Classify - College Helper App

Classify is a full-stack web application designed to serve as a modern helper tool for college students. It features a secure authentication system built with a robust Spring Boot backend and an interactive, responsive frontend powered by React.

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✨ Preview

Here's a glimpse of the Classify application.

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🚀 Features

• Secure User Authentication: Safe and secure user sign-up and login functionality using Spring Security.
• JWT-based Authorization: Stateless API secured with JSON Web Tokens for authenticated user sessions.
• Responsive Frontend: A clean and modern UI built with React that works seamlessly across different devices.
• RESTful API: A well-structured backend API for handling all application logic.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend

• Java 17+
• Spring Boot: For building the REST API.
• Spring Security: For handling authentication and authorization.
• MySQL: As the relational database for storing user data.
• Maven: For project dependency management.

Frontend

• React: For building the user interface.
• Vite: As the frontend build tool and development server.
• CSS: For styling the application.
• Context API: For state management.

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🏁 Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a local copy up and running.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed on your machine:

• Java JDK 17 or later
• Apache Maven
• Node.js and npm
• MySQL Server
• A Git client (Git SCM)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone [https://github.com/vanshmehandru/Classify.git](https://github.com/vanshmehandru/Classify.git)
cd Classify

2. Set Up the MySQL Database

1. Open your MySQL client (like MySQL Workbench or the command-line interface).

2. Run the following SQL commands to create the database and a dedicated user.

   CREATE DATABASE classifydb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
   CREATE USER 'classify'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON classifydb.* TO 'classify'@'%';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

3. Configure and Run the Backend

1. Navigate to the backend directory.

   cd classify-backend

2. The backend is already configured to connect to the database via the src/main/resources/application.yml file. When the application starts, it will automatically create the necessary users table from src/main/resources/schema.sql.

3. Run the Spring Boot application using the Maven wrapper.

   On Windows (PowerShell or CMD):

   ./mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

   On macOS/Linux:

   ./mvnw spring-boot:run

   The backend server will start on http://localhost:8080. Leave this terminal running.

4. Configure and Run the Frontend

1. Open a new terminal and navigate back to the project's root directory.

   # If you are in classify-backend, go back one level
   cd .. 

2. Install the required npm packages.

   npm install

3. Create an environment file to tell the frontend where the backend API is. Create a new file named .env in the root directory and add the following line:

   VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080
   

4. Start the Vite development server.

   npm run dev

   Your frontend application will now be running and accessible at http://localhost:5173 (or another port if 5173 is busy).

You can now open the application in your browser and use the Sign-Up and Login features!