🤝 FreelanceHub

A full-stack freelance marketplace built as a senior capstone project to connect clients and freelancers through project posting, bidding, milestone tracking, and reviews.

The application was developed collaboratively using an Agile workflow with Git/GitHub, pull requests, testing, and continuous integration.

---

✨ Features

• 🔐 User registration and login
• 👥 Role-based access for Clients, Freelancers, and Admins
• 📋 Project creation and project browsing
• 💰 Freelancer bidding system
• ✅ Bid acceptance and rejection
• 🎯 Milestone tracking
• ⭐ Reviews and feedback
• 🛡️ Protected routes and JWT-based authentication
• 🗄️ PostgreSQL database integration
• 🚀 CI workflow with GitHub Actions

---

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React
• Vite
• React Router
• Axios
• JavaScript
• CSS

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• Prisma ORM
• JWT
• bcryptjs

Database

• PostgreSQL
• AWS RDS

DevOps & Collaboration

• Git
• GitHub
• GitHub Actions
• Docker
• Agile development
• Pull requests
• Code reviews

---

🏗️ Architecture

┌───────────────────────────────┐
│           User                │
│       Web Browser             │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│        React Frontend         │
│      Vite / React Router      │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
             REST API
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│     Node.js / Express API     │
│ JWT Auth • Role Protection    │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
            Prisma ORM
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│          PostgreSQL           │
│          AWS RDS              │
└───────────────────────────────┘

---

👥 User Roles

Client

Clients can:

• Create projects
• Define budgets and project details
• Review freelancer bids
• Manage project milestones
• Leave reviews

Freelancer

Freelancers can:

• Browse available projects
• Submit bids
• Track accepted work
• Participate in milestone workflows

Admin

Administrators support platform oversight and role-based access.

---

📦 Core Data Model

The application uses Prisma with PostgreSQL.

Core models include:

• User
• Project
• Bid
• Milestone
• Review

Project Status

• OPEN
• IN_PROGRESS
• COMPLETED
• CANCELLED

Bid Status

• PENDING
• ACCEPTED
• REJECTED

Milestone Status

• TODO
• IN_PROGRESS
• SUBMITTED
• APPROVED

---

🔐 Authentication & Authorization

FreelanceHub uses JWT-based authentication.

Authenticated API requests use a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

Protected backend routes validate the user's identity and role before allowing access to restricted functionality.

Passwords are hashed using bcryptjs.

---

🔌 API Overview

Representative API routes include:

POST /api/auth/register
POST /api/auth/login

GET  /api/projects
GET  /api/projects/:id
POST /api/projects

POST /api/projects/:id/bids
POST /api/projects/:id/milestones
POST /api/projects/:id/reviews

---

📁 Project Structure

FreelanceHub/
│
├── backend/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── middleware/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── prisma/
│   └── server files
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   ├── pages/
│   │   └── context/
│   └── Vite configuration
│
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml
│
└── README.md

---

🖥️ Frontend Pages

The application includes pages for:

• Login
• Registration
• Dashboard
• Projects
• Project Details
• New Project
• Task Board
• Workspaces

Protected routes are used to restrict authenticated areas of the application.

---

☁️ Cloud Database

The project was configured to use Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL.

Prisma manages the database schema and application data access.

This provided practical experience with:

• Cloud database connectivity
• Environment variables
• Database migrations
• Security group configuration
• Troubleshooting database connection issues

---

⚙️ Continuous Integration

GitHub Actions is used for CI checks.

The workflow supports automated validation of project changes and reinforces collaborative development practices.

---

🎯 What This Project Demonstrates

FreelanceHub demonstrates hands-on experience with:

• Full-stack application development
• REST API design
• Authentication and authorization
• Role-based access control
• Relational database design
• PostgreSQL and Prisma ORM
• AWS RDS
• React frontend development
• Express.js backend development
• Git/GitHub collaboration
• CI/CD concepts
• Agile team development
• Debugging and integration troubleshooting

---

🚀 Local Development

Backend

cd backend
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Create the required environment variables before starting the application.

Example backend variables:

DATABASE_URL=your_postgresql_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
PORT=5001
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

Never commit real credentials or production connection strings.

---

🔮 Future Improvements

Potential future enhancements include:

• Real-time messaging
• File uploads
• Notifications
• Expanded administrative controls
• Improved testing coverage
• Production deployment improvements

---

👤 Author

Bedolf Tambe

Cloud • DevOps • Networking • Systems Administration • Software Engineering