GiveTwice.app

URL: https://givetwice.app

A wishlist and gift list app where all affiliate revenue goes to charity. Create wishlists, share them with friends and family, and feel good knowing that every purchase supports a good cause.

Philosophy

GiveTwice is built on a simple idea: gifting that gives back. When someone buys a gift from your wishlist through an affiliate link, the revenue doesn't go to us - it goes directly to charity. You get exactly what you want, your loved ones know they're making you happy, and together you're making a difference.

Tech stack

• Backend: Laravel 12, PHP 8.4, MySQL
• Frontend: Blade templates, Tailwind CSS v4, Alpine.js
• App server: Laravel Octane + FrankenPHP (high-performance)
• Queue: Laravel Horizon + Redis
• WebSockets: Laravel Reverb (real-time updates)
• Auth: Laravel Fortify + Socialite (Google/Facebook OAuth)

Architecture overview

Multi-language routing

All user-facing routes are prefixed with /{locale} (en, nl, fr). The root / redirects to the user's detected browser locale. Auth POST routes (handled by Fortify) have no locale prefix.

Data models

User
 ├── has many: Gifts (items they want)
 ├── has many: GiftLists (organized collections)
 └── has many: Claims (gifts they've claimed for others)

Gift
 ├── belongs to: User
 ├── belongs to many: GiftLists
 └── has many: Claims

GiftList
 ├── belongs to: User
 └── belongs to many: Gifts

Claim
 ├── belongs to: Gift
 └── belongs to: User (nullable, supports anonymous claims)

Event-driven architecture

GiveTwice uses Laravel events to decouple core workflows:

Event	Trigger	Listeners
GiftCreated	User adds a gift	Dispatches FetchGiftDetailsAction to queue
GiftFetchCompleted	Product details fetched	Broadcasts to user via WebSocket
GiftClaimed	Someone claims a gift	Broadcasts to list owner via WebSocket

Action pattern

Business logic lives in single-responsibility Action classes (app/Actions/):

• FetchGiftDetailsAction - Fetches product title, image, price from URL (queued)
• ClaimGiftAction - Registered user claims a gift
• CreatePendingClaimAction - Anonymous user starts claim (sends confirmation email)
• ConfirmClaimAction - Anonymous user confirms via email token

Real-time updates

Laravel Reverb provides WebSocket connections. When a gift is fetched or claimed, the frontend updates instantly without page refresh. Private channels ensure users only see their own updates.

Getting started

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.4+
• Composer
• Node.js 18+
• MySQL
• Redis

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/GiveTwice/givetwice.app.git
cd givetwice.app

# Install dependencies
composer install
yarn install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Set up database
# Update .env with your MySQL credentials (default: gifting_app, root, no password)
php artisan migrate --seed

# Build assets
yarn build

Development

# Start all services (recommended)
composer dev

# Or start individually:
php artisan octane:start --watch  # App server with hot reload
php artisan horizon               # Queue workers
php artisan reverb:start          # WebSocket server
yarn dev                          # Vite dev server

Test users

Email	Password	Admin
m@ttias.be	localdevelopment	Yes
john@doe.tld	localdevelopment	No

Contributing

Code style

Run Laravel Pint after modifying PHP files:

./vendor/bin/pint path/to/file.php

Testing

We use Pest for testing:

./vendor/bin/pest

Write tests in Pest's functional syntax:

it('creates a gift for the authenticated user', function () {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $response = $this->actingAs($user)
        ->post(route('gifts.store', 'en'), [
            'url' => 'https://example.com/product',
        ]);

    expect($user->gifts)->toHaveCount(1);
});

Translations

All user-facing text uses __() for translations. When adding new strings:

1. Add the English string to lang/en.json
2. Add translations to lang/nl.json and lang/fr.json etc

Adding a new language

1. Add the locale to app/Enums/SupportedLocale.php
2. Run php artisan lang:add <locale>
3. Copy lang/en.json to lang/<locale>.json and translate

Key directories

app/
├── Actions/        # Single-responsibility business logic
├── Enums/          # SupportedLocale, SupportedCurrency
├── Events/         # Domain events (GiftCreated, GiftClaimed)
├── Http/Controllers/
├── Models/
└── Policies/       # Authorization rules

resources/
├── css/app.css     # Tailwind config + custom component classes
├── views/
│   ├── components/ # Blade components
│   ├── layouts/    # App and guest layouts
│   └── ...
└── js/

lang/
├── en.json         # App translations
├── nl.json
└── fr.json

What's next

Features on the roadmap:

• Affiliate integration - Connect with affiliate networks to track purchases and route revenue to charity (PRIORITY)
• Friend system - Connect with friends to see their wishlists and get notified about updates
• Notification emails - Email claimer with confirmation of claim, receive emails when friends update their wishlists

License

This project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.