Elearning

An end-to-end e‑learning platform with course management, quizzes, certificates, enrollment and progress tracking, discussion forums, and a modern, responsive UI. The project is a monorepo with a React client and an Express/MongoDB server.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Repository Structure
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Running Locally
• Build & Production
• API Overview
• Security & Performance
• Deployment
• Contributing
• License

Overview

This platform enables admins to create and manage courses, quizzes, and content; and empowers learners with a rich course player, interactive quizzes, discussion forums, and downloadable certificates upon completion. Refer to ENHANCED_FEATURES.md for a comprehensive description of the latest functionality and data models.

Features

• Admin

  • Login/Signup
  • Manage users
  • Add blogs/articles
  • Add video courses
  • Add and manage certification test questions
  • Logout

• User

  • Login/Signup
  • Profile and learning dashboard
  • Read blogs/articles
  • Run in‑browser code editor
  • Take paid certification tests
  • Download completion certificates
  • Logout

Additional highlights (see ENHANCED_FEATURES.md for details):

• Enrollment with detailed lesson progress, notes, and analytics
• Advanced quiz system (MCQ, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, essay), time limits, attempts, scoring
• Certificate generation with unique IDs, QR/verification code, and PDF export
• Course-specific discussion forums with moderation tools and engagement metrics
• Modern, responsive UI/UX with improved navigation and accessibility

Tech Stack

• Client

  • React 18 (Create React App)
  • React Router v6
  • Bootstrap 5, Tailwind CSS (utility-first styling)
  • Axios, React Icons, React Bootstrap, Headless UI
  • Ace Editor integrations (react-ace, ace-builds)
  • PDF/Canvas utils (jspdf, html2canvas)

• Server

  • Node.js, Express
  • MongoDB, Mongoose
  • JWT authentication
  • Multer (uploads), Nodemailer (email), Express Validator
  • Google OAuth 2.0 (passport, passport-google-oauth20)
  • CORS, dotenv

• Deployment

  • Client: Vercel
  • Server: Render.com
  • Database: MongoDB Atlas

Repository Structure

Elearning/
├── client/                 # React SPA (Create React App)
│   ├── src/
│   ├── public/
│   ├── package.json        # CRA scripts: start, build, test, eject
│   └── tailwind.config.js
└── server/                 # Express API
    ├── controllers/
    ├── routes/
    ├── models/
    ├── middleware/
    ├── util/
    ├── app.js              # Server entrypoint
    └── package.json        # scripts: start (nodemon), build

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB (local or Atlas)

Install Dependencies

• Client
  • cd client && npm install
• Server
  • cd server && npm install

Environment Variables

Create .env files for both client and server. The following keys are used across the project:

• Client (client/.env)

  • REACT_APP_API_URL = https://your-server-url.com

• Server (server/.env)

  • DB_URL = your-mongodb-connection-string
  • JWT_SECRET = your-jwt-secret
  • GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID = your-google-client-id
  • GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET = your-google-client-secret
  • GOOGLE_CALLBACK_URL = https://your-server-url.com/auth/google/callback
  • CLIENT_URL = https://your-client-url.com

If you use email features, add your SMTP provider config (e.g., SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASS).

Running Locally

Open two terminals:

1. Server

cd server
npm start

2. Client

cd client
npm start

The React dev server (port 3000) should point to your API via REACT_APP_API_URL.

Build & Production

• Client

cd client
npm run build

• Server

cd server
npm run build

Note: The server build script runs node app.js. For production hosting, run with a process manager (e.g., PM2) or your platform’s run command.

API Overview

Selected endpoints (see ENHANCED_FEATURES.md for full list):

• Auth

  • POST /auth/signup
  • POST /auth/login
  • GET /auth/google
  • GET /auth/google/callback

• Courses

  • GET /courses
  • GET /courses/:id
  • POST /courses (admin)
  • PUT /courses/:id (admin)
  • DELETE /courses/:id (admin)

• Enrollment

  • POST /enrollment/enroll
  • GET /enrollment/my-enrollments
  • PATCH /enrollment/:id/lesson/:moduleId/:lessonId
  • POST /enrollment/:id/rate
  • GET /enrollment/:courseId/analytics

• Certificates

  • POST /certificates/generate
  • GET /certificates/:id
  • GET /certificates/verify/:code

• Quizzes

  • POST /quizzes
  • GET /quizzes/course/:courseId
  • POST /quizzes/:id/submit
  • GET /quizzes/:id/results

• Discussions

  • POST /discussions
  • GET /discussions/course/:courseId
  • POST /discussions/:id/comments
  • PUT /discussions/:id

Security & Performance

• Security: JWT auth, input validation/sanitization, CORS config, rate limiting (recommended), secrets via env vars
• Performance: DB indexing, optimized queries, client lazy loading and code splitting, image optimization and caching

Deployment

• Client (Vercel)

  • Connect the client/ directory to Vercel
  • Configure REACT_APP_API_URL in Vercel project settings
  • Automatic deploys on push

• Server (Render.com)

  • Connect the server/ directory to Render
  • Configure environment variables (DB_URL, JWT_SECRET, Google OAuth, CLIENT_URL)
  • Use MongoDB Atlas
  • Automatic deploys on push

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make changes and add tests where appropriate
4. Open a pull request with a clear description

License

MIT

Support

• Open an issue in this repository with steps to reproduce and logs where relevant
• See ENHANCED_FEATURES.md for more technical detail

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Last updated: September 2025