AttendEase - Attendance Management System

A modern, full-stack attendance management system built with React and Node.js. Perfect for educational institutions looking to digitize their attendance tracking process.

Features

• User Authentication - Secure login and registration system
• Role-Based Access - Separate dashboards for students, faculty, and administrators
• Smart Attendance Tracking - Easy-to-use interface for marking attendance
• Comprehensive Reporting - Generate detailed attendance reports and analytics
• Course Management - Organize courses and manage student enrollments

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 18, Material-UI, Recharts for data visualization
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB with Compass
• Authentication: JWT tokens with bcrypt for password hashing
• File Export: PDF and Excel report generation

Project Structure

AttendEase/
├── frontend/          # React application
├── backend/           # Node.js API server
└── README.md

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have Node.js (v14 or higher) and npm installed on your machine.

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd AttendEase

2. Install backend dependencies

   cd backend
   npm install

3. Install frontend dependencies

   cd ../frontend
   npm install

Running the Application

You'll need to run both the backend and frontend servers. Open two separate terminal windows/tabs for this.

Start the Backend Server

In your first terminal:

cd backend
npm run dev

The backend will start on http://localhost:5000 with automatic restart enabled (thanks to nodemon).

Start the Frontend Server

In your second terminal:

cd frontend
npm run dev

The frontend will start on http://localhost:3000 and automatically open in your browser.

Available Scripts

Backend Scripts

• npm run dev - Start development server with hot reload
• npm start - Start production server

Frontend Scripts

• npm run dev - Start development server
• npm start - Same as dev (alias)
• npm run build - Create production build
• npm test - Run test suite

Development Tips

• The backend uses nodemon, so it will automatically restart when you make changes to server files
• The frontend has hot reload enabled, so changes will appear instantly in the browser
• Make sure MongoDB is running locally or update the connection string in the backend config
• Check the console for any error messages if something isn't working

What You Can Do

• Students: View your attendance records, check attendance percentages, and see course schedules
• Faculty: Take attendance, view student lists, generate reports, and manage courses
• Administrators: Manage users, courses, and access comprehensive system analytics

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests to improve this project!

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.