Lost & Found Web Platform

Problem

As a full graduation project it needed a clean structure that separated data, logic, and presentation instead of one tangled codebase.

Solution

Applied the MVC pattern — models for MySQL queries, controllers for logic, routes for endpoints, and EJS views for rendering — so each concern stayed on its own.

Problem

User accounts required secure sign-up and login rather than storing plaintext passwords.

Solution

Hashed passwords with bcryptjs and managed authenticated sessions with express-session and JWT, guarding protected routes behind a login check.

Problem

Users report items with photos, so the app had to accept, store, and serve uploaded images.

Solution

Handled multipart uploads with Multer, saved the files server-side, and rendered them back into the item feed.

Problem

The project originally ran only on my machine against a local MAMP MySQL database, so it couldn't be deployed as-is.

Solution

Moved the database to a hosted MySQL on Railway, replaced every hardcoded localhost credential with environment variables, and deployed the Node app to Railway alongside the database.