WanderList

WanderList is a small Express + MongoDB web application for sharing travel listings and reviews. It includes user authentication, image uploads via Cloudinary, location maps using Mapbox, and a minimal responsive UI rendered with EJS.

This README documents how to set up, run and develop the project locally.

Features

• Create, read, update and delete travel listings
• Add reviews to listings (authenticated users)
• User authentication and sessions (Passport.js)
• Image uploads (Cloudinary)
• Location display using Mapbox
• Server-side validation with Joi

Requirements

• Node.js (recommended LTS) — package.json specifies an engines.node value but any modern Node 18+ should work
• MongoDB (Atlas cloud URI or local MongoDB)
• A Cloudinary account (for image uploads)
• A Mapbox account (for map and geocoding tokens)

Quick start

1. Install dependencies

   npm install

2. Create a .env file in the project root (see Environment variables below)

3. Start the app in development mode

   npm start

4. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser (default port configured in app.js)

Environment variables

Create a .env file at the project root and add the following keys (example names used in the codebase):

• ATLASDB_URL - MongoDB connection string (e.g. from MongoDB Atlas)
• SECRET - Session secret used by express-session
• CLOUD_NAME - Cloudinary cloud name
• CLOUD_API_KEY - Cloudinary API key
• CLOUD_API_SECRET - Cloudinary API secret
• MAP_TOKEN - Mapbox public token
• NODE_ENV - set to production in production deployments (optional)

Example .env (do not commit to source control):

ATLASDB_URL=mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@cluster0.example.mongodb.net/wanderlist?retryWrites=true&w=majority
SECRET=your_session_secret_here
CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUD_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_key
CLOUD_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_secret
MAP_TOKEN=your_mapbox_token
NODE_ENV=development

Project structure

• app.js — main Express application
• controllers/ — route handler logic
• models/ — Mongoose schemas (Listing, Review, User)
• routes/ — Express routers
• views/ — EJS templates
• public/ — static assets (CSS, client JS, images)
• middleware.js — custom middleware (e.g. auth, validation)
• cloudConfig.js — Cloudinary configuration
• schema.js — Joi validation schemas
• init/ — optional seed data or init scripts

Scripts

• npm start — starts the server using npx nodemon app.js (development)
• npm test — placeholder test script (no tests configured)

You can also run the app directly with node app.js but nodemon is convenient in development.

Notes on development

• The app uses connect-mongo to store sessions in MongoDB when ATLASDB_URL is provided.
• Image uploading uses multer + Cloudinary; cloudConfig.js reads Cloudinary credentials from environment variables.
• Map and geocoding features rely on Mapbox tokens (MAP_TOKEN).

Troubleshooting

• MongoDB connection errors: verify ATLASDB_URL and network access to Atlas (IP allowlist).
• Cloudinary upload errors: verify CLOUD_NAME, CLOUD_API_KEY, and CLOUD_API_SECRET.
• Map features not showing: ensure MAP_TOKEN is set and is a valid Mapbox token.

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Open a pull request with a clear description of changes

License

This project is published under the ISC license (see package.json).