Salvando Huellas

Web application for Salvando Huellas, an animal rescue organization. The project helps manage animals for adoption, adoption requests, donations, events, store products, users, and admin tasks.

I built this project as a full stack application, with my main focus on the backend: REST API design, authentication, PostgreSQL data modeling, business logic, validations, and integrations.

Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• PostgreSQL
• Sequelize
• JWT
• Mercado Pago
• Cloudinary
• Nodemailer
• Jest + Supertest

Frontend

• React
• React Router
• Axios
• Tailwind CSS

Main Features

• User registration and login.
• JWT authentication and protected routes.
• Public animal catalog.
• Adoption request form for logged-in users.
• Admin panel for animals, users, products, events, donations, orders, and adoption requests.
• Store flow with cart and purchases.
• Donation flow with Mercado Pago.
• Image uploads with Cloudinary.

Backend Structure

backend/
├── app.js
├── index.js
└── src/
    ├── routes/
    ├── controllers/
    ├── services/
    ├── models/
    ├── validations/
    ├── middlewares/
    ├── configs/
    └── utils/

The backend follows this flow:

Request
-> route
-> middleware / validation
-> controller
-> service
-> Sequelize model
-> PostgreSQL

Adoption Request Flow

One of the main backend flows is the adoption request:

User submits the form from React
-> Axios sends POST /api/v1/adoptions
-> JWT is sent in the Authorization header
-> backend validates the token
-> backend validates the request body
-> service checks if the animal exists and is available
-> transaction creates the adoption request
-> transaction updates the animal status to en_proceso

The backend gets the user ID from the JWT (req.user) instead of trusting an ID sent from the frontend.

API Examples

POST   /api/v1/auth/register
POST   /api/v1/auth/login

GET    /api/v1/animals
GET    /api/v1/animals/:id
POST   /api/v1/animals              # admin
PUT    /api/v1/animals/:id          # admin
DELETE /api/v1/animals/:id          # admin

POST   /api/v1/adoptions            # logged-in user
GET    /api/v1/adoptions            # admin
PUT    /api/v1/adoptions/:id/estado # admin

Environment Variables

Use the example files:

• backend/.env.example
• frontend/.env.example

The backend can connect to PostgreSQL using either:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/DATABASE?sslmode=require

or local variables:

DB_NAME=salvando_huellas
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432

Real .env files should not be committed.

Local Setup

Backend:

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend:

cd frontend
cp .env.example .env
npm install
npm start

Local URLs:

Backend:  http://localhost:4000
Frontend: http://localhost:3000

Status

Functional full stack project built for a real animal rescue organization. I am currently using it as a backend-focused project for my portfolio and job applications.

Author

Ana Giachini