Convene

Convene is a Event Management Platform designed to facilitate the creation, discovery, and management of events. It provides a robust backend API supporting features like ticketing, payments, real-time notifications, and personalized event recommendations using ML.NET.

Live Demos

• Backend API (Render):[ [https://convene-backend-7whb.onrender.com/swagger]
• Frontend Client (Netlify): https://curious-buttercream-1ddd3a.netlify.app/

Test Credentials

• Super Admin Email:admin@convene.com Password:Admin@123
• Organizer Email:organizer@gmail.com Password:123456

Features

• User Management:
  • Role-based authentication (Admin, Organizer, Attendee) via JWT.
  • Secure password hashing.
• Event Management:
  • Create, update, and manage events.
  • Categorization and tagging.
  • Support for multiple ticket types and pricing rules.
• Dynamic Pricing for Tickets
  • EarlyBird
  • lastDayBefore
  • Demandbased
• Booking & Ticketing:
  • Seamless booking flow.
  • QR code generation for tickets.
  • Ticket scanning and validation (Gatekeeper role).
• Payments:
  • Integrated with Chapa for payment processing.
  • Background payment verification jobs.
• Recommendation System:
  • Hybrid recommendation engine using ML.NET (Matrix Factorization) and rule-based scoring.
  • Personalized event suggestions based on user interactions.
• Real-time Notifications:
  • SignalR integration for instant updates to users.
  • Email notifications via SMTP.
  • Telegram bot integration.
• Monitoring & Logging:
  • Structured logging with Serilog.
  • Health checks and performance monitoring.

Tech Stack

• Framework: ASP.NET Core 8.0
• Database: PostgreSQL (Entity Framework Core)
• Caching: Redis
• Machine Learning: ML.NET
• Real-time: SignalR
• Payment Gateway: Chapa
• Cloud Storage: Cloudinary (for images)
• Containerization: Docker

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• .NET 8.0 SDK
• PostgreSQL

⚙️ Configuration

The application relies on appsettings.json or appsetting.template.json for configuration. You may need to update the ConnectionStrings and API keys.

1. Clone the repository
2. Navigate to the API project:

   cd Convene.API

3. Update appsettings.json or appsetting.template.json (or use User Secrets/Environment Variables): #location Convene-Backend/Convene.Api/appsetting.json or appsetting.template.json

   {
     "ConnectionStrings": {
       "DefaultConnection": "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=ConveneDb;Username=postgres;Password=your_password",
       "Redis": "localhost:6379"
     },
     "Jwt": {
       "Secret": "YourSuperSecretKeyHere..."
     },
     "Chapa": {
       "SecretKey": "your_chapa_secret_key"
     },
     "CloudinarySettings": {
       "CloudName": "your_cloud_name",
       "ApiKey": "your_api_key",
       "ApiSecret": "your_api_secret"
     }
   }

🚀 How to Run

Option 1: Using .NET CLI

1. Restore dependencies:

   dotnet restore

2. Apply database migrations:

   dotnet ef database update --project ../Convene.Infrastructure --startup-project .

   Note: The application also attempts to apply migrations automatically on startup.
3. Run the application:

   dotnet run

   The API will be available at http://localhost:5000 (or the port configured in launchSettings.json).

Option 2: Using Docker

1. Build the Docker image:

   docker build -t convene-api .

2. Run the container:

   docker run -p 5000:8080 -e ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection="Host=host.docker.internal;..." convene-api

🧪 Testing

To run the unit and integration tests:

dotnet test

📚 API Documentation

Once the application is running, you can access the Swagger UI to explore the API endpoints:

• Swagger UI: http://localhost:5000/swagger/index.html