🏷️ eSell – eCommerce Auction Platform

A Django-powered eCommerce platform where users can list products, bid on auctions, and leave comments.
Inspired by eBay-like functionality.

🚀 Deployed → Click here to view live (might take a few seconds to open for the first time)

• This project takes the idea from the Project 2 of the CS50 Web Programming course.

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✨ Features

• 💰 Auction-style bidding
• 🏭️ List your own products & browse active listings
• 🔎 Filter by category & availability
• 💬 Comment system per product
• 📃 Wishlist functionality
• 👤 Custom user model with authentication
• ⚙️ Admin panel with bid and comment relationships
• 🌐 Deployed on Render using PostgreSQL

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📽️ Live Demo GIFs

🛒 Browsing Listings	🛠️ Admin Dashboard

🛍️ Selling a Product	💸 Placing a Bid & Commenting

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend: Django, Python
Database: SQLite (local), PostgreSQL (production)
Frontend: HTML, CSS, Bootstrap
Deployment: Render

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🚀 Getting Started

🔧 Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• pip package manager (comes with Python)

📦 Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/sawankshrma/eSell.git
cd eSell

2. Create a virtual environment

python -m venv .venv

3. Activate the virtual environment

• Windows (PowerShell): .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
• Windows (Command Prompt): .venv\Scripts\activate.bat
• macOS / Linux: source .venv/bin/activate

4. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Run the development server

python manage.py runserver

6. visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser

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💾 Local Database Setup

This project comes with a pre-built SQLite database (db.sqlite3) already included in the repository.

This means:

• You do not need to set up PostgreSQL to run the project locally.
• You can see the app in action right away, with some sample products, users, and bids.
• The data will not match what's shown on the deployed Render version — both use separate databases.

This setup is intentional so non-technical users, friends, or recruiters can simply clone and run without needing to configure databases.

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Why Are the Data Different?

The deployed site (https://esell-wki6.onrender.com) uses a hosted PostgreSQL database on Render.

The cloned project contains a local SQLite file. These are two separate environments and are not synced, so:

• Listings may differ
• Users/accounts will be local
• Admin changes won’t reflect online

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🛠️ If you want to use your own clean database (SQLite or PostgreSQL), here’s how you can:

Rebuild SQLite from scratch

1. Delete the existing database:
   del db.sqlite3 (or rm db.sqlite3 on Linux/macOS)

2. Run migrations to recreate a fresh schema:
   python manage.py migrate

3. (Optional) Create a superuser for admin access:
   python manage.py createsuperuser

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🚀 Kicking things off with my first full-stack web project. Excited to build more from here 😊