ToolKart E-commerce

ToolKart is a demo full-stack e-commerce experience built with a vanilla HTML/CSS/JS frontend and an Express + MongoDB backend. The project is organised into two workspaces:

• frontend/ – static pages, shared assets, and small ES modules that consume the backend APIs. Pages cover Home, Shop, About, Contact, Cart, Login, and the Admin console.
• backend/ – REST API using Express, Mongoose, JWT auth, and demo store fallbacks when MongoDB is unavailable.

Feature highlights

• Role-based authentication with HTTP-only session cookies
• Fixed admin seeding (ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_PASSWORD) plus standard customer accounts
• Strict route guards: admins are forced into the dashboard, customers are blocked from /admin
• Admin dashboard with real CRUD for categories and products, including local image uploads stored in /uploads
• Customer storefront with “Shop by Category” cards (category image + name) and category-filtered shop views

Getting started

1. Install dependencies (network access required):

   cd backend
   npm install

2. Configure environment variables (see backend/.env for defaults). At minimum provide:

   ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@toolkart.com
   ADMIN_PASSWORD=Admin@123
   ADMIN_NAME=ToolKart Admin

3. Start the API:

   npm run dev

   The server listens on http://localhost:3000 and serves uploaded images from /uploads.
4. Serve the frontend directory with your favourite static server (VS Code Live Preview, npx http-server frontend, etc.).

Session tip: admin and customer sessions share one HTTP-only cookie. Use separate browser profiles/windows if you need to be logged in as both roles at once.

Admin workflow

1. Log in with the seeded admin credentials.
2. The public navigation hides automatically and you are redirected to /admin.
3. Create or update categories/products.
   • Image inputs accept local files (multipart uploads). Files are written to /uploads and the API returns the public URL.
   • Edit/delete actions are available directly in the tables.

Customer workflow

• Customers land on / and see category cards rendered with the stored category image.
• Selecting a category opens /shop?category=<slug> and filters the product grid accordingly.
• Admin-only pages redirect customers to /login.

Additional docs

• backend/README.md – API routes, scripts, and environment variables
• frontend/README.md – directory overview and API configuration hints