LMS Daemon Backend

LMS Daemon Backend is a modular backend system for a Learning Management System built with FastAPI. It supports core LMS operations like user management, course delivery, notifications, and admin tasks. The system is designed with a daemon-style architecture to handle background processes such as inactivity checks and email alerts automatically.

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Features

User Management:

• Create, update, list, and delete users with role-based distinctions: admin, instructor, and student.

Course & Notification Modules:

• Manage courses and send notifications to specific users. Each notification includes a message and timestamp.

Email Service:

• Send custom emails and auto-notify inactive students based on their last_active timestamp.

Background Daemon Support:

• Continuously monitor student activity and automatically send email reminders to inactive students, reducing manual oversight and ensuring timely engagement interventions.

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Daemon Automation

Rather than relying on manual scripts, the system runs background tasks automatically. It continuously:

• Scans for inactive students
• Sends scheduled or rule-based emails
• Logs email activity for auditing

This approach ensures the system runs autonomously and is ready for production use.

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Tech Stack

• Python 3.11+
• FastAPI – Lightweight, async-ready Web API framework
• SQLAlchemy – ORM for database modeling
• Pydantic v2 – Robust data validation and serialization
• Passlib (bcrypt) – Secure password hashing
• Async Email Sender – Custom utility for background email delivery
• Modular Structure – Each domain (e.g.,user, notification) lives in its own isolated module
• PostgreSQL - Database support

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Folder Structure

lms_backend/
├── admin/                                  # Admin module for system administration
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── routes/                             # Admin API endpoints
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── course.py                       # Course administration routes
│       ├── instructor.py                   # Instructor management routes
│       ├── notification.py                 # Notification management routes
│       ├── router.py                       # Main admin router configuration
│       ├── scheduler.py                    # Schedule administration routes
│       └── user.py                         # User administration routes
│
├── auth/                                   # Authentication and authorization module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── admin/                              # Admin-specific authentication
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── guard.py                        # Admin access control dependency (require_admin)
│   ├── routes/                             # Auth API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── routes.py                       # Authentication routes with OAuth2 password flow
│   ├── schemas/                            # Auth data validation schemas
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── auth.py                         # Authentication schemas (login, tokens)
│   └── utils.py                            # Auth utility functions (JWT, password hashing)
│
├── course/                                 # Course management module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models/                             # Course data models
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── course.py                       # Course database model (references Instructor)
│   ├── routes/                             # Course API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── course.py                       # Course CRUD operations
│   └── schemas/                            # Course data validation schemas
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── course.py                       # Course request/response schemas
│
├── daemon/                                 # Background processing service
│   ├── __init__.py                         # Empty init file (added for imports)
│   └── daemon.py                           # Main daemon script for notifying inactive students
│                                           # Runs as systemd service (lms-notify.service)
│
├── database/                               # Database connection management
│   ├── __init__.py                         # Exports get_db, engine, base & SessionLocal
│   ├── base.py                             # Declarative Base class
│   └── database.py                         # ORM setup with SQLAlchemy engine, SessionLocal
│
├── diagnostics/                            # System diagnostics and monitoring
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── activity.py                         # User activity diagnostics function (diagnose_activity)
│   ├── view_reports.py                     # Script to view generated diagnostic reports
│   ├── lms_logs/                           # Diagnostic logs directory
│   │   └── activity_diagnosis.log          # Activity diagnostic logs
│   └── lms_reports/                        # Generated reports directory
│       └── activity_report_*.json/txt      # Activity reports in JSON/TXT format
│
├── email_service/                          # Email notification service
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── notify.py                           # Email notification functions (notify_inactive_students)
│   ├── utils.py                            # Email utility functions
│   ├── models/                             # Email service models
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── service.py                      # Email service data model
│   ├── routes/                             # Email service API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── service.py                      # Email service routes
│   └── schemas/                            # Email service data validation
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── service.py                      # Email schemas
│
├── faculty/                                # Instructor management module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models/                             # Instructor data models
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── faculty.py                      # Instructor database model (named faculty.py)
│   ├── routes/                             # Instructor API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── faculty.py                      # Instructor CRUD operations (exposed as instructor_router)
│   └── schemas/                            # Instructor data validation schemas
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── faculty.py                      # Instructor request/response schemas
│
├── fastapi_lms/                            # FastAPI application entry point
│   └── main.py                             # FastAPI main app with modular routing for all modules
│                                           # Sets up OAuth2, OpenAPI schema, and database tables
│
├── lms/                                    # MAIN APPLICATION CORE (Django Project)
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── asgi.py                             # ASGI configuration for async web servers
│   ├── settings.py                         # Core Django project settings
│   ├── urls.py                             # Main URL routing configuration
│   └── wsgi.py                             # WSGI configuration for web servers
│
├── models/                                 # Centralized model imports
│   └── __init__.py                         # Centralized model exports for cleaner imports
│
├── notification/                           # Notification system module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models/                             # Notification data models
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── notification.py                 # Notification model with instructor relationship
│   ├── routes/                             # Notification API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── notification.py                 # Notification CRUD and sending operations
│   └── schemas/                            # Notification data validation schemas
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── notification.py                 # Notification request/response schemas
│
├── schedule/                               # Schedule management module
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── schedule.py                         # Schedule utility functions
│
├── user/                                   # User management module
│   ├── utils.py                            # User-specific utility functions
│   ├── models/                             # User data models
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── user.py                         # User model (courses relationship removed)
│   ├── routes/                             # User API endpoints
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── user.py                         # User CRUD operations
│   └── schemas/                            # User data validation schemas
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── user.py                         # User request/response schemas
│
├── .gitignore                              # Git ignore configuration (ignores logs and reports)
├── README.md                               # Project documentation
├── manage.py                               # Django management script
├── requirements.txt                        # Python dependencies
│
└── /etc/systemd/system/                    # System service files (external to project)
    ├── lms-notify.service                  # Systemd service for daemon
    └── lms-notify.timer                    # Systemd timer to schedule daemon (daily at 8:00)

Setup & Installation

Install Dependencies

• Make sure Python 3.10+ and PostgreSQL are installed on your machine.

     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install python3 python3-venv python3-pip postgresql postgresql-contrib

Create PostgreSQL Database and User

• Log in to the PostgreSQL CLI:

     sudo -u postgres psql

• Run the following commands, replacing placeholder values with your own:

     -- Create user
     CREATE USER <db_user> WITH PASSWORD '<db_password>';
  
     -- Create database
     CREATE DATABASE <db_name> OWNER <db_user>;
  
      -- Grant privileges
      GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <db_name> TO <db_user>;
  
      -- Exit
      \q

1. Clone the repository:

      [email protected]:preston-56/lms_backend.git
   
      cd lms_backend

2. Create a virtual environment:

      python3 -m venv venv
      source venv/bin/activate # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

     pip install -r requirements.txt
   

4. Run the app:

      uvicorn fastapi_lms.main:app --reload

• Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs for Swagger UI.

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Authentication Flow

• Uses OAuth2 with Password (JWT) flow.
• Authenticate via the /v1/auth/login endpoint.
• Click “Authorize” in Swagger UI to use secured routes.

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API Documentation

Auto-generated via FastAPI and available at:

• Swagger UI
• ReDoc