Matera Digital

Car-Match

Project Write-up

Car-Match · Community MVP with profiles, forums, and messaging

React frontend hosted on GitHub Pages, Express backend deployed on Google Cloud Run (free tier), with optional MongoDB persistence for forums. Built as a Full Sail University course project and continued after.
Project context

Problem

For a Full Sail University course project, I needed to build a full-stack application that demonstrated authentication, CRUD operations, and real user flows. I chose a car-enthusiast community platform because it gave me reasons to build profiles, events, forums, and messaging — each with different data models and permission levels.

Solution

What I built

A React frontend with an Express API backend. The frontend runs on GitHub Pages; the backend runs on Google Cloud Run (free tier). Forums are mock-backed by default and persist when a MongoDB URI is configured. The repo includes a Dockerfile, setup scripts, and documentation for local development with HTTPS.

Frontend

  • React application with context-based authentication state management
  • React Router for navigation and protected routes
  • UI components for profiles, forums, events, and messaging
  • Accessibility features documented in README

Backend

  • Express API with JWT authentication
  • MongoDB Atlas persistence when configured (forums are mock-backed by default)
  • Health check endpoint at GET /healthz for service/db readiness
  • API endpoints for profiles, events, forums, and messaging
  • Dockerfile for containerized deployment
Car-Match project visual
My Role

What I did

  • Solo developer — designed and built the entire application
  • Built React UI components for profiles, forums, events, and messaging
  • Built Express API endpoints with JWT authentication
  • Designed MongoDB schema for users, events, forums, and messages
  • Configured deployment: frontend to GitHub Pages, backend to Google Cloud Run
  • Wrote setup scripts, HTTPS dev configuration, and troubleshooting docs
  • Used GitHub Projects Kanban board for task management
What's in the Repo

Real artifacts you can verify

  • GitHub repo: github.com/BradleyMatera/car-match
  • Live frontend: bradleymatera.github.io/car-match
  • Commits: 100+ commits on the main branch
  • Languages: JavaScript (506KB), CSS (269KB), HTML (8KB), Shell (8KB), Dockerfile
  • Repo structure: frontend/, backend/, docs/, scripts/, .github/
  • Documentation: README, DEPLOYMENT.md, API.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, design docs, and monthly logs
  • Backend health check: GET /healthz returns service and database readiness
  • Git workflow: Feature branches → PRs to dev → merge to main for deployment
  • Honest limitations: Forums are mock-backed without MongoDB configured. No load testing has been done. This is a course project, not a production system.
Tech Stack

Technologies used

ReactExpressMongoDBGoogle Cloud RunGitHub PagesJWTDocker