🎨 Artist Explorer App

Artist Explorer is a multi-platform application ecosystem (Web & Android) designed to help users discover artists, view detailed biographies, and explore artwork collections. The system leverages the Artsy API for data, MongoDB for persistent user data, and includes a Generative AI chatbot assistant.

📖 Description

This project provides a seamless experience for art enthusiasts across devices. It consists of three main components:

1. Front+Back v2 (Web): A responsive Angular 19 application backed by a Node.js/Express server. It handles user authentication (JWT), proxies Artsy API requests, and manages user favorites.
2. Front(Android) v2: A modern native Android application built with Jetpack Compose. It interfaces with the same backend to provide a synchronized mobile experience.
3. Experimental AI (v1): A Python Flask service integrating Google Gemini 2.0 to act as a helpful student assistant.

✨ Features

Core Functionality

• Dynamic Search: Real-time artist search with autocomplete functionality using the Artsy API.
• Detailed Profiles: View artist biographies, nationality, birth/death dates, and carousel galleries of their artworks.
• Favorites System: Authenticated users can save artists to their favorites list, which persists across Web and Android platforms via MongoDB.

Web Application (Angular + Node.js)

• Responsive Design: Built with Bootstrap for mobile-first compatibility.
• Secure Auth: JWT-based authentication with HTTP-only cookies and bcrypt password hashing.
• Interactive UI: Tabbed navigation, modal views for artwork categories, and toast notifications.

Android Application (Kotlin + Compose)

• Modern UI: Native Jetpack Compose interface with Material 3 design.
• Session Management: Persistent login using cookies and SharedPreferences.
• Optimized Networking: Uses Retrofit and Coil for efficient API calls and image loading.

🛠️ Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+) and npm
• Android Studio (Koala or later recommended, API 34 SDK)
• Python (3.10+)
• MongoDB Atlas URI
• Artsy API Credentials
• Google Gemini API Key

1. Web Application (Front+Back v2)

Navigate to the web directory and install dependencies:

cd "Front+Back v2"
npm install

Configure your environment variables (create a .env file) with your MongoDB URI and Artsy credentials. Then run:

# Development server
npm start

The Angular frontend is served via the Node backend or can be run separately via ng serve.

2. Android Application

1. Open Android Studio.
2. Select Open and navigate to Front(Android) v2.
3. Allow Gradle to sync dependencies.
4. Create an emulator (Pixel 8 Pro, API 34 recommended) or connect a physical device.
5. Click Run.

3. AI Assistant Service (Front+Back v1)

If running the Python AI component:

cd "Front+Back v1"
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

🚀 Usage

1. Register/Login: Create an account to enable the "Favorites" and "Similar Artists" features.
2. Search: Use the search bar to find artists (e.g., "Picasso", "Warhol").
3. Explore: Click on an artist to view their bio and scroll through their artwork.
4. Manage Favorites: Click the Star icon to add/remove artists from your dashboard.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature).
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature).
5. Open a Pull Request.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

📞 Contact

For support or queries, please open an issue on this repository.