🎓 University LMS Server 🎓

Backend API for a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) / University Management Project.
"---Always Work Hard and Trust the Process---"

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📍 Table of Contents

• ✨ Core Features
• 🛠️ Tech Stack
• 🏁 Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation & Setup
  • Running the Server
• 🔑 Environment Variables
• ⚡ API Endpoints
  • Authentication
  • User Management
  • Student Management
  • Faculty Management
  • Admin Management
• 📚 Learn More
• 🤝 Contributing
• 📜 License

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✨ Core Features

This server provides all the essential backend logic for a modern university portal:

• 🔐 Secure Authentication: Full JWT (Access & Refresh Tokens) flow with bcrypt password hashing.
• 👮 Role-Based Access Control: Distinct roles (Student, Faculty, Admin) with protected routes using custom middleware.
• 📁 File Uploads: Integrated multer and cloudinary for handling profile pictures and course materials.
• ✉️ Email Service: Uses nodemailer for password resets and notifications.
• 🛡️ Robust Validation:
  • Zod / Joi: For complex schema validation on request bodies.
  • Mongoose: Built-in and custom schema validations.
• ⚙️ Full User Management: Complete CRUD operations for all user roles.
• 🔑 Secure Password Handling: Features for changing, forgetting, and resetting passwords.

🛠️ Tech Stack

This project is built with a modern, type-safe, and efficient stack, as seen in package.json.

Category	Technology
Backend Framework	Express.js
Language	TypeScript
Database	MongoDB (with Mongoose ODM)
Authentication	jsonwebtoken (JWT), bcrypt
Data Validation	zod, joi, validator
File Handling	multer, cloudinary
Email Service	nodemailer
API Utilities	http-status, cors, cookie-parser
Dev Environment	ts-node-dev, eslint

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🏁 Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get the server up and running on your local machine.

Prerequisites

You must have the following installed:

• Node.js (v18.x or later recommended)
• npm (or yarn)
• A MongoDB database instance (local or cloud-hosted like MongoDB Atlas)

⚙️ Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/ashiq72/lms-server.git](https://github.com/ashiq72/lms-server.git)
   cd lms-server

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

   (Or yarn install)

3. Set up Environment Variables:

   • Create a .env file in the root of the project.
   • Use the .env.example file (if available) or the section below as a guide.
   • Fill in all required values, especially DATABASE_URL and JWT_SECRET_KEY.

🚀 Running the Server

• For Development (with hot-reloading):

  npm run start:dev

  This will start the server using ts-node-dev.

• For Production:

  # 1. Build the TypeScript code into JavaScript
  npm run build
  
  # 2. Start the optimized server
  npm run start

• To Run Linter:

  npm run lint

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🔑 Environment Variables

To run this project, you will need to create a .env file with the following variables:

# Server Configuration
PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development

# Database
DATABASE_URL="your-mongodb-connection-string"

# JWT Authentication
JWT_SECRET_KEY="your-access-token-secret"
JWT_EXPIRES_IN="1d"
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET_KEY="your-refresh-token-secret"
JWT_REFRESH_EXPIRES_IN="7d"

# Cloudinary (for file uploads)
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME="..."
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY="..."
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET="..."

# Nodemailer (for emails)
NODEMAILER_HOST="..."
NODEMAILER_PORT="..."
NODEMAILER_USER="..."
NODEMAILER_PASS="..."

# Frontend URL
CORS_ORIGIN="http://localhost:3000"