BidForge ⚡️

A Real-Time, Full-Stack Auction Platform featuring a bold Neo-Brutalist UI

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📖 Overview

BidForge is a comprehensive, production-ready full-stack online auction marketplace. It brings together a beautiful, custom React frontend with a robust, highly-concurrent Spring Boot backend.

Whether it's vintage electronics or modern art, BidForge allows users to browse active auctions, track time remaining, and engage in real-time live bidding powered by WebSockets. The price updates instantly for all connected clients without page reloads.

✨ Key Features

• Live Real-Time Bidding: Powered by Spring WebSockets and STOMP, bids update instantly across all connected browsers.
• Bold Neo-Brutalist UI: A stunning, custom-built React frontend using raw CSS tokens, distinct drop shadows, and sharp borders.
• Secure Authentication: Full JWT-based login, registration, and role-based access control (RBAC).
• Automated Auction Resolution: Scheduled tasks automatically determine and record auction winners when the clock runs out.
• User Profiles: Users can list items, track their won auctions, and manage favorites and reviews.
• High Performance: Designed to handle concurrent bids with data consistency checks and optimized PostgreSQL queries.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

Frontend (Client)

• React 18 (Vite)
• Vanilla CSS (Custom Neo-Brutalist Design System)
• React Router for navigation
• StompJS / SockJS for WebSocket connections

Backend (Server)

• Java 17 & Spring Boot 3
• Spring Security (JWT Auth)
• Spring WebSocket (Live messaging)
• Spring Data JPA (Hibernate)

Database & Infrastructure

• PostgreSQL (Relational Data)
• Docker & Docker Compose (Containerization)
• Maven (Build Tool)

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📸 Interface Previews

The Marketplace	Secure Authentication

(Note: BidForge features a completely custom CSS framework focusing on contrast, legibility, and physical button presses.)

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🚀 Running Locally

BidForge is neatly organized into two directories: /backend and /frontend.

1. Start the Database

The backend relies on PostgreSQL. A convenient docker-compose.yml is provided in the root directory.

docker-compose up -d

2. Start the Backend

Navigate to the backend directory and run the Spring Boot application using the Maven wrapper.

cd backend
./mvnw spring-boot:run

The backend API will run on http://localhost:8080.

3. Start the Frontend

In a new terminal, navigate to the frontend directory, install dependencies, and start the Vite dev server.

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

The UI will run on http://localhost:5173.

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🏗 System Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the high-level architecture of BidForge, highlighting how the React client interacts with the Spring Boot backend via REST and WebSockets, and how the backend manages data persistence and caching.

graph TD
    Client["💻 Client (React/Vite)"] <-->|"REST (JSON) & WebSocket (STOMP)"| API["🚀 Spring Boot Backend"]
    
    subgraph "Backend Services"
        API --> Auth["🔐 Spring Security (JWT)"]
        API --> Controllers["📡 REST Controllers"]
        API --> Sockets["⚡ WebSocket Broker"]
        
        Controllers --> Service["⚙️ Business Logic Layer"]
        Sockets --> Service
        Auth --> Service
        
        Service --> JPA["🗄️ Spring Data JPA"]
        Service -.->|"@Cacheable (60m TTL)"| CacheConfig["🚀 Redis Cache Manager"]
    end
    
    JPA <--> DB[("🐘 PostgreSQL Database")]
    CacheConfig <--> Redis[("🔴 Redis In-Memory Store")]

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🤝 Author

Built by Akshay Kumar Mishra