06/03/2026
Day 2 of building AtlasRCS 💻
Previously, I talked about the planning behind this system.
Today, the real building began.
Phase 0 is officially complete, it means the foundation of AtlasRCS now exists.
And while it may not look exciting from the outside yet, this phase was one of the most important parts of the entire project.
Because the truth is:
good software is rarely built by jumping straight into features.
It’s built by designing a structure that can survive growth.
So today was about architecture.
I started by breaking the backend into modular Django apps, each representing a real responsibility inside a school system:
• Accounts – authentication and user roles
• Academics – subjects, classes, and academic structure
• Results – score entry and computation
• Enrollment – managing students and staff records
Instead of relying on Django’s default user model, I implemented a custom user model to properly support the different roles this system will need — teachers, academic administrators, IT staff, and management.
That decision alone will eventually make role permissions and security far easier to manage later.
Security was also something I refused to treat as an afterthought.
Right from the start I configured:
• Environment variables for sensitive data
• Secure Django settings
• MySQL database integration
• A configuration structure that prepares the system for authentication and RBAC in the next phase
On the frontend, I initialized the React application using Vite + TypeScript and built a clean folder structure for components, services, utilities, and pages.
It may sound small, but a messy frontend structure can quickly become a nightmare once a project grows and btw, I'm not really a frontend fan 😂
One of the real challenges today wasn’t writing code — it was making careful decisions early.
Things like project structure, security configuration, and modular design can either make a project scale smoothly… or become painful to fix later.
So I took my time to get those parts right.
And now the groundwork is ready.
AtlasRCS finally has a skeleton.
Next Phase: Authentication & Role-Based Access Control
This is where things start to become a real system.
Phase 1 will include:
• Secure login system
• OAuth / JWT authentication
• Role-based route protection
• Login attempt limiting
• Token rotation and logout security
This is the phase where users will finally be able to enter the system — but only with the right permissions.
We're moving from structure to security.
And honestly, this is where the fun begins, I think so :😊
Slow progress is still progress.
Let’s keep building. 🚀
