InfluConnect

A brand–creator collaboration marketplace. Companies post campaigns, creators apply, both chat in real time, collaborate, and review each other. No on-platform payments — settlement stays private (Version 1 scope). Built to later wrap into an Android APK with Capacitor.

Stack

Layer	Tech
Frontend	React 18 + Vite + Tailwind CSS + React Router
Realtime	Socket.io (chat, typing, read receipts, live notifications)
Backend	Node.js + Express (ESM)
Database	MongoDB + Mongoose
Auth	JWT (roles: company / creator / admin), bcrypt
Media	Cloudinary (falls back to a local placeholder until keys added)
Mobile	Capacitor wrap of the built SPA

Project layout

influconnect/
├── server/          Express API + Socket.io
│   └── src/
│       ├── models/        Mongoose schemas
│       ├── controllers/   Route handlers
│       ├── routes/        Express routers
│       ├── middleware/    auth, roles, validation, upload, errors
│       ├── sockets/       real-time chat
│       └── seed/          demo data
└── client/          React + Vite SPA
    └── src/
        ├── pages/         public / auth / company / creator / shared / admin
        ├── components/    reusable UI
        ├── context/       Auth + Socket providers
        ├── layouts/       public nav + dashboard sidebar
        └── api/           axios client + typed endpoints

Getting started

Prerequisites: Node ≥ 20 and a running MongoDB (local mongod or Atlas URI).

# 1. Install everything (root tooling + server + client)
npm run install:all

# 2. Configure the server env (a .env is created for you on first run;
#    otherwise copy the example and edit)
cp server/.env.example server/.env      # then set MONGO_URI / JWT_SECRET etc.

# 3. Seed demo data (admin, companies, creators, campaigns)
npm run seed

# 4. Run API + client together (http://localhost:5173)
npm run dev

The API runs on :5050 (port 5000 is taken by macOS AirPlay). Vite proxies /api and /socket.io to it, so the client "just works" in dev.

Demo accounts (after seeding)

Role	Email	Password
Admin	admin@influconnect.com	Admin@12345
Company	spiceroutekitchen@demo.com	Password@123
Creator	ananyacreates@demo.com	Password@123

Environment variables (server/.env)

Key	Purpose
PORT	API port (default 5050)
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Token signing secret
CLIENT_URL	Allowed CORS origin (client dev URL)
CLOUDINARY_*	Media uploads — add when you have keys
ADMIN_EMAIL/PASSWORD	Seeded admin credentials

Media uploads work without Cloudinary keys (they return a local placeholder), so you can build the whole flow before wiring real storage.

Turning it into an APK (later)

The frontend is a pure client-side SPA, so wrapping is straightforward:

cd client
npm i @capacitor/core @capacitor/cli @capacitor/android
# point the app at your deployed API:
echo "VITE_API_URL=https://your-api-domain.com" > .env.production
npm run build
npx cap add android
npx cap sync
npx cap open android      # build the APK in Android Studio

capacitor.config.json is already present. CORS on the API already allows the capacitor://localhost origin.

Deployment

• Client → Vercel / Netlify (static dist/). Set VITE_API_URL.
• API → Railway / Render. Set all server/.env vars; use MongoDB Atlas.

Feature map (from the spec)

Auth & roles · company & creator profiles · campaign CRUD + media · browse/search with filters · applications & invitations · accept/reject → collaboration · real-time chat (unlocks on apply) · notifications · mutual reviews · complaints · full admin portal (users, campaigns, reports, moderation, verification badge).

Deferred to v2 (architecture ready): payments/escrow, subscription tiers, AI matching, official social-OAuth metric verification.