Nikhil Devisetty

VCC Portal — Donations, Services, and Community Platform

2025-11-03

Overview

The VCC Portal (link to website) is a full-stack platform that centralizes temple operations—donations, services, events, and admin management—into a single modern interface. Devotees can donate, request poojas, sign up for events, and manage their accounts, while moderators and admins handle scheduling, fulfillment, and system-wide configuration. The platform emphasizes security, scalability, and a clean user experience across multiple temple locations.

Key capabilities include:

  • Unified donations and donation drives
  • Temple service requests with questionnaires
  • Event and volunteer registration
  • Role-based dashboards
  • Admin tooling for services, users, and finances

Tech Stack

Frontend

  • Next.js (App Router)
  • TypeScript
  • TailwindCSS + shadcn/ui

Backend

  • Next.js Route Handlers (serverless)
  • Prisma ORM
  • PostgreSQL (Neon → migrating to AWS or Azure)
  • Auth.js + Google OAuth
  • Square Payments + Webhooks
  • Vercel deployment for both client and API

Data Design

  • Typed, schema-driven with Prisma
  • Soft deletes for all major entities
  • Modular tables for services, donation drives, permissions, and questionnaires

Implementation

Roles

The platform uses granular RBAC (role-based access control):

  • User

    • Access services, donations, events
    • Manage personal dashboard

  • Moderator

    • Create/update services
    • Manage donation drives
    • Review and fulfill service requests

  • Admin

    • Full access across temples
    • Finance oversight, system settings, staff management

Core features implemented through RBAC:

  • Conditional dashboard rendering
  • API route authorization middleware
  • Permission escalation paths
  • Safe database queries with role guards

Payments

The payment flow integrates tightly with Square:

  • Cart-based checkout for services and donations

  • Orders API used as the single source of truth

  • Webhooks for reconciliation

  • Idempotency keys to prevent:

    • Duplicate donations
    • Duplicate service payments

  • Post-payment updates:

    • Mark service requests as paid
    • Attribute donations to drives
    • Update pledges vs. completed payments
    • Notify users and admins

Supporting features:

  • Payment status tracking
  • Drive goal progress calculation
  • Donation history in user dashboards

Authentication

Authentication is powered by Auth.js with Google OAuth:

  • Simple, passwordless login flow
  • Sessions stored in PostgreSQL
  • Automatic user provisioning
  • Role assignment via admin tools
  • Secure route handling with middleware

Additional identity features:

  • Phone/email collection
  • Linked OAuth accounts
  • Session expiration + refresh logic

Challenges

Major technical challenges and solutions:

  • Duplicate donations

    • Cause: race conditions + webhook retries
    • Fix: idempotency keys, DB uniqueness constraints

  • Serverless webhook stability

    • Issue: Vercel creates ephemeral function URLs
    • Fix: stable API routes + idempotent update logic

  • Square’s Orders vs Payments mismatch

    • Problem: data split across APIs
    • Solution: treat Orders API as canonical

  • Complex service questionnaires

    • Need: multi-step flows with custom fields
    • Result: unified questionnaire + ServiceRequest model

Conclusion

The VCC Portal is evolving into a scalable digital ecosystem for temples—supporting donations, poojas, community events, and administrative workflows in one unified system. With a typed TypeScript codebase, modular database design, robust payment integration, and polished UI, the platform is well-positioned to expand into recurring donations, deeper calendar systems, full email automation, and multi-location administration.