Online Auction Platform 🚀

A full-stack web application for real‑time auctions: users can register as sellers or buyers, list auction items, place bids, and track auctions in a secure, responsive environment.

🔍 Features

• User authentication: Registration, login (with hashed passwords), session management.
• Role-based accounts: Sellers can create auctions; buyers can place bids.
• Auction listings: Sellers list items with title, description, starting bid, end time, and images.
• Live bidding: Buyers place bids that update in real time (via WebSockets or polling).
• Bid history: Every bid is stored—buyers can view item-specific bid history.
• Auction engine: Automatically ends auctions; determines winner and handles notifications/payment.
• Responsive UI: Optimized for both desktop and mobile users.

🧭 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Node.js, Express
Frontend	React (or Angular/Vue)
Real-time	socket.io (or SSE)
Database	MongoDB (or MySQL)
Authentication	JWT (or sessions + bcrypt)
Storage	AWS S3 or Cloudinary (for item images)

🏁 Quick Start

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/mohithbanka/Online-Auction-Platform.git
   cd Online-Auction-Platform

2. Backend setup

   cd server
   npm install
   cp .env.example .env
   # Update .env with DB credentials, JWT_SECRET, etc.
   npm run dev

3. Frontend setup

   cd ../client
   npm install
   cp .env.example .env
   # Update .env variables (e.g., REACT_APP_API_BASE_URL)
   npm start

4. Visit the app

   Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000 (or whichever port your client runs on).

✅ Folder Structure

/
├── server/         # Express backend
│   ├── controllers/    # Route handlers
│   ├── models/         # DB schemas
│   ├── routes/         # API endpoints
│   ├── services/       # Business logic, notifications
│   └── app.js          # Main server
└── client/         # Frontend React app
    ├── public/
    └── src/
        ├── components/ # Reusable UI components
        ├── pages/      # Screens (Home, Auction, Login)
        ├── store/      # Redux or Context
        └── App.js      # Entry point

⚙️ Environment Variables

Server .env

PORT=4000
MONGO_URI=<your_mongo_uri>
JWT_SECRET=<some_secret>
S3_BUCKET=<...>            # If using AWS S3
S3_ACCESS_KEY=
S3_SECRET_KEY=

Client .env

REACT_APP_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4000/api

🚀 Running the App

• Start the backend:
  cd server && npm run dev

• Start the frontend:
  cd client && npm start

• Navigate to http://localhost:3000 to explore!

🎯 Usage

1. Sign up as seller or buyer.
2. Sellers can create an auction by uploading images, setting starting bid, and end date.
3. Buyers browse listings, place bids, and view the bidding history on each item.
4. When the auction ends, the highest bidder wins—notification/payment logic can be implemented.

🧪 Testing

• Backend tests:
  cd server && npm test

• Frontend tests (if available):
  cd client && npm test

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/awesome-stuff
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add awesome feature'
4. Push and open a PR
5. Fill out the PR template, link issues

🙌 Acknowledgements

• Inspired by popular platforms like eBay, Auctionity
• StackOverflow contributors
• Any design assets or libraries you’ve used (e.g. Bootstrap, Tailwind, FontAwesome)