and assigned projects
• Mentor Chat — Direct messaging with students

👨‍🏫 Faculty Features

• Faculty Dashboard — Overview of events and project mentorship
• Propose Event — Submit new event proposals with rich-text descriptions

⚙️ Admin Panel

• Admin Dashboard — Platform-wide analytics and overview
• User Management — View, search, and manage all user accounts
• Project Management — Approve, reject, and moderate project submissions
• Event Management — Create, edit, and manage events with rich-text editor
• Member Management — Manage CID-Cell membership records

💬 Real-Time Features (Socket.IO)

• Direct Messaging — 1-on-1 real-time chat between users
• Project Group Chat — Dedicated chat rooms for project teams
• Doubt Sessions — Real-time Q&A between students and mentors
• Live Notifications — Instant push notifications for key events

🔧 Backend Highlights

• Auto Inactivity Cleanup — Contributors inactive for 10 days get warned; removed after 20 days
• Cloudinary Integration — Media uploads for avatars and project assets
• Rate Limiting — Global + per-route rate limiting for abuse prevention
• Helmet Security — HTTP headers hardened with Content Security Policy
• Email Service — Transactional emails via Nodemailer
• Task Management — Assign and track tasks within projects

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

Technology	Purpose
React 18	UI library
Vite 6	Build tool & dev server
React Router 7	Client-side routing
Tailwind CSS 3.4	Utility-first styling
Lucide React	Icon library
Axios	HTTP client
Socket.IO Client	Real-time communication
React Quill	Rich-text editor
@react-oauth/google	Google OAuth integration

Backend

Technology	Purpose
Express 5	Web framework
MongoDB + Mongoose 9	Database & ODM
Socket.IO 4	Real-time WebSocket server
JWT (jsonwebtoken)	Authentication tokens
Google Auth Library	Server-side Google OAuth verification
Cloudinary	Media storage & CDN
Nodemailer	Email service
Multer	File upload handling
Helmet	Security headers
express-rate-limit	API rate limiting
Zod	Input validation
Jest + Supertest	Testing

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📁 Project Structure

cidcell/
├── frontend/                    # React SPA
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/          # Reusable UI components
│   │   │   ├── Navbar.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Footer.jsx
│   │   │   ├── HeroSection.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Timeline.jsx
│   │   │   ├── ChatInterface.jsx
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   ├── pages/               # Public & authenticated pages
│   │   │   ├── Home.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Dashboard.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Projects.jsx
│   │   │   ├── Chat.jsx
│   │   │   ├── FindMentor.jsx
│   │   │   └── ...
│   │   ├── admin/               # Admin panel
│   │   │   └── pages/
│   │   │       ├── AdminDashboard.jsx
│   │   │       ├── UserManagement.jsx
│   │   │       ├── ProjectManagement.jsx
│   │   │       ├── EventManagement.jsx
│   │   │       └── MemberManagement.jsx
│   │   ├── faculty/             # Faculty dashboard & event proposal
│   │   ├── mentor/              # Mentor dashboard & chat
│   │   ├── student/             # Student-specific features
│   │   ├── context/             # React context (AuthContext)
│   │   ├── constants/           # App-wide constants
│   │   ├── utils/               # Utility functions
│   │   └── App.jsx              # Root component with routing
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tailwind.config.cjs
│   └── vite.config.js
│
├── backend/                     # Express API server
│   ├── config/
│   │   ├── db.js                # MongoDB connection
│   │   └── cloudinaryConfig.js  # Cloudinary setup
│   ├── controllers/             # Route handlers
│   │   ├── authController.js
│   │   ├── projectController.js (via routes)
│   │   └── eventController.js
│   ├── models/                  # Mongoose schemas
│   │   ├── User.js
│   │   ├── Project.js
│   │   ├── Event.js
│   │   ├── Task.js
│   │   ├── Message.js
│   │   ├── Notification.js
│   │   ├── JoinRequest.js
│   │   ├── DoubtSession.js
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── routes/                  # API route definitions
│   │   ├── authRoutes.js
│   │   ├── projectRoutes.js
│   │   ├── eventRoutes.js
│   │   ├── chatHubRoutes.js
│   │   ├── doubtRoutes.js
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── middleware/              # Auth, rate limiting, error handling
│   ├── socket/                  # Socket.IO event handlers
│   ├── utils/                   # Email service, helpers
│   ├── tests/                   # Jest test suites
│   ├── server.js                # App entry point
│   └── package.json
│
└── README.md

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18
• npm ≥ 9
• MongoDB (local or MongoDB Atlas)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/KD2303/cidcell.git
cd cidcell

2. Backend Setup

cd backend
npm install

Create a .env file in the backend/ directory:

NODE_ENV=development
PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/mern_db2
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_here
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_google_client_secret
CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://your_cloudinary_url

Start the backend server:

npm start        # Production
npm run dev      # Development (with nodemon)

3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install

Start the frontend dev server:

npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:5173 (or the next available port).

4. Build for Production

cd frontend
npm run build     # Create optimized production build
npm run preview   # Preview production build locally

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🔑 API Routes

Prefix	Description
/api/auth	Google OAuth login, token verification
/api/users	User profile CRUD
/api/projects	Project CRUD, contributors, status
/api/events	Event CRUD, registration
/api/members	CID-Cell membership management
/api/tasks	Task assignment and tracking
/api/messages	Direct messaging
/api/project-messages	Project group chat messages
/api/chat	Chat hub (conversation list, history)
/api/doubts	Doubt sessions between students & mentors
/api/join-requests	Project join request workflow
/api/notifications	User notifications
/api/upload	File/image uploads via Cloudinary

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🧪 Testing

cd backend
npm test         # Runs Jest test suites

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🚢 Deployment

• Frontend — Deployed on Vercel → cidcell.vercel.app
• Backend — Can be deployed on Render, Railway, or any Node.js hosting
• Database — MongoDB Atlas recommended for production

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📜 Scripts

Frontend

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start Vite dev server with HMR
npm run build	Build for production
npm run preview	Preview production build locally

Backend

Command	Description
npm start	Start the server
npm run dev	Start with nodemon (auto-reload)
npm test	Run Jest test suites

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🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add your feature")
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

This project is private and maintained by the CID-Cell team, Department of CSE.

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Built with ❤️ by CID-Cell — CSE Department