RideFlow — Real-Time Vehicle Sharing Platform

RideFlow is a production-style peer-to-peer mobility platform that enables users to list, discover, and book vehicles in real time.

The platform is engineered using modern full-stack technologies and cloud-native deployment patterns, featuring secure JWT authentication, Google OAuth, live booking workflows, scalable media uploads, role-based user management, and AWS-based production deployment architecture.

Built to simulate real-world distributed systems challenges such as booking concurrency, async workflows, authentication security, cloud storage, and scalable API communication.

🚀 Production Features

JWT-based authentication and protected API routes
Google OAuth integration
Real-time booking lifecycle management
Booking overlap prevention and concurrency handling
Cloud-based image upload pipeline using Cloudinary
AWS deployment architecture (S3 + CloudFront + Elastic Beanstalk)
Role-based access control
RESTful API architecture
Responsive React frontend
Secure environment-based configuration
Scalable MERN stack architecture
Transaction and simulated wallet infrastructure (demo ledger, not production payments)

🏗️ System Architecture

                    ┌──────────────────────┐
                    │    React Frontend    │
                    │  Rider / Owner UI    │
                    └─────────┬────────────┘
                              │
                              │ HTTPS / REST APIs
                              ▼
                    ┌──────────────────────┐
                    │    Node.js Backend   │
                    │   Express REST API   │
                    └───────┬───────┬─────┘
                            │       │
                            │       │
              ┌─────────────▼──┐    │
              │    MongoDB      │    │
              │ Users/Bookings  │    │
              └────────────────┘    │
                                    │
                    ┌───────────────▼────────────┐
                    │ Cloudinary Media Storage   │
                    │ Vehicle/Profile Uploads    │
                    └────────────────────────────┘

        AWS Deployment Layer
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Frontend → S3 + CloudFront
Backend  → Elastic Beanstalk / ECS
Secrets  → AWS Secrets Manager
DNS      → Route53

⚡ Engineering Challenges Solved

Booking concurrency

Implemented booking overlap validation so conflicting pickup/drop-off windows cannot be confirmed for the same vehicle, reducing double-booking risk in a request-based workflow.

Authentication security

Integrated JWT for authenticated API access together with Google OAuth on the client; sensitive routes use middleware-backed authorization.

Scalable media uploads

Delegated vehicle and profile images to Cloudinary instead of storing binary assets on the application server, keeping the API stateless and upload throughput scalable.

Cloud deployment

Documented and aligned the codebase with an AWS-shaped deployment path: static frontend on S3 behind CloudFront, Node API on Elastic Beanstalk (or ECS), secrets externalized, DNS via Route 53.

Role-based workflows

Separate flows for renters, vehicle owners (listing and rental requests), and admin-side verification review for optional identity checks.

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

React
JavaScript
Tailwind CSS
Axios
React Router

Backend

Node.js
Express.js
JWT authentication
Google OAuth (token exchange via backend)
REST APIs
Mongoose

Database

MongoDB (Atlas recommended for production)

Cloud and DevOps

AWS S3
AWS CloudFront
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Route 53
Docker (planned)
GitHub Actions (planned)

Media and integrations

Cloudinary
Google OAuth APIs

Prerequisites

Node.js (LTS)
MongoDB (Atlas or local URI)
Google Cloud OAuth Web Client ID
Cloudinary cloud name and unsigned upload preset

Quick start

From the repository root:

npm run install:all

Backend — backend/.env:

MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/rideflow
JWT_SECRET=your_long_random_secret
PORT=5000
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_id.apps.googleusercontent.com
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

Frontend — frontend/.env:

REACT_APP_API_URL=http://localhost:5000
REACT_APP_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_id.apps.googleusercontent.com
REACT_APP_CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
REACT_APP_CLOUDINARY_UPLOAD_PRESET=your_unsigned_preset

Run:

npm run dev

URL	Role
http://localhost:3000	React UI
http://localhost:5000	Express API

Root npm scripts

Command	Description
`npm run dev`	Backend + frontend development servers
`npm run dev:backend`	Backend only
`npm run start:frontend`	Frontend only
`npm run install:all`	Install dependencies at root, backend, and frontend

📡 API Overview

Representative REST surface (all prefixed by your deployed API origin, e.g. https://api.example.com).

Authentication

Method	Path	Notes
`POST`	`/api/auth/google-login`	Google OAuth sign-in / signup
`POST`	`/api/auth/complete-profile`	Finish profile after OAuth (protected)
`GET`	`/api/auth/me`	Current user (protected)
`PATCH`	`/api/auth/profile`	Update profile (protected)
`POST`	`/api/auth/upload-profile-picture`	Profile image (protected)
`POST`	`/api/auth/upload-citizenship`	Optional ID upload (protected)
`GET`	`/api/auth/pending-verifications`	Admin: pending reviews (protected)
`POST`	`/api/auth/verify-user/:userId`	Admin: approve/reject (protected)

Vehicles

Method	Path	Notes
`GET`	`/api/vehicles`	Public marketplace list
`POST`	`/api/vehicles/add`	Create listing (protected)
`GET`	`/api/vehicles/my-vehicles`	Owner inventory (protected)
`PATCH`	`/api/vehicles/:vehicleId/status`	Active / inactive (protected)
`DELETE`	`/api/vehicles/:vehicleId`	Delete listing (protected)

Bookings

Method	Path	Notes
`POST`	`/api/bookings`	Create booking request (protected)
`GET`	`/api/bookings/user`	Renter bookings (protected)
`GET`	`/api/bookings/owner`	Owner rental requests (protected)
`GET`	`/api/bookings/:bookingId`	Booking detail (protected)
`PATCH`	`/api/bookings/:bookingId/status`	Owner confirm/reject (protected)
`PATCH`	`/api/bookings/:bookingId/cancel`	Cancel flow (protected)

Payments and simulated wallet

Method	Path	Notes
`POST`	`/api/payment/demo`	Process simulated wallet payment (protected)
`GET`	`/api/payment/booking/:bookingId`	Payment by booking (protected)
`GET`	`/api/payment/user/history`	Transaction history (protected)
`POST`	`/api/payment/refund/:paymentId`	Refund marker for demos (protected)
`DELETE`	`/api/payment/user/clear-history`	Clear visible history (protected)

Recommendations

Method	Path	Notes
`GET`	`/api/recommendations/:userId`	Personalized vehicle suggestions

Health

Method	Path	Notes
`GET`	`/api/health`	Liveness check

☁️ Cloud Deployment Architecture

RideFlow maps cleanly onto AWS: MongoDB Atlas for data (recommended), S3 + CloudFront for the React production build, and Elastic Beanstalk or ECS Fargate for the Express API. Use Route 53 for DNS and Secrets Manager or SSM Parameter Store for JWT_SECRET, MONGODB_URI, and OAuth configuration.

Typical steps

Provision Atlas; allow outbound from your compute tier; inject MONGODB_URI via secrets.
Deploy the backend with environment variables (PORT, JWT_SECRET, GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, FRONTEND_URL pointing at your CloudFront URL).
Build the frontend with REACT_APP_API_URL set to the API URL; upload frontend/build to S3; front it with CloudFront (SPA fallback to index.html).
Register OAuth origins for CloudFront and API URLs in Google Cloud Console.
Replace simulated wallet infrastructure with a regulated payment provider before accepting real funds.

📈 Scalability Improvements

Planned production-scale enhancements:

Redis caching for hot reads and session-adjacent data
WebSocket-based real-time notifications
Queue-backed async jobs (e.g. BullMQ)
Dockerized services and repeatable environments
Kubernetes orchestration for multi-service scale-out
CI/CD with GitHub Actions
Distributed booking and payment event processing
Payment gateway integration (e.g. Stripe)
Observability with Prometheus / Grafana

📸 Screenshots

Landing is captured from the running app (Google sign-in entry). Vehicles, booking, and wallet images are high-fidelity UI previews aligned with the shipped screens; those routes are behind authentication, so they were rendered for documentation consistency—swap in your own captures anytime from /vehicles, /book-now, and /transactions (or dashboard wallet tab) after signing in.

Landing Page

Vehicle browsing

Booking flow

Simulated wallet / transactions

Repository layout

rideflow/
├── backend/       Express API, Mongoose models, middleware
├── frontend/      React SPA
└── Documentation/ Extended references (optional)

Deep dives: Documentation/.

License

Coursework / portfolio demonstration — adapt the license for your distribution needs.

Remote: github.com/samarth1412/RideFlow

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 6 Commits
Documentation		Documentation
backend		backend
frontend		frontend
node_modules		node_modules
screenshots		screenshots
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
render.yaml		render.yaml

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RideFlow — Real-Time Vehicle Sharing Platform

🚀 Production Features

🏗️ System Architecture

⚡ Engineering Challenges Solved

Booking concurrency

Authentication security

Scalable media uploads

Cloud deployment

Role-based workflows

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

Backend

Database

Cloud and DevOps

Media and integrations

Prerequisites

Quick start

Root npm scripts

📡 API Overview

Authentication

Vehicles

Bookings

Payments and simulated wallet

Recommendations

Health

☁️ Cloud Deployment Architecture

📈 Scalability Improvements

📸 Screenshots

Landing Page

Vehicle browsing

Booking flow

Simulated wallet / transactions

Repository layout

License

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