Problem
Negombo Knowledge Academy relied on manual and semi-digital academic administration processes, including paper records, spreadsheets, physical file handling, office-hour dependent services, and limited structured access control. The project aimed to provide a more organised digital foundation for staff-side academic management and future student/employer services.
Solution
I designed and built a Laravel-based academic management system with staff dashboards, multi-guard authentication, role-based access control, reusable Livewire CRUD components, academic configuration screens, Redis-backed caching, Docker Compose infrastructure, and a baseline Pest/PHPUnit test suite. The staff portal was delivered as Phase 1, while student and employer areas were structured for future extension.
Technologies Used
- Laravel 11
- PHP 8.2
- Livewire 3
- AdminLTE 3
- Spatie RBAC
- MariaDB
- Redis
- Docker Compose
- Nginx
- Pest
- PHPUnit
- Vite
Engineering Highlights
- BCS Professional Graduate Diploma project awarded Distinction
- Staff-side academic administration system built with Laravel 11 and Livewire 3
- Multi-guard authentication structure for staff, students, and employers
- Role-based access control using Spatie permissions
- Permission-aware menu visibility and dashboard access
- Reusable AdminLTE two-card CRUD layout for academic management screens
- Academic configuration for departments, programmes, levels, modules, skills, batches, and related structures
- Docker Compose development environment with Nginx, MariaDB, Redis, Node/Vite, and phpMyAdmin
- Redis-backed cache, session, and queue configuration
- Baseline Pest/PHPUnit test suite with legacy tests archived for future refactoring
- Structured project documentation including README, setup guide, dataset guide, and academic report
What I Learned
- Designed a larger Laravel application with realistic academic administration workflows
- Improved understanding of multi-guard authentication and stakeholder-specific access control
- Practised permission-based UI visibility using Spatie RBAC
- Built reusable Livewire CRUD patterns instead of repeating page logic manually
- Used Docker Compose to package the application with Nginx, MariaDB, Redis, Vite, and phpMyAdmin
- Improved understanding of Laravel runtime folders, environment configuration, database setup, and testing configuration
- Separated active baseline tests from legacy tests that require schema and factory refactoring
- Strengthened technical documentation and project presentation skills through a distinction-level BCS PGD project
- Practised scope control by delivering the staff portal as Phase 1 while preparing the structure for student and employer modules