fix: use VITE_BASE_URL instead of undefined VITE_API_URL (#434)

[RounakKumarAgarwal]

VITE_API_URL was referenced in teamService, notificationService, useDebateWS, and ViewDebate but is never defined in .env.example. Only VITE_BASE_URL is documented, so these flows fell back to localhost in production. Switch all four to VITE_BASE_URL.

Addressed Issues:

Fixes #434

Screenshots/Recordings:

Config-only change with no UI effect; behaviour is identical in local dev. Happy to attach a screen recording of the affected pages if useful.

Additional Notes:

VITE_API_URL is referenced in four files but is never defined in .env.example — only VITE_BASE_URL is documented. In any real deployment VITE_API_URL is undefined, so these flows fell back to localhost:1313 (or, for the WebSocket files, the frontend's own host), breaking team features, notifications, and the spectator/view-debate WebSocket in production. All four now use the documented VITE_BASE_URL. No behavioural change in local dev (the localhost fallback still applies).

Note: npm run build currently fails on main due to pre-existing TypeScript errors in unrelated files (CommentTree.tsx, Game.tsx, Profile.tsx, TeamDebateRoom.tsx, teamDebateService.ts). Those are present before and after this change — this PR neither introduces nor resolves them.

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Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Updated frontend API and WebSocket connections to use the standardized base URL configuration.
  • Improved consistency for debate rooms, notifications, and team-related requests.
  • Preserved the existing local fallback and URL handling behavior.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 1b5ee0ba-f8ca-4ad5-8679-c280e84d12ef

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7594019 and 80e0287.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• frontend/src/Pages/ViewDebate.tsx
• frontend/src/hooks/useDebateWS.ts
• frontend/src/services/notificationService.ts
• frontend/src/services/teamService.ts

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 1 included review per hour; 0 remain after this review.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The frontend now uses VITE_BASE_URL for team, notification, debate WebSocket, and spectator WebSocket connections. Existing fallback and URL normalization logic remain unchanged.

Changes

Frontend URL alignment

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Update API and WebSocket URL consumers frontend/src/services/notificationService.ts, frontend/src/services/teamService.ts, frontend/src/hooks/useDebateWS.ts, frontend/src/Pages/ViewDebate.tsx	The affected services and WebSocket connections now read VITE_BASE_URL instead of VITE_API_URL. Existing fallback and host derivation logic remain unchanged.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 80e02

The frontend now uses the documented backend URL for team, notification, debate, and spectator flows, restoring production routing without changing endpoints or authentication behavior. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains after normal checks and review.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the primary fix: replacing undefined VITE_API_URL with VITE_BASE_URL. It is concise and specific.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes satisfy issue #434. All four affected files now use VITE_BASE_URL, which prevents production localhost fallbacks and directs spectator WebSocket connections to the backend.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes are limited to the four files and environment-variable replacements identified in issue #434. No unrelated code changes are present.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 4…

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 4 files.

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