🎓 ScholarSync is a full-stack Learning Management System with dedicated student & instructor portals, real-time grading, assignment tracking, and a rich library — all secured with role-based JWT auth.

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🌟 Feature Highlights

🧑‍🎓 Student Experience 🔐 Secure signup & login 📖 Browse, search & filter courses ✅ Enroll & track module progress 📝 Submit assignments & view grades 📊 GPA calculator 📚 Library with saved resources & reading progress 🗂️ Personal dashboard with upcoming work

🧑‍🏫 Instructor Experience 🏗️ Create / update / delete courses 📦 Add modules & announcements 📋 Manage assignments & view submissions ✏️ Grade student work 📁 Publish library resources 📈 Instructor analytics dashboard

🔒 Backend Protections

Shield	Description
🔑 JWT Authentication	Stateless, secure token-based auth
🛡️ Role-Based Authorization	Middleware enforcing student/instructor roles
🚦 API Rate Limiting	Guards against abuse via Express Rate Limit
⚠️ Centralized Error Handling	Consistent, structured error responses

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🛠️ Tech Stack

🖥️ Frontend

React 19 · Vite · React Router · Axios · Tailwind CSS v4 · Framer Motion · Lucide React

⚙️ Backend

Node.js · Express · TypeScript · MongoDB + Mongoose · JWT · bcryptjs · Zod · CORS

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📁 Project Structure

Scholar-Sync/
├── 🖥️  client/
│   └── src/
│       ├── 🌐 api/                # Frontend API wrappers
│       ├── 🧩 components/         # Shared UI + route guards
│       ├── 🔄 context/            # Auth context
│       ├── 🗂️  layouts/            # Public / student / instructor layouts
│       ├── 📄 pages/              # Student & public pages
│       └── 📄 pages/instructor/   # Instructor pages
│
├── ⚙️  server/
│   └── src/
│       ├── 🗄️  config/             # DB connection
│       ├── 🎮 controllers/        # Route handlers & business logic
│       ├── 🛡️  middleware/         # Auth, RBAC, error handling
│       ├── 📦 models/             # Mongoose schemas
│       ├── 🛤️  routes/             # API route definitions
│       ├── 🌱 seed/               # Database seeding script
│       ├── 🔧 utils/              # JWT utilities
│       ├── 🚀 app.ts              # Express app config
│       └── 🏁 server.ts           # Server bootstrap
│
└── 📐 diagrams/                   # System design / UML docs

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🏗️ Architecture

🖥️  React (Vite)
      ↓
📡  Axios API Client  ──── attaches JWT from localStorage
      ↓
🛤️  Express Routes  (/api/*)
      ↓
🛡️  Middleware Pipeline  (CORS → JSON → Rate Limit → Auth → RBAC)
      ↓
🎮  Controllers  (business logic)
      ↓
📦  Mongoose Models
      ↓
🗄️  MongoDB

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⚡ Getting Started

📋 Prerequisites

1️⃣ Clone & Install

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd Scholar-Sync

# Install backend dependencies
cd server && npm install

# Install frontend dependencies
cd ../client && npm install

2️⃣ Configure Environment Variables

server/.env

MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://<user>:<pass>@<cluster>/<db>
JWT_SECRET=change_this_secret
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=7d
PORT=5001
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

client/.env

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5001/api

💡 PORT defaults to 5000 if unset — set it to 5001 to match the Vite proxy config.

3️⃣ Run the App

# Terminal 1 — Backend
cd server && npm run dev

# Terminal 2 — Frontend
cd client && npm run dev

🌐 Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

🌱 Seed Demo Data (optional)

cd server && npm run seed
# Prints sample student + instructor credentials to console

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🗺️ API Reference

Base URL: /api

🏥 Health

Method	Endpoint	Auth
GET	/health	None

🔐 Auth

Method	Endpoint	Auth
POST	/auth/signup	None
POST	/auth/login	None
POST	/auth/instructor/signup	None
POST	/auth/instructor/login	None
GET	/auth/me	✅ Required

📚 Courses

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/courses	🔐 Auth
GET	/courses/instructor/mine	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
GET	/courses/:idOrSlug	🔐 Auth
POST	/courses	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
PUT	/courses/:id	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
DELETE	/courses/:id	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
POST	/courses/:id/modules	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
POST	/courses/:id/announcements	🧑‍🏫 Instructor

📋 Enrollments

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/enrollments	🧑‍🎓 Student
POST	/enrollments	🧑‍🎓 Student
PUT	/enrollments/:id/module-complete	🧑‍🎓 Student

📝 Assignments & Submissions

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/assignments	🔐 Auth
GET	/assignments/:idOrSlug	🔐 Auth
POST	/assignments	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
PUT	/assignments/:id	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
DELETE	/assignments/:id	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
POST	/submissions	🧑‍🎓 Student
GET	/submissions	🧑‍🏫 Instructor
GET	/submissions/my	🧑‍🎓 Student

🏆 Grades

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/grades	🧑‍🎓 Student
GET	/grades/gpa	🧑‍🎓 Student
POST	/grades	🧑‍🏫 Instructor

📖 Library

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/library	🔐 Auth
GET	/library/recent	🧑‍🎓 Student
GET	/library/saved	🧑‍🎓 Student
POST	/library/saved	🧑‍🎓 Student
PUT	/library/progress	🧑‍🎓 Student
GET	/library/:idOrSlug	🔐 Auth
POST	/library	🧑‍🏫 Instructor

📊 Dashboard

Method	Endpoint	Role
GET	/dashboard/overview	🧑‍🎓 Student
GET	/dashboard/instructor	🧑‍🏫 Instructor

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📜 Scripts

🖥️ Client

Command	Description
npm run dev	⚡ Start Vite dev server
npm run build	📦 Production build
npm run preview	👁️ Preview production build
npm run lint	🔍 Run ESLint

⚙️ Server

Command	Description
npm run dev	🔄 Start with ts-node-dev (hot reload)
npm run build	🏗️ Compile TypeScript → dist/
npm start	🚀 Run compiled server
npm run seed	🌱 Seed the database

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🚀 Deployment

Backend — Vercel

server/vercel.json is pre-configured for Vercel Node.js deployment using src/app.ts.

Frontend — Static Host

Deploy the Vite build output to any static host (Vercel / Netlify / Cloudflare Pages):

cd client && npm run build

⚠️ Ensure VITE_API_BASE_URL points to the deployed backend and the server's CLIENT_URL matches your frontend origin.

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🤝 Contributing

1. 🍴 Fork the repo
2. 🌿 Create a feature branch
3. 🛠️  Make your changes in client/ and/or server/
4. ✅ Run lint + build locally
5. 📬 Open a pull request with clear scope and test notes

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⚠️ Known Issues

🐛 client/vite.config.js proxies /api → http://localhost:5001, but the backend defaults to port 5000 unless PORT is set explicitly. Fix: Add PORT=5001 to server/.env.

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📐 Diagrams

System design and UML documentation are available in the diagrams/ directory.

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Made with ❤️ by the ScholarSync Team