🎓 Smart Attendance Portal

A comprehensive digital solution for university placement cells to manage attendance, assessments, coordinator activities, and seat allocations efficiently.

Features • Tech Stack • Installation • Documentation

📋 Table of Contents

Problem Statement
Solution Overview
Key Features
Tech Stack
System Architecture
Installation
Deployment
Security
Contributing
License

🎯 Problem Statement

University placement processes often suffer from significant inefficiencies:

Manual Attendance: Passing physical sheets is time-consuming and prone to loss
Proxy Attendance: Students signing for absent peers compromises data integrity
Poor Visibility: Administrators lack real-time data on student participation
Manual Shortlisting: Filtering eligible students for drives is tedious and error-prone
Allocation Chaos: Manually assigning labs and seats for assessments is logistically complex
Coordinator Management: Tracking placement coordinators and generating attendance letters manually

💡 Solution Overview

This portal digitizes the entire placement workflow with a modern, scalable architecture. It enables administrators to:

Create live sessions with dynamic QR codes for secure attendance
Manage end-to-end assessment flows from eligibility to seat allocation
Track and manage placement coordinators with automated letter generation
Handle high-concurrency scans with real-time updates
Provide role-based dashboards for clear visibility across all stakeholders

Designed for scalability, security, and user experience, this system transforms manual processes into seamless digital workflows.

✨ Key Features

👨‍💼 Admin Features

Session Management

Create, start, pause, and stop attendance events
Real-time monitoring with live attendance counts
View student lists as they scan
Export attendance reports in CSV/PDF formats

Assessment Control

Create assessments with custom eligibility rules
Upload candidate lists via CSV
Automated seat allocation with one-click shuffling
Prevent dishonesty with randomized lab assignments

Placement Coordinators Module 🆕

CRUD Operations: Add, view, edit, and delete placement coordinators
Professional UI: Clean, monochromatic design matching admin panel theme
Search & Filter: Find coordinators by name, enrollment number, or department
Attendance Letters: Generate professional PDF letters with:
- University logo and official formatting
- Event details and coordinator information
- Professional table layout with Times font
- Preview before download functionality

Data Management

Download attendance and allocation reports
CSV import/export for bulk operations
Real-time data synchronization

👨‍🎓 Student Features

Secure Dashboard: View profile status and upcoming drives
QR Scanner: Integrated scanner with deep-linking support
History & Logs: Access personal attendance history
Seat Allocation: View assigned lab and seat number instantly
Manual Entry: Fallback option for QR code scanning issues

📺 Projector View Features

Dynamic QR Code: Rotating every 10 seconds to prevent proxy attendance
Live Counter: Real-time present count to motivate punctuality
Status Indicators: Visual cues for session state (Active/Paused/Stopped)
High Contrast: Optimized for visibility from a distance

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

React 18: Component-based UI with hooks
Vite: Ultra-fast build times and HMR
TailwindCSS: Utility-first styling
React Router: Client-side routing
Axios: HTTP client with interceptors

Backend

Node.js: Non-blocking, event-driven runtime
Express.js: Minimal and flexible web framework
PDFKit: Professional PDF generation
JWT: Secure authentication
Nodemailer: Email notifications (optional)

Database

Supabase: Backend-as-a-Service with PostgreSQL
Row Level Security (RLS): Database-level authorization
Real-time subscriptions: Live data updates
Automatic token refresh: Seamless session management

Deployment

Vercel: Frontend hosting with edge network
Supabase Cloud: Managed PostgreSQL database
CI/CD: Automatic deployments on push

🏗️ System Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    CLIENT (React + Vite)                │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐ │
│  │   Admin      │  │   Student    │  │  Projector   │ │
│  │  Dashboard   │  │  Dashboard   │  │     View     │ │
│  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                          │
                          │ HTTPS/REST API
                          ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              BACKEND (Node.js + Express)                │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐ │
│  │     Auth     │  │  Attendance  │  │ Coordinators │ │
│  │  Middleware  │  │  Controller  │  │  Controller  │ │
│  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                          │
                          │ SQL Queries
                          ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            DATABASE (Supabase PostgreSQL)               │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐ │
│  │    Users     │  │  Attendance  │  │ Coordinators │ │
│  │   Profiles   │  │    Events    │  │  Assessments │ │
│  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Design Principles

Separation of Concerns: Clear boundaries between frontend, backend, and database
Stateless Authentication: JWT tokens with automatic refresh
Real-time Updates: Supabase subscriptions for live data
Scalability: Horizontal scaling with serverless architecture
Security: Row-level security, CORS policies, input validation

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js v18 or higher
npm or yarn
Supabase Account (free tier available)

Backend Setup

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/pranavgawaii/smart-attendance-system.git
cd smart-attendance-system

Install dependencies
```
npm install
```

Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

PORT=5001
JWT_SECRET=your_secure_secret_key
ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com

SUPABASE_URL=https://your-project.supabase.co
SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_anon_key
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=your_service_role_key

Set up database

Run the SQL migration in your Supabase SQL Editor:

-- Create placement_coordinators table
CREATE TABLE placement_coordinators (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    enrollment_no VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    department VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    year VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Start the development server
```
npm run dev
```
Server will run on http://localhost:5001

Frontend Setup

Navigate to client directory
```
cd client
```
Install dependencies
```
npm install
```

Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the client directory:

VITE_API_BASE_URL=/api
VITE_SUPABASE_URL=https://your-project.supabase.co
VITE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_anon_key

Start the development server
```
npm run dev
```
Client will run on http://localhost:5175

🚀 Deployment

Frontend (Vercel)

Connect GitHub repository to Vercel
Configure build settings:
- Root Directory: client
- Build Command: npm run build
- Output Directory: dist
Add environment variables:
- VITE_API_BASE_URL
- VITE_SUPABASE_URL
- VITE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
Deploy: Automatic on every push to main

Backend (Vercel Serverless)

Use the included vercel.json configuration
Add environment variables in Vercel dashboard:
- JWT_SECRET
- ADMIN_EMAIL
- SUPABASE_URL
- SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
- SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY
Deploy: Automatic on every push to main

Database (Supabase)

Already hosted on Supabase Cloud
Automatic backups and scaling
Connection pooling enabled
Row Level Security (RLS) configured

🔐 Security

Authentication & Authorization

JWT Tokens: Stateless authentication with automatic refresh
Supabase Auth: Built-in user management and session handling
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Strict separation between admin and student routes
Token Expiration: Automatic refresh on 401/403 errors

Data Protection

Row Level Security (RLS): Database-level authorization
Input Validation: All inputs sanitized to prevent SQL injection
CORS Policy: Restricted to allowed domains in production
HTTPS Only: All traffic encrypted in transit

Attendance Security

Dynamic QR Codes: Rotating every 10 seconds to prevent screenshots
Duplicate Prevention: Database constraints prevent multiple scans
Session Validation: Server-side verification of all attendance marks
Device Fingerprinting: Optional tracking to prevent proxy attendance

📚 Documentation

API Endpoints

Authentication

POST /api/auth/login - User login
POST /api/auth/logout - User logout
GET /api/auth/verify - Verify token

Attendance

GET /api/events - Get all events
POST /api/events - Create new event
POST /api/attendance/mark - Mark attendance
GET /api/attendance/history - Get attendance history

Coordinators

GET /api/coordinators - Get all coordinators
POST /api/coordinators - Add new coordinator
DELETE /api/coordinators/:id - Delete coordinator
POST /api/coordinators/attendance-pdf - Generate attendance letter PDF

Assessments

GET /api/assessments - Get all assessments
POST /api/assessments - Create assessment
POST /api/assessments/allocate - Allocate seats

Workflows

Attendance Workflow

Admin creates an event
Admin launches projector view with dynamic QR code
Students scan QR code using built-in scanner
Backend validates token and prevents duplicates
Success message appears; admin counter updates in real-time

Coordinator Letter Generation

Admin navigates to Coordinators → Generate Letter
Fills in event details (title, date, time)
Selects coordinators from the list
Clicks "Preview Letter" to review PDF
Downloads professional attendance letter

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

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

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👨‍💻 Author

Pranav Gawai

GitHub: @pranavgawaii
Email: pranavgawai1518@gmail.com

🙏 Acknowledgments

MIT ADT University Training & Placement Cell
All contributors and testers
Open source community for amazing tools and libraries

Made with ❤️ for MIT ADT University

⭐ Star this repo if you find it helpful!

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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client		client
src		src
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
mitadt_full_logo.png		mitadt_full_logo.png
mitadt_letter_logo.png		mitadt_letter_logo.png
mitadtcncrtp.png		mitadtcncrtp.png
mitadtlogo.png		mitadtlogo.png
mitadtwht.png		mitadtwht.png
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
vercel.json		vercel.json

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🎓 Smart Attendance Portal

📋 Table of Contents

🎯 Problem Statement

💡 Solution Overview

✨ Key Features

👨‍💼 Admin Features

Session Management

Assessment Control

Placement Coordinators Module 🆕

Data Management

👨‍🎓 Student Features

📺 Projector View Features

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

Backend

Database

Deployment

🏗️ System Architecture

Key Design Principles

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

Backend Setup

Frontend Setup

🚀 Deployment

Frontend (Vercel)

Backend (Vercel Serverless)

Database (Supabase)

🔐 Security

Authentication & Authorization

Data Protection

Attendance Security

📚 Documentation

API Endpoints

Authentication

Attendance

Coordinators

Assessments

Workflows

Attendance Workflow

Coordinator Letter Generation

🤝 Contributing

📄 License

👨‍💻 Author

🙏 Acknowledgments

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