PawPal is a web platform for pet owners and institutions to connect, manage pet details, and facilitate pet adoption through user-friendly features like authentication, pet management, appointment scheduling, and journaling.

It is a web application developed as part of the CS546 course at Stevens Institute of Technology. It provides a platform for pet owners and pet institutions to interact, manage pet details, and facilitate pet adoption.

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

To set up and run PawPal, ensure you have the following dependencies installed:

• Node.js: Required for running the server-side JavaScript environment.
• MongoDB: Used as the database for storing application data.

Additionally, the following Node.js packages are required for the project:

• bcrypt: Used for hashing and securing passwords.
• bcryptjs: An alternative library for password hashing; used in case of compatibility issues with bcrypt.
• express: The primary framework for building web applications in Node.js.
• express-handlebars: A templating engine used to render views in Express.
• express-session: Enables session management, allowing you to maintain user sessions between HTTP requests.
• mongodb: Provides the MongoDB client for interacting with the MongoDB database.
• @elasticemail/elasticemail-client: Email client for sending emails.
• @material/snackbar: Material design snackbar for UI feedback.
• axios: HTTP client for making requests.
• bootstrap: Front-end framework for styling.
• cors: Middleware to enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.
• fs: Node.js file system module.
• moment: Library for handling dates and times.
• multer: Middleware for handling file uploads.
• otp-generator: Library for generating one-time passwords (OTPs).
• sanitize-html: Library for sanitizing HTML input.
• xss: Library for preventing Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.

Make sure these packages are installed as part of your setup process. You can use npm install to install all the required dependencies as defined in the project's package.json.

1. Clone the repository: Use git clone https://github.com/Akshat2634/PawPal.git to clone the repository to your local machine.
2. Install dependencies: Navigate to the project directory and use npm install to install the necessary packages for the project.
3. Seed the database: Use npm run seed to seed.
4. Start the server: Use npm start to start the server.
5. The password for all users and institutions in the seed file is User@123 One Sample email for User - meghna123@gmail.com One Sample email for Institution - institution1@gmail.com

Once the server is running, navigate to http://localhost:3000 in your web browser. You can login as a user or an institution, manage pets, and interact with other users or institutions.

• User Authentication: Users can securely register and login to their accounts using the login route.
• Institution Authentication: Institutions can securely register and login to their accounts.
• User Dashboard: Once logged in, users are redirected to their dashboard where they can view their pets and manage them.
• Institution Dashboard: Institutions have their own dashboard to manage their details.
• Pet Management: Users can add, update, and delete their pets' details.
• Institution Interaction: Users can interact with institutions for pet adoption.
• Appointment Scheduling: Users can schedule appointments with institutions.
• Post Creation: Users and institutions can create posts.
• Commenting: Users and institutions can comment on posts.
• Reviews: Users can leave reviews for institutions.
• Login Type Selection: Users can choose the type of login (user or institution) they want to proceed with.
• Session Management: The application maintains user sessions, ensuring a seamless user experience.
• Error Handling: The application handles errors effectively, ensuring that users are informed when an error occurs (e.g., error retrieving pets).
• Journaling: A digital scrapbook to capture a user's pets' memories and their daily activities, complete with personalized notes and optional photo uploads.

• This project was developed as part of Group 39 of CS546 at Stevens Institute of Technology.
• We would like to thank our professor and TAs for their continuous support and guidance.