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Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure the following tools are installed on your machine:
ToolPurposeMinimum version
Docker DesktopRuns the SQL Server containerAny current release
.NET 8 SDKBuilds and runs the ASP.NET Core backend8.0
Node.jsRuns the React frontend18+
Run dotnet --version and node --version in a terminal to confirm your installations before continuing.

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Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/AnthonyEMF/meetpoint.git MeetPoint

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Setup

1

Navigate to the Backend folder

cd MeetPoint/Backend
2

Create appsettings.json

Create a new file called appsettings.json in the Backend/ directory and paste the following content.
The SQL Server password in appsettings.json must match MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD in docker-compose.yml. Both default to YourStrong@Password123 — change them together if you use a custom password.
appsettings.json
{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "Server=localhost,1433;Database=MeetPoint;User Id=sa;Password=YourStrong@Password123;Trusted_Connection=false;TrustServerCertificate=true;Encrypt=true;"
  },
  "AllowURLS": [
    "http://localhost:5173"
  ],
  "PageSize": 8,
  "JWT": {
    "ValidAudience": "http://localhost:5173",
    "ValidIssuer": "https://localhost:7191",
    "Secret": "Esta-es-una-clave-super-secreta-y-segura-para-JWT-con-al-menos-32-caracteres",
    "Expires": "120",
    "RefreshTokenExpire": "240"
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
    }
  }
}
Port numbers may vary depending on your environment. Update AllowURLS, ValidAudience, and ValidIssuer if your frontend or backend run on different ports.
3

Start the SQL Server container

The docker-compose.yml spins up a SQL Server 2022 container named meetpoint_sqlserver on port 1433.
docker-compose up -d
The container uses a health check and retries up to 10 times. Wait a few seconds for it to become healthy before running migrations.
Run docker ps to confirm the container is running and healthy.
4

Install Entity Framework tools

Skip this step if you already have dotnet-ef installed globally.
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef
5

Restore dependencies

dotnet restore
6

Run database migrations

Create and apply the initial migration to set up the database schema:
dotnet ef migrations add InitDatabase
dotnet ef database update
On first run, the application also seeds initial data — including the test admin and user accounts — automatically via the MeetPointSeeder.
7

Start the backend

dotnet run
The API will be available at http://localhost:5048. Swagger UI is accessible at http://localhost:5048/swagger while running in development mode.

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Test credentials

Two seeded accounts are available immediately after running database migrations:
RoleEmailPassword
Adminadmin@me.comTemporal01*
Useruser@me.comTemporal01*
These are development credentials only. Do not use these accounts or passwords in a production environment.

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What to try first

Once both services are running, here are a few things to explore:
1

Browse the home page

Open http://localhost:5173 to see the event feed. You can browse public events without logging in.
2

Log in as a user

Sign in with user@me.com / Temporal01* to access the full user experience — create an event, register attendance, leave a comment, and rate an event.
3

Create an event

After logging in, navigate to the event creation form. Fill in a title, description, category, date, and location, then submit to see it appear in the feed.
4

Explore the admin dashboard

Sign in with admin@me.com / Temporal01* to access the admin dashboard. From there you can manage users, events, categories, attendances, comments, and reports.

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