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LACA Registration Portal - NIT Hamirpur

The official website for LA/CA (Lecture Added Courses/Co-Curricular Activities) registration at NIT Hamirpur. This portal enables students to register for elective activities and courses with a seamless, scalable experience.

📊 Performance Stats

  • 850+ registrations completed in 2 days
  • 60,000+ HTTP requests handled
  • 99.9% uptime during peak registration period
  • Efficient email delivery with Redis-based job queuing

Read the full technical blog post: Blog

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend

  • Node.js - JavaScript runtime
  • Express.js - Web framework for routing and middleware
  • MongoDB - NoSQL database for storing registrations and activity data
  • Mongoose - ODM (Object Data Modeling) for MongoDB

Email & Job Queue

  • BullMQ - Task queue built on Redis for background job processing
  • IORedis - Redis client for Node.js
  • Nodemailer - Email sending with SMTP support (Gmail)
  • Redis - In-memory data store for job queue and worker coordination

Frontend

  • EJS - Embedded JavaScript templating
  • HTML5 & CSS3 - Modern, responsive UI
  • Vanilla JavaScript - Form handling and dynamic subject loading

Authentication & Security

  • JWT (jsonwebtoken) - Token-based email verification
  • dotenv - Environment variable management

📋 Project Structure

laca-site/
├── models/
│   ├── form.js              # User registration schema
│   └── subject.js           # Activity/course schema
├── routes/
│   ├── form.js              # Form submission & validation
│   ├── email.js             # Email verification endpoint
│   ├── subject.js           # Subject management & API
│   └── details.js           # Registration details (admin)
├── services/
│   ├── sendEmail.js         # Email template & transport logic
│   └── redis/
│       ├── emailQueue.js    # BullMQ queue producer
│       └── emailWorker.js   # BullMQ worker consumer
├── views/
│   ├── home.ejs             # Main registration form
│   ├── verify-email.ejs     # Email verification page
│   ├── subject.ejs          # Admin subject management
│   └── details.ejs          # Registration details page
├── public/                  # Static assets
├── index.js                 # Server entry point
├── connection.js            # MongoDB connection handler
├── package.json             # Dependencies
└── README.md

🚀 Getting Started (Local Setup)

Prerequisites

  • Node.js (v14 or higher)
  • npm (comes with Node.js)
  • MongoDB (local or cloud instance via MongoDB Atlas)
  • Redis (for background job processing)
  • Git

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/ayush00git/laca-site.git
cd laca-site

2. Install Dependencies

npm install

3. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

# Server
PORT=8089
NODE_ENV=development

# Database
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/laca-site
# Or use MongoDB Atlas:
# MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://username:password@cluster.mongodb.net/laca-site?retryWrites=true&w=majority

# Email Configuration (Gmail SMTP)
USER_MAIL=your-email@gmail.com
USER_PASS=your-app-specific-password
# Generate app password: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

# JWT & Verification
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-key
PROD_URL=http://localhost:8089

# Redis Configuration (for email queue)
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PORT=6379
# Or use Redis URL:
# REDIS_URL=redis://:password@host:port

# Private Routes (admin/sensitive operations)
PRIVATE_URL=admin

4. Start MongoDB

Option A: Local MongoDB

# If installed locally
mongod

Option B: MongoDB Atlas (Cloud)

  • Create a cluster at MongoDB Atlas
  • Get connection string and add to .env as MONGO_URI

5. Start Redis Server

# If installed locally
redis-server

# Or using Docker
docker run -d -p 6379:6379 redis:latest

6. Start the Background Worker (Email Processing)

In a separate terminal:

npm run start-worker

This will start the BullMQ worker that processes email jobs from the Redis queue.

7. Start the Development Server

In another terminal:

npm run dev

The server will start at http://localhost:8089

📧 Email Queue & Redis Architecture

How Email Delivery Works

  1. User Submits Form → Server validates & creates JWT token
  2. Enqueue Job → Job is added to Redis queue (emailQueue.js)
  3. Immediate Response → User sees success message instantly (non-blocking)
  4. Worker Processes → Background worker (emailWorker.js) picks up job from queue
  5. Email Sent → Nodemailer sends verification email via Gmail SMTP
  6. Job Complete → Job is marked complete and removed from queue (or retained on failure)

📝 API Endpoints

Registration

  • POST /form/submit - Submit registration form
  • GET /email/verify-email?token=JWT_TOKEN - Verify email and confirm registration

Subject Management

  • GET /admin/subject/api/all - Fetch all activities (for frontend dropdown)
  • POST /admin/subject - Create new activity (admin only)

Admin

  • GET /admin/details - View all registrations

Config

  • GET /api/config - Get dynamic API configuration

🔄 Available npm Scripts

npm run dev              # Start development server with auto-reload (nodemon)
npm run start            # Start production server
npm run start-worker     # Start background email worker

🛡️ Security Features

  • JWT-based email verification - Tokens expire in 24 hours
  • Input validation - Server-side validation for all form inputs
  • Email domain restriction - Only @nith.ac.in emails accepted
  • Rate limiting - BullMQ limiter (10 emails per second max)
  • Environment variables - Sensitive data not in code
  • HTTPS ready - Configure in production deployment

Environment Configuration (Production)

NODE_ENV=production
PORT=8089
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://...           # Atlas connection
REDIS_URL=redis://:password@host:port # Cloud Redis
USER_MAIL=registration@nith.ac.in     # Official email
JWT_SECRET=long-random-secret-key
PROD_URL=https://laca.nith.ac.in      # Production domain
PRIVATE_URL=admin

Recommended Hosting

  • Server: AWS EC2.
  • Database: MongoDB Atlas
  • Redis: AWS ElastiCache or Upstash
  • Email: Gmail SMTP or SendGrid/AWS SES for higher limits

Process Manager (Production)

Use PM2 to keep the server and worker running:

npm install -g pm2

# Start both processes
pm2 start index.js --name "laca-server"
pm2 start services/redis/emailWorker.js --name "email-worker"

# Monitor
pm2 monit

# Logs
pm2 logs

🤝 Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
  4. Push to branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

📞 Support & Contact

Developers:

📄 License

This project is part of NIT Hamirpur's official infrastructure. Contact the administration for licensing details.

Last Updated: January 11, 2026
Version: 2.0.0

// Submitting to the college // // DONE //