Oscars Pool 2026

Little nodejs + mongodb app that I hack together with ChatGPT and Cursor to keep track of watched movies for an incoming Oscars Pool with some friends.

Features

• User accounts: register, login, JWT auth
• Simple registration verification via DOG_NAMES
• Mark nominees as watched (per user), with watched date
• Browse movies by Oscar year + API for available years
• User stats: watched count/ratio and watched titles
• Movie details pulled from OMDb (title/plot/rating/poster) via IMDb ID
• Admin movie management: add, edit (optionally refresh from OMDb), delete
• Built-in player page with multiple source options (VOD link, direct video file, embed)
• Resume playback: per-user playback progress saving (time/duration)
• Global settings: active Oscar year, “completion” modal content for checklist
• Password flows: admin temp password reset + forced change on next login
• Version endpoint backed by latest GitHub commit (cached)

Setup

Create a .env file at the project root (same folder as package.json).

Minimal steps:

npm install
node index.js

Configure these in your .env file (required: MONGO_URI, JWT_SECRET):

DOG_NAMES=woof, WOOF, Woof     (for "verification")
GITHUB_OWNER=quoije     (for version history)
GITHUB_REPO=oscars-pool     (for version history)
JWT_SECRET=RANDOM STRING     (for authentication token)
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://USER:[email protected]/?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=Cluster69
OMDB_API=1234567     (for movie info)

Example .env:

MONGO_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/oscars-pool
JWT_SECRET=change-me
DOG_NAMES=woof,WOOF,Woof
OMDB_API=your_omdb_key
GITHUB_OWNER=quoije
GITHUB_REPO=oscars-pool

Database (MongoDB)

This app uses MongoDB via Mongoose. Provide a connection string in MONGO_URI.

• Use MongoDB Atlas (recommended) or a local MongoDB instance.
• MONGO_URI examples:
  • Atlas: mongodb+srv://USER:[email protected]/<dbName>?retryWrites=true&w=majority
  • Local: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/<dbName>
• Collections are created/managed automatically from the models in models/ (e.g. User, Movie, Setting, PlaybackProgress).