CertTrack — Certification & Skill Tracking Platform

A full-stack web application that streamlines certificate management and skill tracking for academic institutions. Students upload certificates, faculty verify them, and admins gain system-wide analytics — all through role-based dashboards.

---

Features

Student

• Upload certificates with title, organization, category, skill tags & expiry date
• Track certificate status (Pending / Accepted / Rejected)
• View performance metrics and analytics
• Receive expiry alerts for certificates expiring within 30 days
• Delete pending (unreviewed) certificates

Faculty

• View and manage assigned certificates
• Accept or reject certificates with remarks
• Review statistics dashboard

Admin

• View all certificates system-wide
• System-wide analytics with category breakdown
• Student leaderboard (top 10 by performance score)
• User management (list & delete users)

---

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, Vite 5, React Router v6, Axios
Backend	Django 5, Django REST Framework, Token Authentication
Database	PostgreSQL (local) / DATABASE_URL support (Railway, etc.)
Storage	Django media files (certificate & profile image uploads)
Deployment	Vercel (frontend) · Railway/Render with Gunicorn (backend)

---

Project Structure

Skill Tracking Platform/
├── backend/
│   ├── accounts/          # Custom user model, auth views (register, login, profile)
│   ├── certificates/      # Certificate CRUD, faculty review, admin analytics
│   ├── backend/           # Django settings, root URL config, WSGI
│   ├── media/             # Uploaded files (gitignored)
│   ├── manage.py
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── Procfile           # Gunicorn entry point
│   └── runtime.txt        # Python version for deployment
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/         # LandingPage, Login, Register, Student/Faculty/Admin Dashboards
│   │   ├── components/    # Reusable UI components
│   │   ├── context/       # AuthContext (global auth state)
│   │   ├── services/      # Axios API service layer
│   │   ├── App.jsx        # Route definitions with role-based protection
│   │   ├── main.jsx       # React entry point
│   │   └── index.css      # Global styles
│   ├── vercel.json        # Vercel deployment config
│   ├── vite.config.js
│   └── package.json
│
└── .gitignore

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL installed and running

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/certTrack.git
cd certTrack

2. Backend Setup

# Create and activate virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows
# source .venv/bin/activate   # macOS/Linux

# Install dependencies
pip install -r backend/requirements.txt

# Create the PostgreSQL database
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE cert_tracker_db;"

# Configure environment variables
# Create backend/.env and set:
#   SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
#   DEBUG=True
#   DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:<password>@localhost:5432/cert_tracker_db  (optional)

# Apply migrations
python backend/manage.py migrate

# Create a superuser (admin account)
python backend/manage.py createsuperuser

# Start the development server
python backend/manage.py runserver

The backend API will be available at http://localhost:8000.

3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Configure environment variables
# Create .env.local and set:
#   VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:8000

# Start the dev server
npm run dev

The frontend will be available at http://localhost:5173.

---

🔌 API Endpoints

Accounts (/api/accounts/)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/register/	Register a new student or faculty
POST	/login/	Login and receive auth token
GET/PUT	/profile/	View or update current user profile
GET	/users/	Admin: list all users
DELETE	/users/<id>/	Admin: delete a user

Certificates (/api/certificates/)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/upload/	Student: upload a certificate
GET	/my/	Student: list own certificates
DELETE	/<id>/delete/	Student: delete a pending certificate
GET	/performance/	Student: performance metrics
GET	/alerts/	Student: expiry alerts (30 days)
GET	/assigned/	Faculty: view assigned certificates
PUT	/review/<id>/	Faculty: accept/reject a certificate
GET	/faculty-stats/	Faculty: review statistics
GET	/all/	Admin: list all certificates
GET	/analytics/	Admin: system-wide analytics
GET	/leaderboard/	Admin: top 10 students

---

Authentication

The platform uses Token-based authentication via Django REST Framework's TokenAuthentication. After logging in, include the token in subsequent requests:

Authorization: Token <your-auth-token>

---

Certificate Categories

Key	Label
cloud	Cloud Computing
ai_ml	AI / Machine Learning
web	Web Development
cyber	Cybersecurity
data	Data Science & Analytics
devops	DevOps & CI/CD
mobile	Mobile Development
other	Other

---

Deployment

Frontend (Vercel)

The frontend/vercel.json handles SPA routing. Deploy directly from the frontend/ directory on Vercel.

Backend (Railway / Render)

• Set DATABASE_URL, SECRET_KEY, ALLOWED_HOSTS, FRONTEND_URL, and DEBUG=False as environment variables.
• The Procfile uses Gunicorn: web: gunicorn backend.wsgi
• Static files are served via WhiteNoise.

---

License

This project is for educational purposes.