Splidot

Splidot is a user-friendly payment manager designed to help you split expenses among friends effortlessly. With Splidot, you can create groups, add expenses, and have the app calculate equal splits for everyone. The app ensures transparency and ease of managing shared costs.

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

To run Splidot locally, you need:

• Node.js (v18+ recommended)
• A PostgreSQL database (a free Neon database works out of the box)
• A package manager like npm or yarn
• Google Chrome installed (only needed to run the end-to-end tests — see Testing)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone 'https://github.com/Rov95/splidot.git'
   cd splidot

2. Install dependencies for both the frontend and backend:

   # Install frontend dependencies
   cd client
   npm install
   
   # Install backend dependencies
   cd ../server
   npm install

3. Configure the environment variables:

   • For the backend, create a .env file in the server directory (see server/.env.example):

     # Postgres connection string (e.g. from Neon)
     DATABASE_URL=postgresql://<user>:<password>@<host>/<dbname>?sslmode=require
     
     # Secret used to sign JWTs
     SECRET_KEY=<a-long-random-string>

Running the Application

1. Start the backend server (TypeScript, runs with hot reload):

   cd server
   npm run dev

   The API listens on http://localhost:3000.

2. Start the frontend development server:

   cd ../client
   npm run dev

3. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:5173 to use Splidot.

Backend scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Run the server in watch mode with tsx
npm run build	Compile TypeScript to dist/
npm start	Run the compiled server from dist/
npm test	Run the Vitest test suite once
npm run test:watch	Run the Vitest test suite in watch mode

Frontend scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Run the Vite dev server with hot reload
npm run typecheck	Type-check with tsc --noEmit
npm run build	Type-check, then build for production into dist/
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run preview	Preview the production build locally
npm test	Run the Vitest test suite once
npm run test:watch	Run the Vitest test suite in watch mode

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Testing

Splidot has three layers of automated tests:

Layer	Location	Framework	What it covers
Backend unit/integration	server/tests	Vitest + Supertest	Route handlers (/users, /groups, /expenses, /categories) against an in-memory SQLite database, plus the errorMessage util and authMiddleware
Frontend unit/component	client/src/**/*.test.tsx	Vitest + React Testing Library	Forms, dashboard components, and the pure calculateSettlements splitting algorithm, with services mocked
End-to-end	e2e/ (repo root)	Playwright	Full golden path in a real browser against the real dev servers and Neon database: sign up → sign in → create group → add expense → settle up → log out

Backend tests never touch the real Neon database — server/src/config/database.ts switches to an in-memory SQLite instance whenever NODE_ENV=test (set automatically by Vitest). The E2E suite does use the real Neon database (via the dev servers) but cleans up everything it creates before and after each run.

Run each suite from its own directory:

cd server && npm test      # backend tests
cd client && npm test      # frontend tests
npm run test:e2e           # from the repo root — starts both dev servers automatically

The E2E suite uses your system-installed Google Chrome (channel: 'chrome' in playwright.config.ts) instead of downloading a bundled Chromium, so no browser download is required.

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Tech Stack

Frontend

• Language: TypeScript (strict mode)
• Framework: React with Vite for fast development and build performance
• Styling: CSS for responsive and modern design

Backend

• Language: TypeScript (strict mode) compiled for Node.js
• Framework: Express for building the server and API
• Database: PostgreSQL (hosted on Neon) for robust and scalable data management
• ORM: Sequelize with typed models for managing database models and queries
• Authentication: Stateless JWT (Bearer token, 90-day expiry) stored in localStorage on the client

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Contributors

Splidot was developed by:

• Andres Menco - Full-stack development

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

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