Smart Hostel Management System Advanced

Java 21 + JSP/Servlet + MySQL hostel management application for Student, Warden and Admin roles.

Working role flow

1. /login authenticates against users.
2. Student -> /student/dashboard
3. Warden -> /warden/dashboard
4. Admin -> /admin/dashboard

Management screens use servlet/controller URLs rather than direct JSP navigation. Admin and Warden render their own JSP folders while sharing DAO/business logic.

Main staff modules

• Students: list, create student account/profile, room allocation, deactivate student.
• Rooms: live room list, add room, update room status.
• Complaints: list all and update Pending/In Progress/Resolved/Rejected with remarks.
• Visitors: register visitor and check out.
• Leave requests: approve/reject with remarks.
• Attendance: daily bulk attendance marking.
• Notices: publish/delete notices.
• Mess/Food: add/edit weekly menu items.
• Fees: assign dues and view payment state.
• Warden messages: view student messages and send replies.
• Reports: live aggregate student/room/complaint/leave/attendance/visitor figures.
• Profile: update name/phone and change password.
• Admin Users & Wardens: create accounts, change roles, delete accounts.

Student backend connections

• Dashboard: /student/dashboard
• Room: /room
• Complaints: /complaint?action=student; submission posts to /complaint?action=submit
• Fees: /fee
• Visitors: /visitor
• Profile: /profile
• Notices: /notice
• Contact Warden: /contact

Database

Run hostel_db.sql in MySQL 8.x. It creates hostel_db, all tables, seed data, and demo records.

Default seeded logins:

• Admin: admin@hostel.com / admin123
• Warden: warden@hostel.com / warden123
• Student: rohan@student.com / student123
• Additional seeded students: student01@hostel.com ... student20@hostel.com / student123

The default JDBC values are:

• URL: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/hostel_db?useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true&serverTimezone=UTC
• User: root
• Password: 1234

You can override them without editing source:

• JVM: -Dhostel.db.url=... -Dhostel.db.user=... -Dhostel.db.password=...
• Environment: HOSTEL_DB_URL, HOSTEL_DB_USER, HOSTEL_DB_PASSWORD

Eclipse / Tomcat

1. Import as an existing Eclipse Dynamic Web Project.
2. Configure a Tomcat 10.x runtime (Jakarta Servlet API).
3. Ensure Java 21 is selected.
4. The project now references the bundled MySQL connector at src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/lib/mysql-connector-j-9.4.0.jar; the old machine-specific C:/Users/... path was removed.
5. Run hostel_db.sql.
6. Add the project to Tomcat and open the application root or /login.

Validation performed in this package

• All model, DAO and utility Java sources compiled successfully with Java 21.
• All servlet sources compiled successfully against a Jakarta Servlet-compatible API surface.
• Servlet mappings and JSP dispatch targets were checked for missing management views.
• Warden/Admin demo-array pages were replaced with request/DAO-backed pages.
• Role-sensitive POST actions were restricted so students cannot call staff management actions directly.

A live browser/database smoke test still requires an actual MySQL server and Tomcat runtime; neither server is installed in the packaging environment.

Important security note

The supplied database/project uses plain-text demo passwords because the original project and SQL seed do. For real deployment, migrate passwords to BCrypt/Argon2 and add CSRF protection before exposing the application publicly.

Final navigation fix

All student dashboard/module navigation uses application-context-safe URLs. Student feature links no longer depend on the browser's current JSP directory, preventing 404 errors when navigating from the dashboard. Data-backed modules continue to enter through their Servlets (/room, /mess, /complaint, /fee, /visitor, /attendance, /notice, /leave, /profile, /contact).