NITM MessTrack Portal

An industry-standard, secure, database-backed web application built for NIT Meghalaya (NITM) to track student mess fees, manage leaves, and automate meal refund calculations. This system replaces Excel sheets and manual paperwork with a centralized digital ledger.

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🚀 Key Features

🏢 Panel Separation & Role-based Access

• Admin Dashboard: Overview of system statistics (active/leave students, net revenue, total refunds) with comprehensive search, filters, visual charts, and settings.
• Student Portal: Locked access allowing students to view their profile, mess fee payments, refund history, and apply for leaves.

📝 Mess & Leave Lifecycle Management

• Student CRUD: Complete management for adding, editing, deleting, and searching student records.
• Leave CRUD & Math: Missed meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) are tracked. Leave refunds are automatically calculated in real-time based on customizable meal rates and semesters.
• History Logs: Automated database triggers to adjust student refundEarned balance on leave creation, modification, or cancellation.

⚡ Smart UI Automations

• Email Autofill: Typing a student's roll number (e.g., B24CS038) automatically generates their institutional email (b24cs038@nitm.ac.in) in lowercase.
• Fee Mirroring: The paid fee amount is mirrored automatically from the mess fee during manual student addition.
• DOB Password Mapping: Date of Birth is a required field; the student portal password dynamically hashes the DOB, so changing the DOB updates their login password.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

Layer	Technology	Key Packages
Frontend	React, Vite, TS	@tanstack/react-query, axios, recharts, lucide-react
Backend	Node.js, Express.js	prisma, bcrypt, jsonwebtoken, zod, morgan, helmet
Database	SQLite (Embedded)	SQLite via Prisma Client ORM

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📂 Project Architecture

NITM MessTrack Web App/
├── backend/                  # REST Express API Server
│   ├── prisma/               # Database models, migrations, and seed script
│   │   ├── schema.prisma     # Prisma data models
│   │   └── seed.ts           # Seeding default settings and credentials
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── config/           # Database configurations
│   │   ├── controllers/      # Route controllers (request/response formatters)
│   │   ├── middleware/       # Auth (JWT), request logging, and validations
│   │   ├── models/           # Zod validation schemas
│   │   ├── repositories/     # Data Access Layer (Prisma queries)
│   │   ├── routes/           # REST endpoints definition
│   │   └── services/         # Core business logic
│   └── tsconfig.json         # Backend TypeScript compiler configuration
├── src/                      # Frontend SPA application
│   ├── app/
│   │   ├── App.tsx           # Main Single Page Application UI view
│   │   └── components/       # UI layouts & icons
│   ├── services/             # Axios API integration service handlers
│   └── main.tsx              # Application entry point with React Query client wrapper
├
├── package.json              # Frontend package definitions
└── vite.config.ts            # Vite assets compiler configurations

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⚙️ Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

Ensure you have Node.js (v18+) and npm installed.

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Step 1: Clone & Install Dependencies

1. Install root (frontend) dependencies:

   npm install

2. Install backend dependencies:

   cd backend
   npm install

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Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the backend folder:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
DATABASE_URL="file:./dev.db"
JWT_SECRET="super-secret-key-12345-nitm-messtrack-app-production-key"

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Step 3: Initialize the Database

1. Run Prisma database migrations to create local SQLite tables:

   npx prisma migrate dev --name init

2. Seed settings, default hostels, and initial student profiles:

   npm run prisma:seed

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Step 4: Run the Application

1. Start the Backend API Server: Navigate to the backend/ folder and run:

   npm start

   The backend will boot up at http://localhost:5000.

2. Start the Frontend Client: Navigate to the project root and run:

   npm run dev

   Vite will start the client application (usually at http://localhost:5173 or http://localhost:5174).

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🔑 Default Accounts for Testing

Role	Username	Password / Credentials
Admin	admin	admin123
Student	B22CS042	2003-06-15 (Format: YYYY-MM-DD)

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📖 API Documentation & Swagger

Once the backend server is running, you can explore, test, and query all REST API endpoints using the interactive Swagger UI panel: 👉 http://localhost:5000/api-docs

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🚀 Production Deployment

For deploying this application in production using Vercel (frontend), Render (backend), and Neon (PostgreSQL database), please refer to the comprehensive Production Deployment Guide.