Smart Classroom Scheduler

A MERN smart classroom management app for courses, faculty, rooms, notifications, AI timetable generation, timetable PDF export, and an AI scheduling assistant.

Features

• Course, faculty, room, and notification management
• AI-powered timetable generation
• Weekly schedules with optional Saturday/Sunday classes
• One-day special class timetable mode
• Professional PDF export for generated timetables
• Responsive dashboard and management screens for laptop, tablet, and mobile
• Deployment-ready API configuration for Render and Netlify

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React, Vite, Tailwind CSS
• Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose
• AI: OpenAI-compatible chat completion API
• Deployment: Render for backend, Netlify for frontend

Project Structure

backend/      Express API, MongoDB models, AI timetable generator
frontend/     React/Vite client
render.yaml   Render service blueprint

Local Setup

Backend

cd backend
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

Required backend environment variables:

MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
PORT=5000
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_or_openrouter_key
OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

Frontend environment:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000

Render Backend Deployment

1. Create a new Render Web Service from this repository.
2. Use backend as the root directory.
3. Build command: npm install
4. Start command: npm start
5. Health check path: /api/health
6. Add environment variables in Render:
   • MONGO_URI
   • CLIENT_URL set to your Netlify URL, for example https://your-site.netlify.app
   • OPENAI_API_KEY
   • OPENAI_MODEL
   • OPENAI_BASE_URL if using a non-default OpenAI-compatible provider

Netlify Frontend Deployment

1. Create a new Netlify site from this repository.
2. Base directory: frontend
3. Build command: npm run build
4. Publish directory: frontend/dist
5. Add environment variable:
   • VITE_API_URL=https://your-render-backend.onrender.com

The included frontend/netlify.toml handles SPA route refreshes.

Security

• Real .env files are ignored by Git.
• Only .env.example placeholder files should be committed.
• Add production secrets only in Render and Netlify dashboards.

Verification

Recommended checks before deployment:

cd backend
npm test

cd ../frontend
npm run lint
npm run build