Sojourn

Sojourn is a full-stack Airbnb-inspired listings platform built exclusively for Indian destinations. Users can explore, list, and review stays across categories with interactive maps, image uploads, and secure authentication.

🔗 Live Demo: sojourn-5dd8.onrender.com

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Features

• Browse & Filter — Explore listings across 8 curated categories (Mountains, Beaches, Farms, Castles, Caves, Arctic, Camping, Heritage) with a category chip filter system using GET query parameters
• Interactive Maps — Each listing is geocoded on creation and displayed with a MapTiler-powered map marker on the listing detail page
• User Authentication — Secure signup, login, and logout via Passport.js with session persistence using connect-mongo
• Image Uploads — Hosts can upload listing photos, stored and served via Cloudinary CDN
• Reviews — Authenticated users can post and delete reviews on listings
• Authorization — Listing and review operations are protected; only owners can edit or delete their content
• Flash Notifications — Real-time success and error feedback across all user actions
• Responsive UI — Clean, mobile-friendly interface built with Bootstrap 5

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Tech Stack

Backend

Technology	Role
Node.js	Runtime environment
Express.js	Web framework and routing
MongoDB	NoSQL database
Mongoose	ODM for schema modeling and validation
Passport.js	Authentication middleware (local strategy)
passport-local-mongoose	Simplifies Passport + Mongoose user model integration
express-session	Session management
connect-mongo	Persists sessions to MongoDB Atlas (survives server restarts)
method-override	Enables PUT/DELETE from HTML forms
connect-flash	Flash messages for user feedback

Frontend

Technology	Role
EJS	Server-side templating engine
EJS-Mate	Layout and partial support for EJS
Bootstrap 5	Responsive UI components and grid
Custom CSS	Brand palette, category chips, polaroid-style hero section

Cloud & Storage

Technology	Role
Cloudinary	Cloud image storage and delivery CDN
Multer	Multipart form handling for file uploads
multer-storage-cloudinary	Streams uploads directly from Multer to Cloudinary
MongoDB Atlas	Managed cloud database (with SRV DNS connection)

Maps & Geocoding

Technology	Role
MapTiler Geocoding API	Converts listing addresses to GeoJSON coordinates on creation
MapTiler Maps SDK	Renders interactive map with listing markers on the detail page
GeoJSON	Geometry stored directly in the Mongoose listing schema

Validation & Error Handling

Technology	Role
Joi	Server-side schema validation for listings and reviews
wrapAsync	Custom utility to propagate async errors to Express error handler
Custom ExpressError	Centralized error class with status codes and messages

Developer Tools

Technology	Role
dotenv	Environment variable management
Prettier	Code formatting

Deployment

Technology	Role
Render	Cloud platform for hosting the Node.js server
MongoDB Atlas	Production database
Cloudinary	Production image storage

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Project Structure

sojourn/
├── controllers/        # Route handler logic (listings, reviews, users)
├── models/             # Mongoose schemas (Listing, Review, User)
├── routes/             # Express routers (listings, reviews, auth)
├── views/              # EJS templates and layouts
│   ├── layouts/        # EJS-Mate base layout
│   ├── listings/       # Index, show, new, edit views
│   └── users/          # Login and signup views
├── public/             # Static assets (CSS, JS, images)
├── init/               # Database seeding scripts
├── utilities/          # wrapAsync, ExpressError
├── middleware.js       # Auth and ownership guards
├── schema.js           # Joi validation schemas
├── cloudConfig.js      # Cloudinary configuration
└── app.js              # Express app entry point

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Architecture Highlights

• MVC Pattern — Clear separation of models, views, and controllers
• Session Persistence — connect-mongo ensures sessions survive server cold starts on Render's free tier
• Geocoding on Write — Listing coordinates are resolved at creation time via MapTiler and stored as GeoJSON in MongoDB, keeping map rendering fast
• Owner-only Authorization — Middleware guards check req.user._id against listing/review ownership before allowing edits or deletes
• Centralized Error Handling — All async route handlers are wrapped with wrapAsync; errors flow to a single Express error-handling middleware

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Demo Credentials

Role	Username	Password
Host	TestHost	test1234
Guest	TestGuest	test1234

Seeded Data

The database includes 12 sample listings across 8 categories, covering Indian destinations from Leh-Ladakh to Kerala backwaters, with test accounts for both host and guest roles.

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Built by Siddhi Pandey