PulsePoint 🌍

PulsePoint is a modern, user-friendly news aggregation platform designed to deliver stories from trusted sources without confusion or bias. It features a classic news portal layout, live trending updates, and categorized news feeds.

🚀 Features

• Smart News Aggregation: Automatically fetches and categorizes top headlines from global sources via NewsAPI.org.
• Categorized Feeds: Specialized sections for Tech, Sports, Health, Science, Entertainment, and Nigeria.
• Trending Engine: Tracks article views and highlights trending stories in a dedicated "Mosaic" sidebar.
• Classic News Layout: Professional, responsive design inspired by top-tier news portals (BBC, NYT).
• User Accounts: Secure registration and login system using JWT authentication.
• Admin Publishing: (Backend ready) Infrastructure for admins to post, edit, and manage original articles.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3 (Grid/Flexbox), JavaScript (ES6+)
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Database: MongoDB (Atlas)
• External APIs: NewsAPI.org (for aggregation)

📂 Project Structure

PulsePoint/
├── client/             # The Static Frontend
│   ├── index.html      # Home Page
│   ├── login.html      # Login page
│   ├── register.html   # Sign-up page
│   ├── profile.html    # Profile page
│   ├── article.html    # Article page
│   ├── style.css       # Global Styles
│   ├── app.js          # Frontend Logic & API Calls
│   └── assets/         # Images & Logos
├── server/             # The Node.js Backend
│   ├── models/         # Database Schemas
│   ├── routes/         # API Endpoints
│   ├── services/       # News Fetching Logic (Cron Jobs)
│   └── server.js       # Entry Point
└── vercel.json         # Deployment Configuration

🔧 Local Setup

Clone the repository

git clone [https://github.com/yourusername/pulsepoint.git](https://github.com/yourusername/pulsepoint.git)
cd pulsepoint

Setup Backend

cd server
npm install

Create a .env file and add your MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET, and NEWS_API_KEY

npm start

Run Frontend

Simply open client/index.html in your browser. Or use VS Code "Live Server" extension for the best experience.

🔑 Environment Variables

To run this project, you will need to add the following environment variables to your .env file (locally) or Vercel project settings (deployment):

MONGO_URI: Your MongoDB Atlas connection string.

JWT_SECRET: A secret string for signing login tokens.

NEWS_API_KEY: Your API key from newsapi.org.

PORT: (Optional) Defaults to 5000.

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