CatCall

A microservice-based, Tinder-style cat adoption platform featuring card-based liking, location-based recommendations, and Dockerized deployment using Node.js, React, and MongoDB.

Live Site: Live site was taken offline 2/25/2026 to support the deployment of newer projects that reflect my ability more accurately. Documentation of all microservices and main project are still accurate and up to date, but local deployment is now the only supported deployment method.

Built with:

• React + Tailwind CSS (Frontend)
• Node.js, Express, and MongoDB (Backend APIs)
• Docker Compose (Deployment)

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Run Locally (localhost:3000)

Follow these steps to clone and run the full CatCall app locally.

1. Clone the Main Repository

git clone https://github.com/zandonella/CatCall.git
cd CatCall

2. Clone the Frontend Repository

Clone this repository into the main repository folder

git clone https://github.com/zandonella/CatCall-Frontend.git

3. Clone the Microservice Repositories

CatCall is composed of five microservice backends. Clone each repository into the main repository folder

git clone https://github.com/zandonella/cat-database-microservice.git
git clone https://github.com/zandonella/favorites-microservice.git
git clone https://github.com/zandonella/preferences-microservice.git
git clone https://github.com/zandonella/recommender-microservice.git
git clone https://github.com/zandonella/auth-microservice.git

Service	Description	View API Endpoints
CatCall-Frontend	React frontend	–
cat-database-microservice	Cat data and image storage	Link
favorites-microservice	Manages user favorites/likes	Link
preferences-microservice	Stores user preference settings	Link
recommender-microservice	Generates match recommendations	Link
auth-microservice	Auth routes	Link

Make sure each service is placed in the directory path expected by docker-compose.yml.

3. Set Up Environment File

While each microservice has its own .env file, only the main repository requires a .env file to run locally when using Docker Compose from this root project.

Refer to the .env.example file in this repository for the required variables, then create a .env file in the root directory:

cp .env.example .env

Update the values as needed for your local environment.

4. Run the App with Docker Compose

docker-compose up --build

Once the services are built and running, visit:

http://localhost:3000

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