Exam and Project Management System — Spring Boot

A web application for managing academic exams and projects, built with Spring Boot, Spring Security, JPA/Hibernate and Thymeleaf. This is a web reimplementation of the same system previously built in Java Swing + JDBC, demonstrating the same domain logic through a modern MVC web architecture.

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Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Language	Java 17
Framework	Spring Boot 3
Security	Spring Security (BCrypt, role-based access)
ORM	JPA / Hibernate
Frontend	Thymeleaf + HTML/CSS
Database	Microsoft SQL Server
Build	Maven

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Architecture

Standard Spring Boot MVC layered architecture:

Controller → Service → Repository → Database
                ↕
           Thymeleaf Templates

• Controllers — handle HTTP requests, route to views or REST endpoints
• Services — business logic (enrollment, grade management, authentication)
• Repositories — JPA interfaces for database access
• Models — JPA entities mapped to SQL Server tables
• Security — Spring Security with BCrypt password encoding and role-based route protection

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Features

Authentication

• Login for students and professors
• BCrypt password encoding
• Role-based access control via Spring Security

Professor Features

• View and manage exams and projects
• Assign grades to students

Student Features

• Browse and enroll in available exams
• Browse and enroll in available projects
• Update project status (Not started / In progress / Finished)
• View grades

REST API

• ProiectRestController exposes REST endpoints for project data

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Database Schema

Same schema as the Java Swing version — 7 tables with relational integrity:

Table	Description
Student	Student accounts
Profesor	Professor accounts
Materie	Subjects
Sala	Classrooms
Examen	Exams
Proiect	Projects
StudentExamen	Exam enrollment + grades
StudentProiect	Project enrollment + grades

See baza_de_date.sql for the full schema.

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Setup

Prerequisites

• Java 17+
• Microsoft SQL Server (local instance)
• Maven

Database

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio
2. Run baza_de_date.sql to create the schema

Configuration

Copy application.properties.example to application.properties and update with your local SQL Server details:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:sqlserver://localhost\\SQLEXPRESS:1433;databaseName=ExameneProiecte;integratedSecurity=true;trustServerCertificate=true;
spring.datasource.driverClassName=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver

Run

mvn spring-boot:run

The app runs on http://localhost:8080

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Comparison with Java Swing Version

Aspect	Java Swing + JDBC	Spring Boot
UI	Desktop (Swing)	Web (Thymeleaf)
DB Access	Raw JDBC + manual SQL	JPA/Hibernate
Auth	Manual session	Spring Security
API	None	REST endpoints
Deployment	Local JAR	Web server