Cacao Connect

Interactive tasting web app for premium chocolate workshops.

Core flow

This version is built for a speaker-led workshop:

1. The speaker opens one tasting.
2. Participants see only that tasting on their phones.
3. They send their live vote.
4. The speaker dashboard updates the aggregate radar charts in real time through polling.
5. The speaker locks responses and moves to the next tasting.
6. At the end, the dashboard shows every tasting with:
   • audience radar
   • official configured radar

Run locally

node server.js

Open:

• http://localhost:3000/
• http://localhost:3000/config.html
• http://localhost:3000/participant.html
• http://localhost:3000/dashboard.html

Deploy online

For the current architecture, use a host with persistent storage.

Important:

• this app writes workshop data to data/store.json
• if the host filesystem is ephemeral, votes can be lost on restart or redeploy

The server supports:

• PORT
• DATA_DIR
• STORE_PATH

Recommended production setup:

• mount a persistent volume at /data
• set DATA_DIR=/data
• run npm start

What to configure

The easiest way is now directly from the speaker dashboard.

From config.html you can:

• add or remove tastings
• choose tasting code and name
• set style / origin
• write official notes
• set both official radar profiles
• save named configurations for future reuse
• load a saved configuration later

Saving the configuration resets collected responses and puts the session back in setup.

Advanced fallback:

• edit data/store.json manually

Speaker controls

From the speaker home index.html:

• Open tasting
• Lock responses
• Next tasting
• Final reveal
• Reset session

Notes

• The participant page uses polling to follow speaker changes automatically.
• Private personal aroma notes stay on the participant device only.
• Shared data is stored in data/store.json.