Finishing the e-commerce app I abandoned in 2023

This is a submission for the GitHub Finish-Up-A-Thon Challenge What I Built GlowStore — a full-stack MERN e-commerce store (React + Redux + Express + MongoDB). Back in 2023 I built this as my university Web Engineering final project. I ran out of time, handed in what I had, and never touched it again. When I reopened it for this challenge I found something funny: the backend was basically finished — JWT auth, products, orders, reviews, search — but the React frontend never actually talked to it. It was a good-looking shell with fake logic bolted on. So "finishing it" meant connecting the two halves and making it a real store you can actually shop in. Repo: https://github.com/hashaam-011/Web-Engineering Demo Before — the entire app was just a fake login screen. Typing anything (or nothing) and clicking "Log in" flipped a boolean and "logged you in": After — a working storefront with products from the database: A real product detail page (was literally <h1>DetailsPages</h1> before): You can run it yourself in two terminals (no database setup needed — it boots an in-memory MongoDB and seeds itself): cd backend && npm install && npm start # http://localhost:4000 npm install && npm start # http://localhost:3000 Demo login: user@example.com / 123456 — or register a new account. The Comeback Story Here's what the project looked like before , and what I changed: Before After Login dispatched a boolean and ignored your credentials Real login/register against the API with JWT + bcrypt Frontend never called the backend (no axios anywhere) Axios client with token injection; products load from MongoDB Product details page was <h1>DetailsPages</h1> and wasn't routed Full details page (image, price, stock, rating) routed by slug Cart was local-only; "checkout" button did nothing Persistent cart → checkout → real order placed and saved Backend had a reviews endpoint the UI never used Product reviews: read them and post your own with a star rating Only 3 routes; most of the app was