gander/README.md

Team 11 - Live Streaming Platform

Overview

Our project is a live streaming service that enables content creators to broadcast to viewers through a web-based platform. The application consists of a React-based frontend that users access to watch streams, and a Flask backend that manages the core functionality and business logic.

Access Control Levels

The platform implements three-tier access control:

1. No Access (Non-authenticated Users)

   • View live streams
   • Browse available content

2. Regular Access (Authenticated Users)

   • All features available to non-authenticated users
   • Ability to donate to streamers through Stripe integration
   • Interact with streams through comments
   • Follow other users
   • Option to become a content creator and start streaming

3. Admin Access

   • Complete platform management capabilities
   • Content moderation tools
   • User account management
   • System configuration controls

Technical Stack

Frontend

• React with TypeScript for type safety
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Video.js for stream playback
• Stripe integration for payment processing

Backend

• Python with Flask web framework
• SQLite database for data persistence
• Flask-Session for user session management
• Nginx RTMP module for stream handling

Infrastructure

• Docker for containerization and deployment
• Docker Compose for multi-container orchestration
• Nginx for reverse proxy and RTMP streaming server

Future Development

While our current focus is on the web platform, we've architected the system with potential mobile expansion in mind, particularly through React Native for Android development.

Development

This project is actively maintained on GitHub with all team members contributing through version control. We follow collaborative development practices with regular code reviews and feature branches.

Running the Current Implementation of the Project

The current implementation can be run, in development mode, using the following method:

1. With the Docker VSCode extension installed, right click within the editor with the docker-compose.yaml file active. Select Compose Up Now the backend is up and running on http://127.0.0.1:8080.
2. Next, having Node.js & Vite installed, cd into web_server/frontend and execute the command npm run dev. This should startup the frontend section of the application. However, this is only a temporary method as a Docker solution is in development for this frontend part of the project.
3. Navigate to the localhost link given in the terminal upon executing the last command (http://localhost:5173/).