The Booktown - A PHP Bookstore Project

This project is a fully functional e-commerce website for a bookstore, built with PHP. It provides a complete user experience, from browsing and searching for books to placing orders. It also includes a comprehensive admin panel for site management.

This version has been refactored to run entirely within a Dockerized environment, using MySQL for the database and Apache for the web server.

Features

• User Facing:

  • Browse and search for books.
  • View product details.
  • User registration and login.
  • Add products to a shopping cart.
  • Complete checkout process to place an order.
  • View order history.
  • Submit requests to sell books.

• Admin Panel:

  • View dashboard with site statistics.
  • Manage products (add, update, delete).
  • Manage placed orders.
  • Manage user accounts.
  • Review and approve/deny user messages and sell requests.

How to Run with Docker

This project is configured to run seamlessly with Docker and Docker Compose, eliminating the need for a local XAMPP or PHP/MySQL installation.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Steps

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone <your-repository-url>
   cd thebooktown_php

2. Set Up Environment Variables

   Create a .env file by copying the example file:

   cp .env.example .env

   Now, open the .env file and fill in the necessary values. For a local setup, you can use the following:

   MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpassword
   MYSQL_DATABASE=shop_db
   MYSQL_USER=user
   MYSQL_PASSWORD=password
   SENDGRID_API_KEY=<your_sendgrid_api_key>
   DB_HOST=db
   

3. Build and Run the Containers

   Run the following command from the project root. This will build the PHP/Apache image, install all the necessary Composer dependencies (creating the vendor directory inside the image), and start all services in the background.

   docker-compose up --build -d

   The database will be automatically initialized with schema and sample data from the init.sql file the first time you run this command.

   Note: Because the vendor directory is created by Docker, it is included in the .gitignore file. You can and should delete the vendor directory from your local machine if it exists.

4. Access the Application

   • Website: You can now access the bookstore at http://localhost:8080
   • Admin Panel: The admin panel is available at http://localhost:8080/admin_login.php

5. Test Credentials

   A set of test credentials for both a regular user and an admin are available in the test_credentials.txt file.

Stopping the Application

To stop the containers, run:

docker-compose down

To stop the containers and remove the database volume (useful for a clean restart), run:

docker-compose down -v