Local Development Setup

This guide walks you through setting up BabyShopHub on a local machine from scratch — including Flutter, Firebase, the Node.js SMTP relay, and the Groq AI key.

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone & Install Flutter Dependencies

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd babyshophub
flutter pub get

Verify the Flutter setup:

flutter doctor

All items should show . Fix any issues reported before continuing.

Step 2 — Firebase Project Setup

1. Go to console.firebase.google.com and create a new project
2. Enable Authentication → Sign-in methods:
   • Email/Password
   • Google
3. Enable Cloud Firestore → Start in test mode (update to production rules later)
4. Install the FlutterFire CLI:

   dart pub global activate flutterfire_cli

5. Configure Firebase for your project:

   flutterfire configure

   This generates lib/firebase_options.dart automatically.

Step 3 — Start the Node.js Email Relay Server

The SMTP relay handles all transactional emails (OTPs, order confirmations, welcome emails).

cd server
npm install
node index.js

The server starts on http://localhost:3000.

Environment Variables

Set these before running (or edit server/index.js directly for development):

EMAIL_USER=your-zoho-email@yourdomain.com
EMAIL_PASS=your-zoho-app-password

Step 4 — Configure Groq API (Optional)

To enable the live AI chat assistant:

1. Get a free API key at console.groq.com
2. Pass it as a build-time Dart environment variable:

flutter run --dart-define=GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_your_key_here

Without the key, the assistant uses the intelligent offline keyword-matching fallback automatically.

Step 5 — Run the App

Web (recommended for development)

flutter run -d chrome

Android

flutter run -d <android-device-id>

iOS (macOS only)

flutter run -d <ios-device-id>

List available devices:

flutter devices

Step 6 — Verify the Setup

1. Open the app in Chrome
2. Tap "Create Account" → enter an email and password
3. Check the Flutter debug console for the OTP code (look for OTP CODE IS:)
4. Enter the OTP — you should be logged in and see the Home Screen with products

If products don't appear, Firestore is seeding them on first run — wait 3–5 seconds and they'll populate.

Firestore Indexes

Some queries (e.g. notifications ordered by createdAt) require a composite index. If you see a Firestore index error in the console, click the URL in the error message to create the index in the Firebase Console automatically.

Hot Reload & Hot Restart

Flutter's hot reload (r in terminal) reloads UI changes without resetting state.
Hot restart (R) resets the entire app state — useful if you change provider logic.

Common Issues