Anēk | Ek Se Anēk - Community Civic Network

Anēk (अनेक) is India's community-driven, reward-based platform for civic action. The philosophy is simple: one person ('Ek') taking initiative can inspire a wider community ('Anēk').

This platform empowers citizens to take charge of their neighborhoods, report local issues, collaborate with neighbors, and earn rewards (Good Citizen Points - GCP) for driving real change.

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🏗️ Architecture Overview

The project is structured as a decoupled Client-Server architecture:

├── frontend/             # Client-side SPA built with Vite
└── backend/              # REST API & Socket.IO server built with Node/Express

⚡ Tech Stack

• Frontend: HTML5, Vanilla JavaScript (ES modules), Tailwind CSS, Leaflet.js (dynamic mapping), Vite.
• Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose schemas & geospatial query layer), Socket.IO (real-time notification broadcasts), Cloudinary (secure media cloud uploads), JWT (cookie-based session rotation).

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🚀 Key Features & Capabilities

1. Dynamic Local Impact Map:
   • Uses HTML5 Geolocation to automatically request and focus on user coordinates.
   • Renders dynamic pins on a Leaflet map from the backend database, styled dynamically based on category and resolution status.
2. Interactive Location Picker:
   • Let users report problems by dropping a draggable map marker or clicking coordinates on a map to report issue sites.
   • Supports media evidence uploads (compressed images and videos) sent to Cloudinary.
3. Public Landing Feed:
   • Landing page showcases the latest reports fetched dynamically from the database.
   • Features a "Show More" / "See All" gated authentication redirect flow.
4. Civic Rewards Ledger:
   • Standard user registration starting at 0 GCP.
   • Real-time ledger records GCP gains/spends (reporting: +10 GCP, claiming/resolving: +50 GCP, redeeming: -GCP).
   • Renders dynamic ranks (Vanguard Rank I/II/Elder) based on points thresholds.

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🛠️ How to Setup & Run

1. Backend Server Setup

1. Navigate to the backend directory:

   cd backend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Create a .env file in the backend/ folder based on .env.example:

   PORT=5000
   NODE_ENV=development
   CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
   MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
   JWT_ACCESS_SECRET=your_jwt_access_secret
   JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=your_jwt_refresh_secret
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

4. Start the API server in development mode:

   npm run dev

2. Frontend Client Setup

1. Navigate to the frontend directory:

   cd ../frontend

2. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

3. Start the Vite client dev server:

   pnpm run dev

4. Open the local address in your browser (usually http://localhost:5173).

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🔒 Security & Data Sanitization

• XSS Protection: Secure HTML escaping on validation middleware schemas (express-validator).
• Session Guard: JWT tokens are signed securely. Refresh tokens rotate and expire on a 7-day TTL basis in MongoDB.
• Rate Limiting: Protects API endpoints against brute force attempts using custom rate limit windows.
• Error payload isolation: System error details are automatically hidden from client payloads in production mode.

Hope you liked it hehe