Conducting transactions in an online marketplace can be risky, and, unfortunately, scams and falsely advertised products are quite common. TradeOut is a platform that gives people greater transaction security by providing a quick and simple way to generate a digital contract between buyer and seller. Whether you’re the buyer or the seller, in TradeOut you can:
- Initiate a contract for a transaction, including uploading item images
- Send the contract to the other party
- Sign the contract once you agree with the terms
- Always access a copy of the final, signed contract
- View all accepted, pending, and declined contracts
Check out the deployed app here! (Note: image upload has been disabled.)
- Create a new database named
tradeout
, and execute the queries fromdatabase.sql
to create the needed tables. - Within a code editor, open a terminal window and install the dependencies by running:
npm install
. - Create a
.env
file with values for the following variables:
SERVER_SESSION_SECRET=random string containing more than eight characters
SENDGRID_API_KEY=key provided with SendGrid account
SENDGRID_EMAIL=verified sender email
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=access key id from AWS
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=secret access key from AWS
AWS_REGION=your AWS region
S3_BUCKET_NAME=your AWS S3 bucket name
- Note: This tutorial by Sam Meech-Ward can be referenced to create the S3 bucket with correct access levels.
- Run
npm run server
to start the server in one terminal window. Open a second terminal window, and runnpm run client
to start the client. The application will open atlocalhost:3000/#/dashboard
in the browser. TradeOut was tested and designed for compatibility with Google Chrome.
- To register as a new user, click
Register
and enter an email, legal name, and password.
- To log in, enter the email and password associated with the account and click
Log In
.
- To create a contract, click
New Contract
from the Dashboard. SelectBuyer
orSeller
and clickNext
. - Within Create New Contract, enter the required informaton in the fields marked with a
*
and any other relevant information. ClickChoose File
to upload an image of the item being purchased or sold. Type the signature in the signature field. ClickReview Contract
to proceed. - Review the contract details. Make any changes by clicking
Edit Contract Details
or proceed by clickingRecipient Contact Information
. - Within Send To Recipient, enter the email address of the other party in the contract. Click
Generate Contract Token
to generate a unique key that the recipient will receive to be able to securely view the contract. - Click
Create Contract and Send to Recipient
to send an email to the recipient letting them know a contract is pending.
- Click the link in the email sent from TradeOut to be taken to Recipient View. Recipient View shows the status of the contract. If pending, review the contract details and click
Accept
orDecline
. (Note: ClickingDecline
does not require an account.) - Clicking
Accept
requires an account and will navigate to Registration. Once registered, the contract appears in the Dashboard.
- Clicking a contract card from the Dashboard shows its details. If a contract is pending and awaiting an action, a signature field and buttons will appear at the bottom of Contract Details.
- To accept the terms of a contract, type the signature in the signature field and click
Sign and Finalize Contract
. The contract will then appear under the Accepted heading in the Dashboard. - To decline a contract, click
Decline
. The contract will then appear under the Declined heading in the Dashboard.
- Click an accepted contract card from the Dashboard to view its details.
- Click the
View Contract PDF
button to access the finalized PDF of the contract.
Node.js | Express.js | React.js | Redux | Redux-Saga | JavaScript | PostgreSQL | Passport | Material UI | SendGrid | AWS S3 | PDFMake