E-Library

E-Library is a full-stack digital reading platform built by Padam Kishore. It provides a fast public book discovery experience, browser-based PDF and EPUB reading, Google sign-in, an owner/admin book management system, premium access controls, Razorpay payments, a supporter donation page, AI-assisted reading help, and SEO-ready public book pages.

Project Snapshot

Area	Implementation
Public site	Static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript hosted on Cloudflare Pages
Backend API	Node.js, Express, MySQL connection pooling, rate limits, and security headers
Database	MySQL schema with books, users, admin audit logs, payment orders, entitlements, and supporter contributions
Auth	Google sign-in, backend token verification, signed session cookie, bearer fallback, CSRF for admin routes
Storage	Google Drive API for PDF, EPUB, cover, video, and supporter media assets
Payments	Razorpay Orders API, Standard Checkout, signature verification, webhook confirmation
Reading	Public previews, signed-in full reading, PDF viewer, EPUB viewer, reader controls, AI sidebar
Admin	Book CRUD, bulk import, private/public visibility, payment settings, premium rules, admin management
SEO	Static indexable book pages, category pages, language pages, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, canonical URLs, JSON-LD
Support	Standalone support page with profile, social links, INR checkout, local currency estimate, optional media message

Why This Project Stands Out

• It is not a static landing page. It is a working library system with real backend routes, database schema, admin workflows, payments, storage, authentication, and public SEO pages.
• It separates public discovery from protected reading and admin management.
• It treats Google search as a first-class requirement through static SEO pages and a submitted sitemap.
• It uses web-friendly free-tier deployment choices while documenting the production limitations of free compute/database plans.
• It has a practical owner workflow: add books, import many books, make books private or public, configure premium access, review payments, and keep public pages discoverable.

Live Links

• Public site: https://e-library-c9t.pages.dev/
• Sitemap: https://e-library-c9t.pages.dev/sitemap.xml
• Support page: https://e-library-c9t.pages.dev/support.html
• GitHub profile: https://github.com/padam421
• LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padam-kishore-031b8b377/

Visual Walkthrough

These screenshots show the real product surfaces that readers, supporters, and admins use: discovery, signed-in progress, course-style book browsing, PDF/EPUB reading, AI help, Razorpay-backed support, and owner/admin management.

Home library discovery Fast search, themed browsing, live book rows, and a polished reader-first layout.	Continue Reading dashboard Signed-in readers can resume PDF and EPUB books with saved progress across the library.
Training and course catalog Category mega-menu for training, fiction, novels, trending titles, mystery, and classics.	Book detail page Format switching, cover art, metadata, summary, reading actions, and saved-list workflow.
PDF reader Full in-browser PDF reading with thumbnails, page navigation, zoom controls, and progress resume.	AI reading assistant Contextual study tools for summaries, explanations, quizzes, book search, and notes while reading.
EPUB reader Reflowable EPUB reading with search, bookmarks, chapters, typography controls, and highlighting.	Support and payments Razorpay-backed INR support flow with quick amounts, recent supporters, and optional media notes.
Admin library dashboard Owner/admin view for total books, cover/video stats, visibility controls, search, and safe deletion.	Add book workflow Add metadata, visibility, descriptions, PDF/EPUB Drive IDs, cover art, and video preview IDs.
Bulk import workflow Upload CSV/JSON or paste structured book data for safe batched imports.	Payment controls Configure Razorpay checkout, free preview pages, currency, subscription pricing, and book-level premium rules.
Admin permissions Owner-only controls for granting and reviewing admin access.	Admin activity log Audit trail for book changes, imports, payment setting updates, and permission changes.

Architecture

flowchart LR
  Visitor["Reader / Student"] --> Pages["Cloudflare Pages frontend"]
  Googlebot["Googlebot"] --> StaticSEO["Static SEO book/category pages"]
  Pages --> API["Render Node.js Express API"]
  StaticSEO --> Pages
  API --> MySQL["Aiven / MySQL database"]
  API --> Drive["Google Drive asset storage"]
  API --> Firebase["Firebase Admin / Firestore sync"]
  API --> Gemini["Gemini API reader assistant"]
  API --> Razorpay["Razorpay Orders, Checkout, Webhooks"]
  Razorpay --> Bank["Razorpay settlement bank account"]

Loading

Request Flow

1. A reader opens the Cloudflare Pages frontend.
2. Public book data loads from GET /api/pdfs.
3. Public previews use /api/pdfs/book/:bookId/preview or EPUB preview endpoints.
4. Full PDF/EPUB streams require a verified session.
5. Google sign-in sends an access token to the backend, where it is verified before the app creates a session.
6. Premium and support payments create Razorpay orders on the backend.
7. Razorpay checkout returns a signed payment response, and the backend verifies it before granting access or recording support.
8. Webhooks provide server-to-server confirmation if the browser closes after payment.

Feature Highlights

Public Library

• Searchable, responsive home page.
• Book cards with title, author, category, cover, and media availability.
• Clean public book detail page.
• Separate PDF and EPUB reading experiences.
• Public preview mode for signed-out users.
• Full reading mode for signed-in users.
• Reader controls for navigation and reading flow.

Authentication

• Google Identity Services on the frontend.
• Backend Google access-token verification.
• Session cookie plus local bearer-token fallback.
• Owner/admin role enforcement.
• CSRF protection on admin mutations.

Admin Portal

• Add a single book.
• Import books in bulk from structured data.
• Edit and delete books.
• Mark books private or public.
• Manage admin users.
• View admin activity logs.
• Configure payment settings and premium book rules.

Payments And Support

• Razorpay order creation happens only on the backend.
• Razorpay key secret and webhook secret are never exposed to frontend code.
• Checkout signatures are verified with HMAC.
• Webhook signatures are verified from the raw request body.
• Payment records are stored in MySQL.
• Premium purchases create user entitlements.
• Support contributions are stored separately with optional public messages.
• Support media uploads are allowed only after payment succeeds.

AI Reader Assistant

• Website-aware and reader-aware prompt context.
• Gemini model fallback strategy.
• Optional file extraction with PDF text parsing and OCR support.
• Rate limits and safety-oriented system instructions.

SEO And Discoverability

• Homepage metadata, Open Graph, Twitter card metadata, and JSON-LD.
• Public static book pages at clean URLs such as:

/books/1/captain-blood-rafael-sabatini/

• Category and language pages such as:

/books/category/business-and-economics/
/books/language/english/

• Canonical URLs for indexable pages.
• robots.txt points to sitemap.xml.
• Static sitemap.xml is committed so Cloudflare Pages serves it reliably.
• Private pages such as admin, reader, and checkout/support utility surfaces are marked with noindex where appropriate.

Repository Structure

E-LIBRARY/
  .github/                       GitHub workflow and contribution templates
  docs/                          Architecture, setup, deployment, and SEO notes
  PDF-Library/
    frontend/
      index.html                 Public library homepage
      support.html               Standalone support page
      book-detail.html           Dynamic book detail view
      view-pdf.html              PDF reader
      view-epub.html             EPUB reader
      books/                     Static SEO book/category/language pages
      assets/
        css/                     Site, reader, SEO, and support styling
        js/                      Frontend app, auth, reader, payment, support logic
        images/                  Logo and Padam Kishore profile assets
      functions/                 Cloudflare Function SEO route implementation
      robots.txt                 Crawl rules
      sitemap.xml                Static sitemap submitted to Search Console
      _headers                   Cloudflare headers and noindex rules
    backend/
      src/
        app.js                   Express app, middleware, route mounting
        server.js                Production server entry
        config/                  Environment, database, Drive, Firebase, runtime config
        controllers/             Route handlers
        middleware/              Rate limits, admin guard, CSRF, error handling
        models/                  Public book data access
        routes/                  API route definitions
        services/                Razorpay/payment business logic
        utils/                   Google token and session helpers
      scripts/                   Setup, migration, preflight, secret-check helpers
      Dockerfile                 Backend container deploy file
      package.json               Backend scripts and dependencies
    sql/                         MySQL schema and migration scripts
    DEPLOYMENT.md                Production checklist and hosting notes

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or newer.
• MySQL-compatible database.
• Google OAuth client ID.
• Google Drive OAuth credentials and refresh token.
• Firebase Admin credentials if auth syncing is enabled.
• Razorpay test keys if payment flow is being tested.
• Gemini API key if the AI assistant is being tested.

Backend Setup

cd PDF-Library/backend
npm install
Copy-Item .env.example .env

Fill .env with local values. Never commit real .env files.

Run schema scripts on a fresh database in this order:

PDF-Library/sql/001_schema.sql
PDF-Library/sql/003_repair_books_schema.sql
PDF-Library/sql/004_admin_audit_log.sql
PDF-Library/sql/005_payments.sql
PDF-Library/sql/006_support_contributions.sql

Start the backend:

npm start

Useful backend checks:

npm run check
npm run check:secret-files
npm run check:production-env
npm run setup:payments
npm run repair:books-schema

Frontend Setup

For local static testing, serve PDF-Library/frontend with any static server. For example:

cd PDF-Library/frontend
python -m http.server 5500

Open:

http://127.0.0.1:5500/

Update PDF-Library/frontend/assets/js/config.js when pointing the frontend at a different backend:

window.PDF_LIBRARY_CONFIG = {
  API_ORIGIN: "https://your-backend-domain.example",
  GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID: "your-google-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com",
};

Environment Variables

Use .env.example files as the source of truth:

• PDF-Library/.env.example
• PDF-Library/backend/.env.example

Important production variables include:

Variable	Purpose
NODE_ENV	Must be production in production
CORS_ORIGIN	Comma-separated allowed frontend origins
DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME	MySQL connection
DB_SSL, DB_SSL_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED	SSL behavior for hosted databases
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	Google sign-in verification
DRIVE_CLIENT_ID, DRIVE_CLIENT_SECRET, DRIVE_REFRESH_TOKEN	Google Drive asset access
FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_BASE64	Firebase Admin service account for hosting
SESSION_TOKEN_SECRET	Signed session token secret
RAZORPAY_KEY_ID, RAZORPAY_KEY_SECRET, RAZORPAY_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Payment gateway
SUPPORT_MEDIA_DRIVE_FOLDER_ID	Optional private Drive folder for supporter media
GEMINI_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEYS	AI assistant

Deployment Notes

Frontend

Recommended free deployment:

• Platform: Cloudflare Pages.
• Project root: PDF-Library/frontend.
• Build command: none.
• Output directory: / or project root, depending on Cloudflare's UI for direct static uploads.

The current public frontend is already served at:

https://e-library-c9t.pages.dev/

Backend

Recommended free deployment:

• Platform: Render Web Service.
• Runtime: Docker or Node.
• Start command: npm start.
• Root directory: PDF-Library/backend.
• Health endpoint: /api/health.
• Warm endpoint for monitoring: /api/health/warm.

Free backend/database plans can sleep. The code includes health and database warmup endpoints, but a true always-on guarantee normally requires an always-on paid compute and database plan.

Database

The backend uses MySQL. Hosted MySQL values are configured through environment variables. Migration files live in PDF-Library/sql.

Razorpay

Configure the webhook URL in Razorpay:

https://your-backend-domain.com/api/payments/webhook/razorpay

Enable at least:

payment.captured
order.paid

Razorpay settlement goes to the bank account configured inside the Razorpay dashboard, not to a value stored in this repository.

Security

• Real .env files are ignored.
• Service-account JSON files are ignored.
• Database backups are ignored.
• Razorpay secrets are backend-only.
• Webhook verification uses the raw request body.
• Admin routes require a verified admin session and CSRF token.
• Rate limits protect public, auth, payment, support, AI, and admin routes.
• Public book asset URLs use book-scoped proxy routes instead of exposing raw Drive IDs in the UI.

Before production deployment:

cd PDF-Library/backend
npm run check:secret-files
npm run check:production-env

SEO Workflow

1. Keep every public book page reachable by a clean URL in PDF-Library/frontend/books/.
2. Keep the static PDF-Library/frontend/sitemap.xml updated after adding many books.
3. Submit sitemap.xml in Google Search Console.
4. Use URL Inspection for important pages.
5. Write original descriptions for each book.
6. Avoid copied descriptions, fake backlinks, keyword stuffing, and copyrighted uploads without permission.

Technical SEO files:

• robots.txt
• sitemap.xml
• SEO CSS
• Cloudflare SEO functions

Testing And Verification

Current automated checks:

cd PDF-Library/backend
npm run check
npm run check:secret-files

Recommended manual verification:

• Homepage loads on desktop and mobile.
• Public book preview opens without sign-in.
• Full reader requires sign-in when payments/access rules require it.
• Google sign-in restores a session.
• Admin portal blocks non-admin users.
• Razorpay test checkout creates and verifies orders.
• Razorpay webhook marks paid orders if the browser closes.
• Support page accepts INR 1 or more, opens checkout, and records public supporters.
• https://e-library-c9t.pages.dev/sitemap.xml returns XML.
• Sample book pages pass Google URL Inspection.

Roadmap

• Add a small script to regenerate static SEO pages after every book import.
• Add automated browser tests using Playwright with safe test sessions.
• Add CI database migration validation against a temporary MySQL service.
• Add richer book filtering and saved collections.
• Add multilingual SEO pages only after real translated content exists.
• Move to always-on production hosting when budget allows.

Author

Padam Kishore

• GitHub: padam421
• LinkedIn: padam-kishore-031b8b377

Legal And Content Notice

Only upload books, covers, EPUBs, PDFs, videos, or summaries that are public domain, self-created, or used with permission. This matters for readers, for Google Search visibility, and for the long-term safety of the project.