AutoExperts Server Backend

AutoExperts Server Backend is a Node.js, Express, and MongoDB backend API for the AutoExperts platform. It powers admin authentication, member registration, vehicle inspection bookings, used-car listings, auction cars, bidding, email verification, Stripe payments, subscriptions, file uploads, real-time auction updates, and scheduled background jobs.

Features

• Admin registration and login
• JWT-based protected admin routes
• Member registration and login
• Member profile API
• Vehicle inspection booking system
• OTP verification for bookings
• Booking confirmation emails
• Used-car product management
• Auction-car management
• Image and PDF uploads
• Cloudinary file storage
• Product filtering
• Auction filtering
• Real-time auction bid updates with Socket.IO
• Bid placement and highest-bid tracking
• Highest bidder details
• Email verification using Hunter API
• Stripe payment checkout
• Stripe subscription checkout
• Subscription status updates
• Subscription cancellation and reactivation
• Scheduled cron jobs for auction cleanup and expired owner cleanup
• Docker and Docker Compose support

Tech Stack

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB
• Mongoose
• Socket.IO
• JWT
• bcryptjs
• Multer
• Cloudinary
• Stripe
• Twilio
• Nodemailer
• Hunter Email Verifier API
• node-cron
• Moment Timezone
• Docker

Project Structure

AutoExperts-Server-BACKEND-/
├── Controller/
│   ├── AdminController.js
│   ├── AuctionController.js
│   ├── BidController.js
│   ├── BookingController.js
│   ├── EmailController.js
│   ├── MemberController.js
│   └── ProductController.js
├── Middlewear/
│   └── AuthenticateToken.js
├── Routes/
│   ├── AdminRoutes.js
│   ├── AuctionRoutes.js
│   ├── BidRoutes.js
│   ├── BookingRoutes.js
│   ├── EmailRoutes.js
│   ├── MemberRoutes.js
│   ├── PaymentRoutes.js
│   ├── ProductRoutes.js
│   └── SubscriptionRoutes.js
├── Services/
│   └── OtpService.js
├── models/
│   ├── Admin.js
│   ├── Bid.js
│   ├── Booking.js
│   ├── Car.js
│   ├── Member.js
│   ├── Product.js
│   └── Subscription.js
├── stripe/
├── uploads/
├── utils/
│   └── cron.js
├── .dockerignore
├── .env
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── index.js
├── package.json
└── package-lock.json

Requirements

Before running the project, make sure you have:

• Node.js installed
• npm installed
• MongoDB database connection
• Cloudinary account for image and PDF uploads
• Stripe account for payments and subscriptions
• Twilio account for OTP messages
• Gmail or SMTP account for sending emails
• Hunter API key for email verification
• Docker installed if you want to run the app with Docker

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/SalAkBuK/AutoExperts-Server-BACKEND-.git
cd AutoExperts-Server-BACKEND-

Install dependencies:

npm install

If dependency installation fails, try:

npm install --legacy-peer-deps

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory.

Example:

PORT=5000

MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
SECRET_KEY=your_jwt_secret
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

EMAIL_USER=your_email_address
EMAIL_PASS=your_email_app_password

HUNTER_API_KEY=your_hunter_api_key

TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your_twilio_account_sid
TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your_twilio_auth_token
TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER=your_twilio_phone_number

STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=your_stripe_secret_key
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your_stripe_webhook_secret

Run Locally

Start the backend server:

npm start

The server runs on:

http://localhost:5000

You can also run the server directly with Node:

node index.js

Available Scripts

Start Server

npm start

Starts the server using Nodemon.

Test

npm test

The current test script is a placeholder and does not run an actual test suite.

Main API Routes

Base Route	Description
/admin	Admin registration, login, dashboard, and revenue APIs
/api/bookings	Booking OTP, booking form submission, and booking list APIs
/api/products	Used-car product listing, upload, update, delete, and filtering APIs
/api/auth	Member registration, login, member list, and profile APIs
/api/cars	Auction car listing, upload, update, details, highest bidder, and filtering APIs
/api/bids	Bid placement and bidder details APIs
/api/email	Email verification APIs
/api/payments	Stripe one-time payment checkout and webhook APIs
/api/subscription	Stripe subscription, cancellation, reactivation, and webhook APIs
/api/items/:id	Generic delete route for cars, members, and bookings

Admin API

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/admin/register	Register an admin
POST	/admin/login	Login admin and return token
GET	/admin/dashboard	Get logged-in admin details
GET	/admin/total-revenue	Get total active subscription revenue

Protected admin routes require a bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer your_token_here

Booking API

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/bookings/send-otp	Send OTP to contact number
POST	/api/bookings/verify-otp	Verify OTP
POST	/api/bookings/submit-form	Submit inspection booking form
GET	/api/bookings	Get all bookings
GET	/api/bookings/booked-slots	Get unavailable booking times for a date

Example booked slots request:

GET /api/bookings/booked-slots?date=2026-05-14

Product API

Used-car product routes.

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/products	Add a used car
GET	/api/products	Get all used cars
GET	/api/products/filter-products	Filter used cars
GET	/api/products/:id	Get used car by ID
PUT	/api/products/:id	Update used car
DELETE	/api/products/:id	Delete used car

Product upload supports:

• Multiple images
• One PDF inspection report

Expected upload field names:

images
pdf

Auction Car API

Auction-car routes.

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/cars	Add auction car
GET	/api/cars	Get all auction cars
GET	/api/cars/filter-cars	Filter auction cars
GET	/api/cars/:id	Get auction car details
PUT	/api/cars/car/:id	Update auction car
GET	/api/cars/highest-bidders	Get highest bidder details

Auction car upload supports:

• Multiple images
• One PDF inspection report

Expected upload field names:

images
pdf

Bid API

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/bids	Place a bid
GET	/api/bids/bidder/:bidderId	Get bidder details

Example bid request:

{
  "carId": "car_id_here",
  "bidderId": "member_id_here",
  "bidAmount": 25000
}

When a bid is placed successfully, the backend emits a Socket.IO event so connected clients can receive real-time auction updates.

Member API

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Register a member
POST	/api/auth/login	Login a member
GET	/api/auth/members	Get all members
GET	/api/auth/profile/:id	Get member profile

Member registration includes subscription checkout support through Stripe.

Email API

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/email/verify	Verify an email address

Example:

GET /api/email/verify?email=user@example.com

Payment API

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/payments/create-checkout-session	Create Stripe payment checkout session
POST	/api/payments/webhook	Stripe payment webhook

Subscription API

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/subscription	Get Stripe products
POST	/api/subscription/create-checkout-session	Create subscription checkout session
POST	/api/subscription/stripe-webhook	Stripe subscription webhook
POST	/api/subscription/updateMemberStatus	Update member subscription status
POST	/api/subscription/cancelSubscription	Cancel subscription at period end
POST	/api/subscription/reactivateSubscription	Reactivate cancelled subscription

Socket.IO

The server uses Socket.IO for real-time auction updates.

When a bid is placed successfully, the backend emits:

updateCar

Frontend clients can listen for this event to update auction car data in real time.

Database Models

The backend uses Mongoose models for:

• Admin
• Member
• Booking
• Product
• Car
• Bid
• Subscription

File Uploads

The backend uses Multer for temporary local uploads and Cloudinary for final file storage.

Upload folders:

uploads/

Supported uploaded content includes:

• Car images
• Auction car images
• Inspection report PDFs

Cron Jobs

The backend includes scheduled background jobs for:

• Removing expired owner accounts
• Marking ended auctions as finished
• Sending auction-end notifications
• Cleaning invalid auction cars missing owner email data

Docker Usage

Build and run with Docker Compose:

docker compose up --build

The app will be exposed on:

http://localhost:5000

Stop containers:

docker compose down

Deployment

For production deployment:

1. Set all environment variables on the server.
2. Make sure MongoDB is reachable from the server.
3. Configure Cloudinary credentials.
4. Configure Stripe keys and webhook secret.
5. Configure email credentials.
6. Configure Twilio credentials.
7. Set the correct frontend CLIENT_URL.
8. Run the server with a process manager such as PM2, Docker, or your hosting platform.

Example production start with Node:

node index.js

Example production start with PM2:

pm2 start index.js --name autoexperts-backend

Security Notes

This project may include example configuration values during development. Before deploying or making the repository public:

• Do not commit real .env files.
• Keep API keys, database URLs, and service credentials outside the repository.
• Use environment variables for secrets.
• Rotate any credentials that were ever used in a public commit.
• Review CORS, authentication, file uploads, and payment webhook settings before production use.

Notes

• This is the backend API for the AutoExperts platform.
• Frontend apps must run separately.
• Admin dashboard and frontend clients communicate with this server through REST APIs and Socket.IO.
• MongoDB is required for storing users, bookings, products, auction cars, bids, and subscriptions.
• Cloudinary is required for image and PDF storage.
• Stripe is required for payment and subscription features.
• Twilio is required for OTP messages.
• Nodemailer is used for email notifications.
• The current codebase contains several hard-coded service values, so review configuration before deployment.

License

This project is licensed under the ISC License.