Full-Stack · MERN · 2025 · P/03

Wanderlust

A full-stack MERN travel-listing platform with auth, reviews, bookings, and cloud media.

P/03Full-Stack · MERN

Wanderlust

wanderlust.caseview case →

Role: Full-Stack Developer
Year: 2025
Category: Full-Stack · MERN
Stack: 7 technologies

A MERN booking platform for travel listings — RESTful APIs, secure auth with RBAC, search & filtering across 500+ listings, and Cloudinary-backed media. Deployed on Render.

01 — Problem

Build a production-style property/booking platform: users browse and filter listings, leave reviews, and book — with secure accounts and reliable image handling.

02 — Solution

A full-stack MERN app with RESTful APIs (~20% faster DB queries), Passport.js authentication + session middleware + RBAC for 100+ users, search & category filtering across 500+ listings, and full CRUD for listings, reviews, and bookings. Cloudinary handles uploads with automatic compression.

03 — Architecture

An Express/Node API in MVC layout (modular routing + middleware pipelines) serves a server-rendered UI styled with Bootstrap; MongoDB stores listings, reviews, and bookings; Passport.js manages sessions and roles; Cloudinary stores and optimizes media. Deployed to Render with environment-based config.

MongoDBExpress.jsNode.jsPassport.jsCloudinaryBootstrapRender

04 — Challenges

01Securing 100+ user accounts with sessions + role-based access control.
02Keeping search & filtering fast across 500+ listings.
03Structured validation and error handling across every CRUD flow.

05 — Outcomes

~20% improvement in database query performance.
Production deployment on Render with secure configuration.
Reusable, accessible UI components across devices.

Stack

MongoDBExpress.jsNode.jsPassport.jsCloudinaryBootstrapRender

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