Cat Cafe Management System
Full-Stack Booking & Payment Platform
React (Vite) · Django REST · PostgreSQL · Stripe · Vercel · Render
Overview
Cat Cafe Management System is a full-stack web platform built to manage real-time reservations and payments for a themed café. It combines a responsive React frontend with a decoupled Django backend, delivering fast, reliable booking and payment experiences with secure Stripe integration. Designed for scalability and maintainability, the system demonstrates production-grade architecture, strong API design, and attention to performance.
Key Features
- Dynamic booking engine supporting 30-minute and 60-minute slots, live availability checks, recurring closures, and capacity limits.
- Integrated Stripe payments for bookings and donations, using both Checkout and Payment Intents APIs with webhook validation and automated refunds.
- Admin management tools via Django Admin for reservations, pricing, capacity, and customer data.
- High performance UX, achieving 95+ Lighthouse scores through lazy loading, TanStack Query caching, and Cloudinary-optimized images.
- Resilient error handling with audit trails, structured logs, and graceful recovery from third-party failures.
Architecture
A hybrid architecture separates responsibilities across services for performance and reliability:
- Frontend (Vercel): React + Vite client handles UX, state, and booking flow.
- Backend (Render): Django REST API manages business rules, pricing, scheduling, and database persistence.
- Stripe Webhooks: Server-side payment confirmation and refund logic ensure transaction integrity.
- Database: PostgreSQL handles bookings, timeslots, and transaction history with atomic operations for concurrency safety.
Technical Highlights
| Category | Technologies / Practices |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React (Vite), TanStack Query, CSS Modules, Cloudinary |
| Backend | Django REST Framework, PostgreSQL, Render |
| Payments | Stripe Checkout + Payment Intents, Webhook validation |
| Infrastructure | Vercel (frontend), Render (backend), Supabase (logging) |
| Admin Tools | Django Admin, bulk actions, audit logging |
| Performance | Caching, lazy loading, < 1.5 s load time |
Outcome
- Demonstrates secure real-world payment handling and production-ready deployment across services.
- Showcases system design, data modeling, and end-to-end ownership from UX to backend reliability.
- Highlights readiness for SaaS-level full-stack development involving APIs, payments, and data integrity.