🚀 HackMate - MERN Stack Project

HackMate is a platform to help hackathon participants find teammates, share project ideas, and collaborate effectively.
Built with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js).

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📌 Features

• 🔑 Authentication – Register/Login with JWT & bcrypt
• 👤 User Profiles – Store name, email, skills, tech stack, and bio
• 🤝 Team Management – Create teams, join existing teams, view members
• 💡 Project Ideas – Post hackathon ideas and explore others
• 🌐 Frontend + Backend – React frontend connected to Express API
• 🗄 Database – MongoDB for persistent storage

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🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend:

• React.js
• Axios (API calls)
• TailwindCSS / Material UI (UI components)

Backend:

• Node.js + Express.js
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT Authentication
• bcryptjs (password hashing)
• dotenv, cors, morgan

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⚙️ Installation & Setup

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/hackmate.git
cd hackmate

### 2. Start the Backend API
```bash
npm install
npm start

The API will print the port (e.g., http://localhost:5004). This also serves the legacy static site (index.html).

3. React Web App (Vite)

cd web
npm install
npm run dev

Open the printed URL (e.g., http://localhost:5173). If your backend runs on a different port, add query params to point the app to your API/socket server:

• http://localhost:5173/?apiBase=http://localhost:4000&chatBase=http://localhost:5003

These values are saved to localStorage for future sessions.

4. React Native App (Expo)

cd mobile
npm install
npm start

For device testing, set your LAN IP in environment variables (Windows PowerShell):

setx EXPO_PUBLIC_API_BASE http://192.168.1.10:4000
setx EXPO_PUBLIC_CHAT_BASE http://192.168.1.10:5003

Restart terminal, then run npm start again.