🌟 Simple Donation website using Flask 🌍

Welcome to our Donation Website! This project is a platform designed to connect donors with meaningful causes across 4 cities. With robust backend support, seamless email integrations, and user-friendly features, this project showcases the power of Flask, MySQL 🚀

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✨ Features

🔒 User Authentication

• Secure login and logout sessions.
• OTP-based verification for password changes and other sensitive actions.

📧 Email Notifications

• Automated booking confirmations and OTP emails using:
  • Flask-Mail for SMTP-based email functionality.
  • SMTP2GO for reliable and scalable email delivery.

📊 City-specific Donation Management

• Covers 4 cities, each with its own donation database and tracking.
• Backend powered by MySQL, with efficient table structures for managing donors, donations, and user data.

🛠️ Backend Architecture

• Built with Flask and Flask-MySQLdb for database integration.
• Email functionalities powered by Flask-Mail and SMTP2GO SMTP.

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🗂️ Database Overview

The backend is designed with MySQL, featuring well-structured tables for:

• Users: Storing user login credentials and profiles.
• Donations: Tracking donation records for the 4 cities.
• OTP Requests: Managing OTPs for password resets and verification.
• Bookings: Storing and confirming donation bookings.

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🚀 Installation and Setup

Follow these steps to set up the project locally:

1️⃣ Prerequisites

• Python 3.x 🐍
• MySQL installed and configured.
• Flask dependencies (listed in requirements.txt).

2️⃣ Configure MySQL Database

Create a MySQL database and import the schema provided in finaldb.sql file.

Update your database credentials in app.py:

app.config['MYSQL_USER'] = 'your-username'
app.config['MYSQL_PASSWORD'] = 'your-password'
app.config['MYSQL_DB'] = 'your-database-name'
app.config['MYSQL_HOST'] = 'localhost'

3️⃣ Set Up SMTP2GO and Flask-Mail

Add your SMTP2GO API Key and domain to the environment variables or directly in the app:

SMTP2GO_API_KEY = 'your-api-key'
SMTP2GO_DOMAIN = 'your-domain.com'
Configure your SMTP settings for Flask-Mail.

4️⃣ Run the Application

Run the app.py file
Visit http://127.0.0.1:5000 to access the website.

🌟 Why This Project is Awesome

1. Full-stack integration with Flask and MySQL.
2. Demonstrates secure user authentication and session management.
3. Real-world implementation of email automation using Flask-Mail and SMTP2GO.
4. A scalable database design tailored for real-world applications.

📁 Environment Variables Setup (.env)

To keep sensitive information secure and the codebase clean, this project uses a .env file for configuration.

📝 Step 1: Create a .env file in the root directory of your project with the following content:

# Flask secret key
SECRET_KEY=Dustbin

# MySQL Database Configuration
MYSQL_HOST=localhost
MYSQL_USER=your-mysql-username
MYSQL_PASSWORD=your-mysql-password
MYSQL_DB=finaldb

# SMTP (SMTP2GO) Mail Configuration
MAIL_SERVER=mail.smtp2go.com
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USE_TLS=True
MAIL_USE_SSL=False
MAIL_USERNAME=your-smtp2go-username
MAIL_PASSWORD=your-smtp2go-password

✅ Step 2: Load Environment Variables in app.py

Install python-dotenv if you haven't already:

pip install python-dotenv

🔒 Step 3: Add .env to .gitignore

To ensure your credentials are not pushed to GitHub, add the following line to your .gitignore file

.env