📚 Assignment Portal

A production-grade university assignment submission system

Live Demo · Report Bug · Request Feature

---

📋 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Tech Stack
• Architecture
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Deployment
• API Routes
• Database Schema
• Project Structure
• Contributing

---

🌟 Overview

Assignment Portal is a full-stack web application built for university environments. It enables a structured workflow between Admins, Class Representatives (CRs), and Students — covering assignment creation, file submission, deadline management, and real-time class communication.

Built as a first production project, deployed at assignmentportal.live on DigitalOcean with Docker, Nginx, and Let's Encrypt SSL.

---

✨ Features

🔐 Authentication & Security

• Email-based OTP verification before account activation
• Role-based access control (ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_CR, ROLE_STUDENT)
• PENDING → ACTIVE account approval workflow
• Forgot password via OTP with 1-minute expiry
• Spring Security session management with CSRF protection
• Async OTP email delivery for zero-latency redirects

👨‍💼 Admin

• Approve / reject / delete CR registration requests
• View all CRs with expandable student lists per section
• Dashboard stats — total CRs, students, pending requests
• Email-based actions (no userId exposure)

🎓 Class Representative (CR)

• Register with OTP verification → admin approval flow
• Create assignments with subject code, type (LAB/THEORY), and deadline
• Track submission progress per assignment with progress bar
• Download all student submissions as ZIP
• Extend assignment deadlines
• Edit profile — section/semester changes cascade to all linked students
• Real-time class chat via WebSocket

🧑‍🎓 Student

• View active assignments from their CR
• Submit assignments (file upload to Supabase Storage)
• Track submission status per assignment
• Real-time class chat with classmates

💬 Real-time Class Chat

• WebSocket (STOMP over SockJS)
• Auto-scoped chat rooms: {admission}-{program}-{section}-{semester}
• Messages persisted to PostgreSQL
• Loads last 50 messages on panel open
• Unread message badge when panel is closed
• Isolated — only classmates in the same room

---

🛠 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Java 17
Framework	Spring Boot 3.5.6
Security	Spring Security 6
ORM	Spring Data JPA + Hibernate 6
Database	PostgreSQL 15
File Storage	Supabase Storage
Real-time	WebSocket (STOMP + SockJS)
Templating	Thymeleaf
Email	Spring Mail (Gmail SMTP, async)
Frontend	Bootstrap 5.3, Bootstrap Icons
Containerization	Docker + Docker Compose
Reverse Proxy	Nginx
SSL	Let's Encrypt (Certbot)
Hosting	DigitalOcean Droplet
Build	Maven

---

🏗 Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Internet                    │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │ HTTPS :443
┌──────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│               Nginx (Reverse Proxy)          │
│         SSL Termination + WS Proxy           │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │ HTTP :8080
┌──────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│         Spring Boot Application              │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐  │
│  │  MVC Layer  │  │  WebSocket (STOMP)   │  │
│  │  Thymeleaf  │  │  /topic/chat/{room}  │  │
│  └──────┬──────┘  └──────────┬───────────┘  │
│         │                    │               │
│  ┌──────▼────────────────────▼───────────┐  │
│  │         Service + Repository Layer     │  │
│  └──────────────────┬────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────┼───────────────────────┘
                       │
        ┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
        │                             │
┌───────▼────────┐          ┌─────────▼──────────┐
│  PostgreSQL 15  │          │   Supabase Storage  │
│  (Docker)       │          │   (File Uploads)    │
└────────────────┘          └────────────────────┘

---

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Java 17+
• Maven 3.8+
• Docker + Docker Compose
• PostgreSQL 15 (or use Docker)

Local Development

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Junaid-Ashraf-56/Submission_portal.git
cd Submission_portal

2. Create src/main/resources/application.properties

spring.application.name=submission_portal

spring.datasource.url=${SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL}
spring.datasource.username=${SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME}
spring.datasource.password=${SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD}
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.postgresql.Driver
spring.jpa.open-in-view=false
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.show-sql=true

spring.servlet.multipart.max-file-size=10MB
spring.servlet.multipart.max-request-size=10MB

supabase.url=${SUPABASE_URL}
supabase.key=${SUPABASE_KEY}
supabase.bucket.name=${SUPABASE_BUCKET_NAME}

spring.autoconfigure.exclude=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.http.client.HttpClientAutoConfiguration

spring.mail.host=smtp.gmail.com
spring.mail.port=587
spring.mail.username=${MAIL_USERNAME}
spring.mail.password=${MAIL_PASSWORD}
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.auth=true
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.starttls.enable=true

otp.expiry.minutes=1

3. Create docker-compose.yml with your environment variables (see Environment Variables)

4. Build and run

mvn clean package -DskipTests
docker compose up --build

5. Open http://localhost:8080

---

🔑 Environment Variables

Variable	Description
SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL	jdbc:postgresql://db:5432/submission_portal
SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME	PostgreSQL username
SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD	PostgreSQL password
SUPABASE_URL	Supabase project storage URL
SUPABASE_KEY	Supabase service role key
SUPABASE_BUCKET_NAME	Storage bucket name
MAIL_USERNAME	Gmail address for OTP emails
MAIL_PASSWORD	Gmail app password (not account password)

⚠️ Never commit application.properties or docker-compose.yml with real credentials. Both are in .gitignore.

---

🌐 Deployment

This project is deployed on DigitalOcean using Docker + Nginx + Let's Encrypt.

Stack

assignmentportal.live
      ↓ DNS (Namecheap A Record)
DigitalOcean Droplet (Ubuntu 22.04)
      ↓ Nginx (port 443 → 8080, WebSocket proxy)
Docker Compose
      ├── submission_portal_app (Spring Boot)
      └── submission_portal_db  (PostgreSQL 15)

Update Production

# SSH into server
ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

# Pull latest code
cd /opt/Submission_portal
git pull origin main

# Rebuild and restart
mvn clean package -DskipTests
docker compose down
docker compose up --build -d

---

🗺 API Routes

Method	Route	Role	Description
GET	/	Public	Landing page
GET/POST	/auth/login	Public	Login
GET/POST	/auth/register	Public	CR registration
GET/POST	/auth/verify-otp	Public	OTP verification
GET	/cr/dashboard	CR	CR dashboard
GET	/cr/manage-students	CR	Student management
POST	/cr/create-assignment	CR	Create assignment
GET	/cr/assignments/{id}/submissions	CR	View submissions
GET	/cr/assignments/{id}/download-all	CR	Download ZIP
GET	/student/dashboard	Student	Student dashboard
POST	/student/assignments/{id}/submit	Student	Submit assignment
GET	/admin/panel	Admin	Admin dashboard
POST	/admin/cr/approve	Admin	Approve CR
POST	/admin/cr/reject	Admin	Reject CR
GET	/chat/{roomId}/history	Authenticated	Load chat history
WS	/ws	Authenticated	WebSocket endpoint

---

🗄 Database Schema

users
├── id (PK)
├── email (unique)
├── password (BCrypt)
├── role (ROLE_ADMIN / ROLE_CR / ROLE_STUDENT)
└── status (PENDING / ACTIVE)

students
├── id (PK)
├── user_id (FK → users)
├── name, roll_no, gender, phone_number
├── section, program, semester, admission
└── university

assignments
├── assignment_id (PK)
├── created_by (FK → students)
├── subject_title, subject_code
├── assignment_type (LAB / THEORY)
├── description
└── end_time

submissions
├── id (PK)
├── assignment_id (FK → assignments)
├── student_id (FK → students)
├── file_url (Supabase)
└── submitted_at

chat_messages
├── id (PK)
├── room_id (admission-program-section-semester)
├── sender_name
├── content
└── sent_at

---

📁 Project Structure

src/main/java/com/web/submission_portal/
├── config/
│   ├── SecurityConfig.java
│   └── WebSocketConfig.java
├── controller/
│   ├── AdminController.java
│   ├── AuthController.java
│   ├── ChatController.java
│   ├── CRController.java
│   ├── RegistrationController.java
│   └── StudentController.java
├── entity/
│   ├── Assignment.java
│   ├── ChatMessage.java
│   ├── Student.java
│   ├── Submission.java
│   └── User.java
├── repository/
│   ├── ChatMessageRepository.java
│   ├── StudentRepository.java
│   ├── SubmissionRepository.java
│   └── UserRepository.java
└── service/
    ├── EmailService.java          ← @Async OTP delivery
    ├── OTPGeneratorService.java
    ├── PasswordResetService.java
    └── StudentService.java

src/main/resources/
├── templates/
│   ├── admin/, auth/, cr/, student/
└── static/
    ├── css/  (theme.css, cr-dashboard.css, student-dashboard.css)
    └── js/   (cr-chat.js, student-chat.js)

---

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

---

👤 Author

Junaid Ashraf

• GitHub: @Junaid-Ashraf-56
• Live Project: assignmentportal.live

---

⭐ Star this repo if you found it helpful!