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📘 Learn About LegalHuB

Welcome to LegalHuB — a web-based legal support platform designed to make legal information accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyone.

This document serves as a technical guide and developer onboarding reference. Whether you're exploring the codebase or contributing to the project, this will help you understand how everything works under the hood.

🧭 Table of Contents

🎯 What Is LegalHuB?

LegalHuB empowers users to:

  • Understand complex legal terms using AI
  • Download state-specific legal forms
  • Explore legal rights (fundamental, civil, employment)
  • Read accessible legal articles and guides
  • Perform smart searches across legal content

🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer Technology
Backend Node.js, Express.js
Database MongoDB (Free Tier/Atlas)
Templating EJS (Embedded JavaScript)
AI Chatbot Chatbase + OpenAI API
Authentication Passport.js
Search Custom Smart Search Engine

🧠 Core Functionality Breakdown

1. ⚖️ Legal Dictionary (AI-powered)

  • Users search a legal term
  • The backend sends the term to the OpenAI API
  • Results are rendered via EJS templates

2. 📄 Legal Forms

  • Forms are stored in MongoDB and categorized
  • Users can browse by type or state
  • Backend allows download or external redirection

3. 🧾 Legal Rights

  • Rights include descriptions, categories, and source links
  • Available at the /rights route

4. 📚 Legal Articles & Guides

  • Markdown or HTML content rendered via EJS
  • Written in simple, user-friendly language

5. 🔍 Smart Search

  • Unified endpoint /api/search?q=term
  • Searches across:
    • Dictionary entries
    • Legal rights
    • Document metadata
  • Ranked and returned as structured JSON:
{
  "dictionary_results": [...],
  "rights_results": [...],
  "form_results": [...]
}

🏗️ Project Structure (Monorepo)

LegalHuB/
├── __tests__/              # Unit & integration tests
├── .github/                # GitHub workflows & templates
│   └── workflows/
├── init/                   # Seed scripts (rights, documents)
├── src/                    # Core backend app
│   ├── controllers/        # Route logic & APIs
│   ├── db/                 # MongoDB connection
│   ├── middlewares/        # Auth, error, upload handlers
│   ├── models/             # Mongoose schemas
│   ├── routes/             # Express route definitions
│   ├── utils/              # Cloudinary, error helpers, etc.
│   ├── views/              # EJS templates
│   ├── public/, uploads/   # Static & uploaded files
│   ├── app.js              # Express app config
│   ├── index.js            # Entry point
│   ├── constants.js        # Global constants
│   └── readme.md           # Dev-only usage guide
├── .env.sample             # Sample environment variables
├── package.json            # NPM config
└── README.md               # Project overview

🔍 API & Controllers

📂 /src/controllers/ Handles backend logic for each feature:

  • dictionary.controller.js – AI-powered legal term explanations
  • document.controller.js – Upload/view/download forms
  • rights.controller.js – Read and manage legal rights
  • article.controller.js – Legal articles & blogs
  • search.controller.js – Smart search queries
  • user.controller.js – User auth/profile handling
  • healthCheck.js – Monitoring and uptime status

🗂 /src/models/

Mongoose models for:

  • document.model.js
  • rights.model.js
  • article.model.js
  • user.model.js

🌐 /src/routes/

Each route maps to a controller method.

Method Endpoint Action
GET /api/rights Fetch all rights
POST /api/documents Upload a document
GET /api/search?q=... Smart search by query

🧾 /src/views/ (EJS templates)

  • Layouts: layouts/boilerplate.ejs
  • Includes: navbar.ejs, footer.ejs, flash.ejs
  • Pages: documents.ejs, rights.ejs, dictionary.ejs
  • User auth: login.ejs, profile.ejs, updateUser.ejs

⚙️ Environment Configuration

  1. Copy the sample environment file:
cp .env.sample .env
  1. Fill in required fields:
# Server
PORT=8000
SESSION_SECRET=mysecretkey


# MongoDB
DB_URL=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@cluster.mongodb.net


# CORS
CORS_ORIGIN=*


# AI APIs
MISTRAL_API_KEY=
ADMIN_SECRET_KEY=mysupersecretkey


NODE_ENV=development

🚦 GitHub Actions (CI/CD)

Workflow file: .github/workflows/integration.yml

  • Runs automated tests on PRs
  • Enforces code quality
  • Can be extended for deployments

🙋 Contributing

We welcome your contributions! Start by reading:

Ways to contribute:

  • Fix typos, links, or formatting in this guide ✅
  • Suggest improvements or beginner tips
  • Submit PRs for features or bugs

🧠 Tips for New Contributors

📬 Contact

📧 Email: dipexplorerid23@gmail.com

🐛 Open an Issue: GitHub Issues

🙌 Thank You

Thanks for contributing to LegalHuB!

Let’s build a more legally literate web — together.