School Management System (Python-Flask) API

This is a School Management System API built with Python-Flask and MySQL. The system is designed to manage the activities of a Nigerian Primary/Secondary School, providing basic features such as user registration and login, CRUD operations for students, teachers, and admins, student grade/result management, and attendance tracking.

Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• Project Features
• Technologies Used
• Folder Structure
• Database Schema
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Running the App
• API Endpoints
• Testing with Postman
• Contributing
• License

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Project Overview

The School Management System API is a web-based backend system built using Flask to manage various school-related operations. It includes features for user authentication, managing students, teachers, administrators, class schedules, results, and attendance tracking.

This project is designed to serve as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for school management, focusing on core features, and providing flexibility for future expansion.

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Project Features

• User Authentication: Role-based access for Admin, Teachers, and Students (JWT).
• CRUD Operations: Manage Students, Teachers, Admins, Classes, Subjects.
• Result/Grade Management: Teachers can manage student grades.
• Attendance Management: Track student attendance.
• RESTful API design, suitable for integration with any frontend.

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Technologies Used

• Backend Framework: Flask
• Database: MySQL
• ORM: SQLAlchemy
• Authentication: JSON Web Token (JWT)
• Development Tools: Postman (API Testing), Git, python-venv

Folder Structure

school-management-system/
│
├── app/
│   ├── __init__.py          # Initialize Flask app and SQLAlchemy
│   ├── models.py            # Database models for users, students, teachers, etc.
│   ├── routes.py            # All API route definitions (CRUD for users, students, etc.)
│   ├── config.py            # App configuration (DB connection, JWT secret, etc.)
│
├── migrations/              # Database migrations
├── run.py                   # Main script to run the app
├── requirements.txt         # Project dependencies
├── README.md                # Project documentation
├── .gitignore               # Files/folders to ignore in Git

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Database Schema

• Users Table: Handles authentication (admins, teachers, students).
• Students Table: Stores student data (first name, last name, class, email, etc.).
• Teachers Table: Stores teacher data.
• Results Table: Stores student grades.
• Attendance Table: Tracks student attendance.

-- Example SQL to create users table
CREATE TABLE users (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
    username TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    email TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    password_hash TEXT NOT NULL,
    role TEXT NOT NULL
);

-- Similar queries for students, teachers, results, attendance, etc.

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have met the following requirements:

• Python 3.x installed on your local machine.
• Git installed for version control.
• Python venv module to create isolated Python environments.
• Postman for API testing (optional but recommended).

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/eveshogweyore/sms.git
   cd school-management-system

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up the MySQL database: The MySQL database file will NOT be automatically created the first time you run the app. Hence, ensure that you create the database first in your MySQL shell before you run the app. The Database Tables will be automatically created when you run the app.

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Running the App

1. Start the Flask development server: python run.py

2. The API should now be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:5000/.

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API Endpoints

Here is a list of the available API endpoints for the School Management System.

Authentication:

• POST /api/auth/register - Register a new user.
• POST /api/auth/login - Login and retrieve a JWT token.

Student Management:

• GET /api/students - Retrieve all students.
• GET /api/students/<id> - Retrieve a specific student by ID.
• POST /api/students - Add a new student.
• PUT /api/students/<id> - Update student information.
• DELETE /api/students/<id> - Delete a student.

Teacher Management:

• GET /api/teachers - Retrieve all teachers.
• POST /api/teachers - Add a new teacher.
• PUT /api/teachers/<id> - Update teacher information.
• DELETE /api/teachers/<id> - Delete a teacher.

Attendance Management:

• GET /api/attendance - Retrieve attendance records.
• POST /api/attendance - Record attendance for a student.

Results/Grade Management:

• GET /api/results/<student_id> - Retrieve grades for a student.
• POST /api/results - Add or update a student's grades.

Refer to the Postman collection (provided in this repo) for detailed request and response formats.

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Testing with Postman

1. Open Postman and import the provided Postman collection from this repository (school_management_system.postman_collection.json).
2. Make sure to set up environment variables (like the base URL) in Postman for convenience.
3. Test the API by hitting the defined endpoints with appropriate request payloads (JSON format).

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Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this project, feel free to submit a pull request. Contributions are welcome, whether it's bug fixes, new features, or improvements to existing code.

Steps to contribute:

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

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information.

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Conclusion

The School Management System API is a versatile project designed to handle a school's core administrative needs. While this MVP provides basic features, it can be expanded with additional functionalities such as timetable management, parent-teacher communication, and more. We hope this project serves as a valuable foundation for school management systems.