ScholarFlow

Why I Built ScholarFlow

I am a final-year student preparing to publish my research. Drafting a paper and then reshaping it to satisfy different publication formats easily eats up one to two hours every time—a painful loop of copy-paste, template tweaking, and manual LaTeX fixes. ScholarFlow is the solution I wanted for myself: a workspace where I can polish the draft once and jump between formats with a single click while still retaining the flexibility to edit the LaTeX when needed.

ScholarFlow is a full-stack platform that helps researchers draft, manage, and export academic papers. It offers guided paper creation, LaTeX previews, and one-click PDF exports in IEEE format, Springer. Backed by secure authentication and email-based verification.

Video Demo

🎥 Watch ScholarFlow on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QI8zSLf_HtQ

Key Features

• User registration with OTP verification, secure login, and profile management.
• Guided paper editor with sections for introduction, literature review, methodology, and conclusions.
• Instant LaTeX preview and downloadable IEEE-formatted PDF exports compiled via pdflatex.
• Email notifications for account verification and password resets.
• Role-based API protection using JWT-authenticated routes.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, React Router, Axios
Backend	Node.js, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose)
Auth & Mail	JSON Web Tokens, Nodemailer (Gmail SMTP)
LaTeX Tool	Python 3 helper around pdflatex

Repository Structure

backend/   Express API, business logic, and LaTeX compilation service
frontend/  React single-page application
latex/     Python CLI wrapper invoked by the backend (pdflatex helper)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• MongoDB Atlas connection string (or local MongoDB instance)
• Gmail SMTP credentials (or alternative SMTP credentials wired into config/emailConfig.js)
• Python 3.9+ with pdflatex available on the system PATH (e.g., MiKTeX, TeX Live)
• Windows users: ensure py or python launches the desired interpreter; optionally set LATEX_PYTHON.

Environment Variables

Create the following .env files.

backend/.env

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@<cluster>/<database>?retryWrites=true&w=majority
JWT_SECRET=replace-with-strong-secret
JWT_EXPIRE=30d
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
GMAIL_USER=your.account@gmail.com
GMAIL_PASS=app-specific-password
LATEX_PYTHON=py

LATEX_PYTHON is optional. Set it when python on the PATH is not the interpreter you want to use.

frontend/.env

REACT_APP_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api

Restart the corresponding server whenever you update .env values.

Setup & Run

1. Install Dependencies

cd backend
npm install

cd ..\frontend
npm install

2. Start the Development Servers

• Backend:

  cd backend
  npm run dev

  The API listens on http://localhost:5000 and exposes routes under /api (e.g., /api/auth/login).

• Frontend:

  cd frontend
  npm start

  The React app is served at http://localhost:3000.

3. LaTeX Compilation Helper

The backend invokes latex/app.py to compile generated LaTeX into PDFs. Confirm the following:

1. pdflatex is installed and reachable from the command line.
2. Python can execute latex/app.py. If you have multiple interpreters, set LATEX_PYTHON in backend/.env.
3. The first IEEE PDF download may take a few seconds while dependencies warm up; a spinner is shown in the UI.

Common Commands

Command	Location	Description
npm run dev	backend/	Start API with Nodemon.
npm start	frontend/	Launch React development server.
npm run build	frontend/	Produce production build under build/.
node latex/app.py --tex <file.tex> --out <output-dir> --cleanup	repo root	Manually compile a LaTeX document for testing.

API Highlights

• POST /api/auth/register – Begin account registration (sends OTP email).
• POST /api/auth/verify-otp – Complete registration using the OTP.
• POST /api/auth/login – Obtain JWT.
• GET /api/papers – List authenticated user's papers.
• GET /api/latex/preview/ieee/:paperId – Return IEEE LaTeX content.
• GET /api/latex/ieee/pdf/:paperId – Download a compiled IEEE PDF.

All protected routes require the Authorization: Bearer <token> header.

PDF & Artifact Cleanup

Every PDF export writes temporary files into the OS temp directory and removes them after the download completes. Residual artifacts (e.g., .pdf, .log, .aux) inside the latex/ folder are also cleaned automatically per request.

Testing SMTP

Gmail requires either an application-specific password or OAuth2. Ensure "Less secure app access" is enabled for testing or configure emailConfig.js to use your SMTP provider. Consider using services like Mailtrap during development.

Troubleshooting

• pdflatex failed or missing executable: Verify that LaTeX is installed and the executable is on the PATH used by the Node.js process.
• Email delivery fails: Double-check GMAIL_USER/GMAIL_PASS and allow the account to send SMTP messages.
• MongoDB connection errors: Ensure your IP is whitelisted in Atlas or that a local MongoDB instance is running.
• CORS issues: Update FRONTEND_URL in backend/.env to match the origin hosting the React app.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/awesome
3. Commit changes following conventional commit messages.
4. Push and open a pull request.