ALX Hub Access Management System

A Django-based backend application for managing user access to the ALX Hub in Westlands. This system replaces manual Google Sheets sign-ins with a secure, programmatic system. Users are categorized as Students, Alumni, Staff, or Community Members, and administrators can track hub usage in real-time.

This project highlights backend development, REST API design, and role-based access control.

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Features

• User Management (CRUD)

  • Create new user profiles
  • Read user details
  • Update existing user information
  • Delete user records

• Role-Based Categorization

  • Users categorized as Student, Alumni, Staff, or Community Member

• Admin Panel

  • Manage users via Django’s built-in admin interface

• REST API

  • Fully functional API endpoints for programmatic user management

• Optional API Integration

  • Fetch sample users/emails from external APIs for testing

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Technologies Used

• Backend: Python, Django, Django REST Framework
• Database: SQLite (upgradeable to PostgreSQL)
• API Testing: Postman
• Authentication: Django Admin (superuser login)
• Other: JSON for API payloads, RESTful architecture

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Challenges & Solutions

• Replacing manual sign-ins:
  Created a UserProfile model with role-based access and CRUD APIs using Django REST Framework

• Validating user roles:
  Added serializer validation to enforce allowed statuses:

  student, staff, alumni, community
  

** Project Structure**

│
├── alx_hub_access/      # Project settings and configuration
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py      # Project settings
│   ├── urls.py          # Root URL routes
│   └── wsgi.py
│
├── users/               # App handling user profiles
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── admin.py         # Register models in Django admin
│   ├── apps.py
│   ├── migrations/      # Database migrations
│   ├── models.py        # UserProfile model
│   ├── serializers.py   # DRF serializer for UserProfile
│   ├── tests.py
│   ├── urls.py          # API endpoints for CRUD
│   └── views.py         # API views (CRUD logic)
│
├── db.sqlite3           # SQLite database
└── manage.py            # Django management tool

** Admin Access

-Visit: http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/

-Log in with superuser credentials

-Manage user profiles directly from the web interface

**Testing

• Open Postman

• Set base URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/users/

• Test all CRUD operations using JSON requests

** Installation & Usage**

• Clone the repository

• git clone https://github.com/your-username/alx-hub-access.git

Create a virtual environment

• python -m venv env
• source env/bin/activate # macOS/Linux
• env\Scripts\activate # Windows

Install dependencies

• pip install -r requirements.txt

Apply migrations

• python manage.py migrate

Create a superuser

• python manage.py createsuperuser

Run the server

• python manage.py runserver

Access API endpoints:

• http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/users/

Access Admin Panel:

• http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/