🚀 HackTrack

A lightweight, developer-friendly web app for tracking hackathon events and attendee activity. HackTrack helps organizers create and manage event schedules, registrations, and quick on-site check-ins — designed to be simple to run locally and easy to extend.

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✨ Features

• 🗓️ Event creation & schedule management
• 🧾 Attendee registration and check-in flow
• 📊 Basic attendance reporting and CSV exports
• ⚡ Real-time check-in updates (when enabled)
• 🔌 Modular JavaScript and Pug templates for easy extension
• 🔒 Simple auth hooks ready for OAuth/SSO integration

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🛠️ Prerequisites

• Node.js (LTS recommended — v14+)
• npm (or yarn)
• Git
• MySQL server (5.7+ or 8.x)

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🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/SoftwareChoreographer/HackTrack-Events.git
cd HackTrack-Events

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Prepare MySQL

• Create a database and (optionally) a dedicated user:

CREATE DATABASE hacktrack;
CREATE USER 'hacktrack_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON hacktrack.* TO 'hacktrack_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

• Run any provided SQL or migration scripts to create tables (check ./db or project docs). If the project includes a migration command, run it (for example): npm run migrate.

4. Environment variables

• Copy the example environment file and edit the values (do not add the real password to the example file).

cp .env.example .env

• Below is the .env used for development/testing in this project (sensitive values replaced with placeholders). Replace placeholders with your actual secrets before starting the app:

# Database connection (MySQL)
DB_HOST=hacktrack-the3host44-1af5.k.aivencloud.com
DB_PORT=20807
DB_USER=avnadmin
DB_PASSWORD=PLACEHOLDER

# Database name
DB_NAME=defaultdb

# Auth / JWT
JWT_SECRET=PLACEHOLDER
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=1h

# App
PORT=5000
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

Important: never commit the real .env file to version control. Store secrets securely (environment variables, secret manager, or CI/CD vault).

5. Start the app (development)

npm run dev

Or start the production server:

npm start

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▶️ Usage

• Open your browser at http://localhost:5000 (or the port set in .env).
• From the dashboard you can:
  • Create or edit events and sessions
  • Register and manage attendees
  • Check in attendees at the event entrance
  • Export attendee lists as CSV

Useful commands

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server (with auto-reload if configured)
npm run dev

# Start production server
npm start

# Run linting (if configured)
npm run lint

# Run tests (if any)
npm test

Customize views in views/ (Pug templates) and static assets in public/ or assets/.

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🧰 Technologies Used

• JavaScript (ESNext)
• Node.js
• Express (typical pairing with Pug)
• Pug (templates)
• CSS
• MySQL
• npm & Git

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome — this was a collaborative academic project and improvements are appreciated.

Suggested workflow:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-change
3. Implement changes and run linters/tests locally
4. Open a Pull Request with a clear summary of your changes

Please open issues for bugs, feature requests, or documentation improvements. Include reproduction steps and relevant logs/screenshots when possible.

Guidelines

• Follow existing code style and patterns
• Keep commits focused and descriptive
• Don’t commit secrets (.env) or database passwords

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📝 Reporting Issues

When opening an issue, include:

• Short summary
• Steps to reproduce
• Expected vs actual behavior
• Any logs, stack traces, or screenshots

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📄 License

MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

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