Feedback System

A full-stack application that allows users to submit feedback and provides an admin interface to view submitted feedback.

Overview

This project provides a feedback collection system with a secure admin panel. Users can submit feedback through a form, and administrators can view all submitted feedback after authentication.

Project Structure

backend/
├── config/
│   └── db.js               # Database connection
├── controllers/
│   └── feedbackController.js # Controller functions
├── middlewares/
│   └── authMiddleware.js   # Authentication middleware
├── models/
│   └── Feedback.js         # Feedback data model
├── routes/
│   └── feedbackRoutes.js   # API routes
├── node_modules/           # Node.js dependencies
├── .env                    # Environment variables
├── .gitignore              # Git ignore file
├── index.js                # Main application entry point
├── package-lock.json       # Dependency lock file
├── package.json            # Project configuration
└── README.md               # This documentation

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Database: MongoDB with Mongoose ODM
• Authentication: JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
• Validation: validator.js
• Environment Variables: dotenv

Features

• User feedback submission
• Admin authentication
• Secure access to feedback data
• Input validation
• Error handling
• JWT-based authentication

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/feedback-system.git
   cd feedback-system

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Create an .env file in the root directory and configure the environment variables (see Environment Variables section).

4. Start the development server:

   npm run dev

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following variables:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/feedback-system
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key
ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
ADMIN_PASSWORD=strong_password
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description	Authentication Required
POST	/api/submit-feedback	Submit new feedback	No
POST	/api/admin/login	Admin login	No
GET	/api/feedbacks	Retrieve all feedback submissions	Yes (Admin)
GET	/api/check-auth	Check authentication status	Yes (Admin)

Authentication

The system uses JWT for authentication:

1. Admin logs in with credentials
2. Server generates JWT token and sets an HTTP-only cookie
3. Protected routes verify the token via middleware
4. Token expires after 1 hour

Development

To run the project in development mode:

npm run dev

This will start the server with hot-reloading enabled.

Deployment

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14+)
• MongoDB

Deployment Steps

1. Set up your production environment variables (similar to development but with production values)
2. Build the project (if applicable)

   npm run build

3. Start the production server

   npm start

Deploying to a Cloud Provider

Heroku

heroku create
git push heroku main
heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production
heroku config:set MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_uri
heroku config:set JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
heroku config:set ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
heroku config:set ADMIN_PASSWORD=secure_password
heroku config:set CLIENT_URL=https://your-frontend-url.com

Security

• JWT tokens for authentication
• HTTP-only cookies for token storage
• Environment variables for sensitive information
• Passwords never stored in plain text
• Input validation to prevent injection attacks
• CORS configuration to control access