EventSphere — Elite Event Management Platform

A full-stack MERN ticketing platform with real QR-based check-in, Razorpay payments, automated PDF tickets, AI-powered event recommendations, and complete organizer/attendee/admin workflows.

Live demo: cdacb-eventsphere.vercel.app

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Features

For attendees

• Browse events by category, city, and price range with pagination
• Interactive seat-grid selection with real-time tier pricing
• Secure payments via Razorpay (test mode supported)
• Real PDF tickets emailed automatically after booking, with a clickable Google Maps link to the venue
• Cryptographically signed QR codes for check-in
• Cancel bookings with automatic refunds and email confirmation
• Waitlist auto-notification when a sold-out event frees up a seat
• Leave and read reviews on event pages
• Real-time in-app notifications (booking confirmed, cancelled, waitlist seat opened, organizer messages)
• Auto-logout after 5 minutes of inactivity for shared-device security

For organizers

• Create and edit events with banner image upload, ticket tiers, and seat counts
• Dashboard with charts (bookings per event, revenue trend, category breakdown) and CSV export
• QR scanner for check-in, scoped to a specific event to prevent wrong-event check-ins
• Broadcast messages (email + in-app notification) to all confirmed attendees of an event
• View waitlist details (who's waiting, how long) for sold-out events
• Get notified when an attendee cancels their booking

For admins

• Approve or reject submitted events
• Manage user accounts (activate/deactivate)
• Platform-wide stats: total users, events, bookings, revenue

Platform-wide

• AI-powered "similar events" recommendations on event pages (via Claude)
• Branded animated splash screen on load
• Dark/light mode
• Rate limiting on login/register to prevent brute-force attacks
• Database-level race-condition protection (two people can't book the same seat simultaneously)
• Fully responsive across mobile, tablet, and desktop

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Tech stack

Frontend: React 18, Vite, React Router, Tailwind CSS, Chart.js, jsPDF, jsQR Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose), JWT auth, bcrypt Integrations: Razorpay (payments), Brevo (transactional email), Claude API (AI recommendations) Deployment: Vercel (frontend), Render (backend), MongoDB Atlas (database)

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Project structure

EventSphere/
├── backend/
│   ├── config/          # Database connection
│   ├── middleware/       # Auth middleware
│   ├── models/           # Mongoose schemas (User, Event, Booking, Rating, Notification)
│   ├── routes/           # API routes (auth, events, bookings, admin, payments, notifications, ratings)
│   ├── utils/            # Email templates, helpers
│   ├── seed.js           # Database seeding script
│   └── server.js         # Express app entry point
└── frontend/
    ├── public/           # Static assets, fonts, robots.txt, sitemap.xml
    └── src/
        ├── components/   # Navbar, SplashScreen, etc.
        ├── context/      # Auth context
        ├── hooks/        # useResponsive
        ├── pages/        # All route pages
        ├── services/     # API client (axios)
        └── utils/        # Ticket image/PDF generation, confetti animation

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Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• A MongoDB Atlas cluster (or local MongoDB)
• A Brevo account (free tier) for sending emails
• A Razorpay account (test mode) for payments

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Ajay-Shinde-16/EventSphere.git
cd EventSphere

2. Backend setup

cd backend
npm install

Create a .env file in backend/ with:

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
ADMIN_SECRET_KEY=your_admin_registration_key
EMAIL_USER=your_sender_email
BREVO_API_KEY=your_brevo_api_key
RAZORPAY_KEY_ID=your_razorpay_test_key_id
RAZORPAY_KEY_SECRET=your_razorpay_test_key_secret
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173

Start the backend:

npm run dev

3. Frontend setup

cd frontend
npm install

Create a .env file in frontend/ with:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api

Start the frontend:

npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:5173.

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Environment variables reference

Backend

Variable	Description
PORT	Server port (defaults to 5000)
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Secret key for signing auth tokens
ADMIN_SECRET_KEY	Secret key required to register an admin account
EMAIL_USER	Sender email address shown on outgoing emails
BREVO_API_KEY	API key from Brevo for sending transactional emails
RAZORPAY_KEY_ID	Razorpay test/live key ID
RAZORPAY_KEY_SECRET	Razorpay test/live key secret
FRONTEND_URL	URL of the deployed frontend (used in email links)

Frontend

Variable	Description
VITE_API_URL	Base URL of the backend API (must include /api suffix)

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Deployment

This project is deployed with:

• Frontend: Vercel — auto-deploys from the main branch
• Backend: Render — auto-deploys from the main branch
• Database: MongoDB Atlas

When deploying your own instance, set the same environment variables in each platform's dashboard rather than committing a .env file.

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Testing payments

Razorpay's test mode lets you simulate a full payment flow without real money:

• Test card: 4111 1111 1111 1111, any future expiry, any CVV
• Test UPI: success@razorpay (instant success, no OTP)

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License

This project was built as part of a PGCP AC program at C-DAC Bangalore, 2026.

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Author

Ajay Shinde