DealVault

A community-powered platform to share and discover the best local deals—across retail, grocery, dining, and more.

Visit the Live Site - https://dealvault-qoi9.onrender.com/

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Overview

DealVault enables users to:

• Post and browse local deals
• Like and explore the most popular offers
• Filter deals by category
• View insightful visualizations on trends
• Seamlessly register/login and manage profiles

Built with Flask and PostgreSQL, DealVault is a full-stack web application focused on community-driven savings and insights.

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Features

• User Authentication: Register and login securely
• Deal Posting: Add deals with details like store name, category, promo code, and description
• Likes System: Like deals, see most liked ones
• Visualizations: Explore insights with charts on category distribution, top stores, and more
• Filtering: Search and filter deals by store, category, or keywords

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Tech Stack

• Backend: Flask, SQLAlchemy, PostgreSQL
• Frontend: HTML, Jinja2, Bootstrap
• Auth: Flask-Login, Flask-WTF
• Visualizations: Matplotlib, Seaborn
• Hosting: Render (Backend) + Railway (PostgreSQL DB)

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Directory Structure

DealVault/
│
├── app/                # Flask application package
│   ├── auth/           # Authentication blueprint
│   ├── main/           # Main routes (deals, dashboard, etc.)
│   ├── models.py       # SQLAlchemy models
│   ├── forms.py        # WTForms definitions
│   ├── templates/      # Jinja2 HTML templates
│   └── static/         # CSS, JS, images
│
├── .env                # Environment variables (not committed)
├── run.py              # Entry point for local dev
├── wsgi.py             # WSGI entry for production (Render)
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
└── README.md           # This file

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Local Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/dealvault.git
   cd dealvault

2. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure environment variables

   Create a .env file:

   SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
   DATABASE_URL=your_postgres_connection_string
   

4. Run the app

   python run.py

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Deployment

• Backend hosted on Render
• PostgreSQL database on Railway
• Push to GitHub triggers auto-deploy via Render Git integration

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Future Improvements

• Integrating admin functionalities and dashboard for moderation
• Integrating Referral Postings