Nexus Events - Premium Event Booking System

Nexus Events is a full-stack, industry-standard event management and booking platform. It features a premium, responsive frontend built with Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS and a robust RESTful API backend built with Flask, SQLAlchemy, and JWT authentication.

Features

• Premium UI/UX: Dark theme with glassmorphism effects, CSS grid layouts, smooth transitions, and responsive design.
• Event Catalog: Browse upcoming events with real-time search and category filtering.
• Authentication: Secure user registration and login using JWT (JSON Web Tokens).
• Booking System: Select ticket quantities, view dynamic availability, and book tickets.
• Dev-Mode Checkout: Fully functional local development mode that simulates Stripe checkout without requiring API keys.
• User Dashboard: View purchased tickets with beautiful, interactive ticket stubs (complete with mock QR codes).
• Admin Dashboard: Dedicated admin panel to create, edit, and delete events, as well as view all platform bookings and revenue statistics.
• Toast Notifications: Custom non-blocking alert system for user feedback.
• Skeleton Loaders: Shimmering placeholders during data fetches to improve perceived performance.

Tech Stack

Frontend:

• HTML5 / CSS3 (CSS Variables, Flexbox, Grid)
• Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+, Fetch API)
• No external CSS/JS frameworks required

Backend:

• Python 3
• Flask (REST API routing)
• Flask-SQLAlchemy (ORM & SQLite Database)
• Flask-JWT-Extended (Authentication)
• Stripe Python SDK (Payment processing)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• A modern web browser
• A local web server (like VS Code Live Server or Python's http.server) to serve the frontend files.

Backend Setup

1. Navigate to the backend directory:

   cd backend

2. (Optional but recommended) Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Environment Variables: Copy the provided example file to create your own configuration.

   cp .env.example .env

   Note: For local development, the default values in .env.example (or even without a .env file) will enable a "Dev Mode" that bypasses actual Stripe API calls so you can test the booking flow immediately.

5. Seed the Database: Populate the SQLite database with initial events and users.

   python seed.py

6. Start the Flask Server:

   python app.py

   The backend API will run at http://127.0.0.1:5000.

Frontend Setup

The frontend consists of static files that need to be served over HTTP (not the file:// protocol) due to CORS and module requirements.

1. Navigate to the project root (where index.html is located).

2. Start a local static server. Using Python:

   python -m http.server 5500

   Or use the VS Code "Live Server" extension.

3. Open the app: Navigate your browser to http://127.0.0.1:5500.

Demo Credentials

The seed.py script automatically creates two accounts you can use to test the application:

Role	Email	Password	Access
Admin	admin@nexus.com	password123	Can access Admin Dashboard, create/delete events
User	jane@example.com	password123	Standard user, can book tickets

Going to Production (Stripe Integration)

To enable real payments:

1. Obtain your API keys from the Stripe Dashboard.
2. Edit your backend/.env file and replace the mock key with your real Test Secret Key (sk_test_...).
3. The application will automatically detect the valid key format and route checkouts through Stripe's hosted payment pages.

License

MIT License