Library Management System

A Spring Boot MVC web application for managing a school library. The app provides an admin dashboard, book and user management, borrowing transactions, imports from Excel, and downloadable library reports.

Current release: 1.0.0

Features

• Admin login and password management
• Dashboard with book, user, and borrowed-book counts
• Book management with create, edit, delete, details, pagination, and Excel import
• User management with create, edit, delete, pagination, and Excel import
• Borrowing transaction management with issue, edit, delete, return, and search flows
• Reports dashboard for top borrowed books, active users, overdue transactions, and total transactions
• PDF report download
• PostgreSQL-backed persistence
• Docker support

Screenshots

Home Page

Login Page

Dashboard

Reports

Tech Stack

• Java 17
• Spring Boot 3.5.3
• Spring MVC
• Spring Data JPA
• Spring Security
• Thymeleaf
• PostgreSQL
• Maven
• Lombok
• iTextPDF
• Apache POI
• Docker

Prerequisites

Before running the app, install:

• JDK 17
• PostgreSQL
• Maven, or use the included Maven wrapper
• Docker, optional

Configuration

The application reads database settings from environment variables:

DB_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/library
DB_USER=your_database_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password
ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
ADMIN_PASSWORD=change_this_password

Create a PostgreSQL database first, then make sure these variables are available in the shell or runtime environment where the app starts. ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD are used only when the first admin account is created.

Configuration lives in src/main/resources/application.yml. The tracked file uses environment-variable placeholders instead of real secrets. For local-only values, use environment variables or ignored files such as:

.env
src/main/resources/application-local.yml

Use src/main/resources/application.example.yml as a safe reference for the expected settings.

By default, the app uses the local profile unless SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE is set. That lets ./mvnw spring-boot:run load your ignored src/main/resources/application-local.yml during local development. In production, set SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=prod and provide secrets through the deployment environment.

The current JPA configuration uses:

spring:
  jpa:
    hibernate:
      ddl-auto: update

This is convenient during development because Hibernate updates the schema automatically. The production profile uses ddl-auto: validate, disables SQL logging, and requires admin bootstrap credentials from environment variables.

Run Locally

From the project root:

./mvnw spring-boot:run

Then open:

http://localhost:8080

Default Admin Account

On first startup, the app creates a default admin account if no admin exists:

Username: value of ADMIN_USERNAME, or admin if unset
Password: value of ADMIN_PASSWORD, or password if unset

Set ADMIN_PASSWORD before the first startup in any shared or production-like environment, then change the password after signing in. The application validates admin bootstrap settings at startup; the password must be at least 8 characters.

Run Tests

./mvnw test

Build

./mvnw clean package

The packaged application will be created under target/.

Production Run

Set the production profile and provide all required environment variables:

export SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=prod
export DB_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/library
export DB_USER=your_database_user
export DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password
export ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
export ADMIN_PASSWORD=use_a_strong_password

java -jar target/library-1.0.0.jar

The production profile validates the existing database schema instead of updating it automatically. Make sure the schema exists before startup.

Docker

Build the image:

docker build -t library-management-system:1.0.0 .

Run the container:

docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -e SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=prod \
  -e DB_URL=jdbc:postgresql://host.docker.internal:5432/library \
  -e DB_USER=your_database_user \
  -e DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password \
  -e ADMIN_USERNAME=admin \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=use_a_strong_password \
  library-management-system:1.0.0

If PostgreSQL is running somewhere other than the host machine, update DB_URL accordingly.

Main Routes

Route	Description
/	Public home page
/admin/login	Admin login page
/admin	Admin dashboard
/admin/change-password	Change admin password
/books	Book list and management
/users	User list and management
/transactions	Borrowing transactions
/reports	Reports dashboard
/reports/download	Download PDF report

Project Structure

src/main/java/com/shacky/library
├── config          Spring Security and startup configuration
├── controllers     Spring MVC controllers
├── dtos            Data transfer objects used by forms and views
├── entities        JPA entities
├── repositories    Spring Data repositories
└── services        Business logic interfaces and implementations

src/main/resources
├── static          Static assets
├── templates       Thymeleaf templates
├── application.yml
└── application.example.yml

Notes

• The app uses PostgreSQL by default.
• Security protects the admin dashboard, books, users, transactions, reports, and admin routes.
• Excel imports are supported through Apache POI.
• PDF reports are generated with iTextPDF.