Learning Management System (LMS) – Backend API

A full-featured Django REST Framework backend that implements modern API practices such as a custom user model, JWT authentication, permissions, filtering, search, ordering, pagination, and auto-generated API documentation.

This project was built step-by-step following a complete backend roadmap.

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🚀 Features

1. Custom User Model (Most Important Part)

The project replaces Django’s default user with a CustomUser model that supports:

• username
• email
• password (hashed)
• age
• bio
• role (student/instructor/admin)

🔐 Secure Password Handling

Passwords are never stored as plain text. A custom serializer handles hashing:

class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    password = serializers.CharField(write_only=True)

    class Meta:
        model = CustomUser
        fields = ['username', 'email', 'password', 'age', 'bio', 'role']

    def create(self, validated_data):
        password = validated_data.pop('password')
        user = CustomUser(**validated_data)
        user.set_password(password)  # 🔒 important hashing step
        user.save()
        return user

This ensures the user’s password is safely hashed before saving.

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🔑 JWT Authentication (SimpleJWT)

The project uses SimpleJWT for login, token refresh, and secure access.

Endpoints include:

• /api/auth/register/
• /api/auth/login/
• /api/auth/token/refresh/
• Protected routes requiring Bearer <token>

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👮 Permissions & Access Control

The project uses:

• IsAuthenticated
• Role-based access (admin, instructor, student)
• Object-level permissions (ownership checks)

Examples:

• Students can only view their own data
• Instructors can manage their own courses
• Admins have full access

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🔎 Filtering, Search & Ordering

DjangoFilter + DRF Search + Ordering are applied globally.

Example (User list):

• Filter by role, age
• Search by username, email
• Order by username, email

Query examples:

/api/users/?search=banu
/api/users/?role=student
/api/users/?ordering=email

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📄 Pagination

Custom pagination using DRF PageNumberPagination:

• Default page size: 10
• Client can control page size
• Max page size: 100

Example:

/api/users/?page=2&page_size=5

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📚 API Documentation (Swagger / Redoc)

Interactive documentation included using drf-yasg:

• /swagger/
• /redoc/

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📘 Project Structure

lms_api/
│   manage.py
│   db.sqlite3
│
├── accounts/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── filters.py
│   └── urls.py
│
├── courses/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   └── views.py
│
└── lms_api/
    ├── settings.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── asgi.py

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⚙️ Installation & Setup

1. Clone the project

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/learning-management-system-backend.git
cd learning-management-system-backend

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Apply migrations

python manage.py migrate

4. Start the server

python manage.py runserver

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🧪 Testing

Use:

• Django admin
• DRF browsable API
• Postman
• Swagger UI

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🎯 This project includes:

✔ Django models ✔ Migrations ✔ Admin customization ✔ DRF API setup ✔ Serializers ✔ ViewSets ✔ Custom user model ✔ JWT authentication ✔ Permissions & Object-level auth ✔ Filtering, Search, Ordering ✔ Pagination ✔ API documentation ✔ Complete full backend project (LMS)

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📬 Author

Developed by banumariwan For backend learning, DRF mastery, and real-world API experience.