PollForge

PollForge is a full-stack polling platform for creating shareable polls with multiple-choice and text-response questions, collecting anonymous or authenticated feedback, watching live analytics, and publishing final results on the same public link.

Features

• Email/password authentication with protected creator routes.
• Dynamic poll builder with multiple questions, required/optional validation, multiple-choice questions, and free-text response questions.
• Anonymous and authenticated response modes.
• Per-device duplicate protection for anonymous polls to prevent repeated responses from the same browser/device.
• API rate limiting, response attempt limits, and response cooldowns to reduce spam and rapid automation.
• Customizable post-submit thank-you popup with required PollForge attribution.
• Public poll links at /p/:pollId.
• Expiry timestamps that stop further submissions after the deadline.
• Creator analytics with total responses, question summaries, option counts, text responses, skipped counts, and completion rate.
• Publish flow that exposes final results publicly on the same poll link with collapsed question cards and expandable details.
• Socket.io realtime updates for live response counts and analytics refreshes.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, Vite, Socket.io client
• Backend: Express, TypeScript, MongoDB, Mongoose, JWT, bcryptjs, Socket.io

Local Setup

Install dependencies:

cd backend
npm install
cd ../frontend
npm install

Create backend/.env:

PORT=your_port
MONGODB_URI=your_uri_here
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_here
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173

Optionally create frontend/.env:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:PORT

For deployment, set the same backend variables on your backend host:

MONGODB_URI=your-mongodb-connection-string
JWT_SECRET=your-random_secret
FRONTEND_URL=your-frontend-url

If either MONGODB_URI or JWT_SECRET is missing, authentication cannot work.

Run the backend:

cd backend
npm run dev

Run the frontend:

cd frontend
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173.

Main API Routes

• POST /api/auth/register
• POST /api/auth/login
• GET /api/auth/me
• GET /api/polls/mine
• POST /api/polls
• GET /api/polls/:id
• POST /api/polls/:id/responses
• GET /api/polls/:id/analytics
• POST /api/polls/:id/publish

Abuse Protection

• General API traffic is limited to 100 requests per 5 minutes per client.
• Poll response submissions are limited to 10 attempts per minute.
• Valid response writes use a 30-second cooldown per poll/user or poll/device.
• Anonymous poll responses include a persistent browser device id so one browser/device cannot submit twice to the same poll.

Submission Links

• Public GitHub repository: https://github.com/Subhransu9889/PollForge
• Deployed project: https://pollforge-nine.vercel.app