Book My Ticket — ChaiCode Hackathon

A minimal movie seat booking app with JWT authentication and PostgreSQL-backed seat reservation.

• Register / Login
• Browse seats
• Book a seat (protected route)

Demo pages

• Auth page: GET / (or GET /register)
• Booking page: GET /booking

Tech stack

• Node.js, Express
• PostgreSQL (pg)
• JWT (jsonwebtoken)
• Simple HTML UI: register.html, index.html

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (LTS recommended)
• Yarn
• A PostgreSQL database (local or hosted)

Install

yarn install

Environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root.

Variable	Required	Example	Notes
PORT	no	8080	Server port
DATABASE_URL	yes	postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/db	PostgreSQL connection string
JWT_ACCESS_SECRET	yes	a-very-long-random-secret	Keep it private
JWT_ACCESS_EXPIRES_IN	no	15m	Defaults to 15m
CORS_ORIGIN	no	http://localhost:5173	Only needed if you call APIs from a different origin
NODE_ENV	no	development	Enables secure cookies only in production

Example .env:

PORT=8080
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:5432/DBNAME
JWT_ACCESS_SECRET=replace_me_with_a_long_random_secret
JWT_ACCESS_EXPIRES_IN=15m

# Optional (only if using a separate frontend origin)
# CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost:5173
# NODE_ENV=development

Run

yarn start

Open:

• http://localhost:8080/ for Register/Login
• http://localhost:8080/booking for seat booking

API reference

Base URL: http://localhost:8080

Auth

POST /auth/register

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "password123"
}

Returns JSON containing token and sets a token httpOnly cookie.

POST /auth/login

{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "password123"
}

Returns JSON containing token and sets a token httpOnly cookie.

Seats

GET /seat

Returns all seats.

PUT /seat/:id (protected)

Books a seat by id for the authenticated user.

Authentication

Protected routes accept the JWT in either form:

• Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer <JWT_TOKEN>

• Cookie:
  • token=<JWT_TOKEN> (httpOnly cookie)

The bundled booking UI uses localStorage and sends the JWT via the Authorization header.

Database expectations

This project expects at minimum:

• users table with columns like:
  • id, "first name", last_name, email, password
• seats table with columns like:
  • id, is_booked (boolean), name (booked-by)

Project structure (high level)

• index.mjs — Express server bootstrap + routes
• modules/auth/* — register/login + auth middleware
• modules/TicketBookingService/* — seat list + booking
• common/utils/* — DB + JWT helpers
• register.html, index.html — UI pages

Troubleshooting

• 401 on booking
  • Ensure you’re sending Authorization: Bearer <token> or that the token cookie is present.
• Database connection errors
  • Verify DATABASE_URL and that your DB host is reachable (DNS/network).

License

MIT