Code Academy Uganda

Enterprise-grade web platform for Code Academy Uganda that powers marketing pages, program enrollment, content publishing, and a full administrative suite. The app is built on Laravel 12 with Livewire 3 and Tailwind CSS, emphasizing a premium UX and an operations-ready backend.

Highlights

• Branded public site with events, programs, stories, and marketing sections
• Enrollment workflows with data validation and flexible schema handling
• Administrative suite for posts, programs, comments, and communications
• Built-in backup utility for shared hosting environments without mysqldump
• Production-friendly asset pipeline with Vite

Tech Stack

• Backend: Laravel 12, PHP 8.2+
• Frontend: Livewire 3, Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, Vite
• Auth: Laravel Fortify
• Database: MySQL or MariaDB (SQLite supported for tests)
• Testing: PHPUnit / Pest

Architecture Overview

• Livewire components under app/Livewire and resources/views/livewire
• Layouts and shared UI under resources/views/components
• Domain models under app/Models
• Configuration under config
• Assets built via Vite into public/build

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.2 or newer
• Composer
• Node.js 18+ and npm
• MySQL or MariaDB (or SQLite for local dev)

Local Setup

1. Install PHP dependencies:
   • composer install
2. Create environment file:
   • copy .env.example to .env
3. Generate app key:
   • php artisan key:generate
4. Configure .env with database credentials
5. Run migrations:
   • php artisan migrate
6. Install frontend dependencies:
   • npm install
7. Build assets:
   • npm run build
8. Run the app:
   • php artisan serve

Dev Workflow

• Frontend dev server: npm run dev
• Laravel server: php artisan serve
• Queue worker: php artisan queue:listen --tries=1
• Combined: composer run dev

Admin Access

The application uses a role-based field on the users table.

Set a user as admin using tinker:

• php artisan tinker

Then run:

• App\Models\User::where('email', 'your-email@example.com')->update(['role' => 'admin']);

Testing

• Run all tests: php artisan test
• PHPUnit config: phpunit.xml

Deployment (Shared Hosting)

This deployment flow supports environments without SSH access or mysqldump.

1. Build assets locally:
   • npm run build
2. Upload application code:
   • Upload all files except public to a private_app folder
   • Upload public contents to public_html
3. Update public_html/index.php:
   • require DIR.'/../private_app/vendor/autoload.php';
   • $app = require_once DIR.'/../private_app/bootstrap/app.php';
4. Configure .env in private_app with production values
5. Storage symlink (no SSH):
   • Create a link.php in public_html
   • Add:
   • Visit once, then delete the file

Backup Tool

The admin panel includes a Pure PHP SQL exporter to generate full database backups in restricted environments. Access it from the admin settings area and download the generated SQL file.

Security Notes

• Set APP_ENV=production and APP_DEBUG=false in production
• Use strong database credentials
• Ensure storage and bootstrap/cache are writable by the web server

Scripts

Common composer scripts:

• composer run dev: runs server, queue, and Vite
• composer run test: runs automated tests
• composer run setup: bootstraps a full environment

License

This repository is provided for Code Academy Uganda operations. If you plan to reuse or redistribute, review licensing for any third-party assets.