DawsonDial – College Management System

Overview

DawsonDial is a full-scale college management desktop application built with C# (.NET), Avalonia UI, Entity Framework Core, and PostgreSQL. The project simulates real-world academic administration workflows such as user management, course enrollment, scheduling, events, and administrative logging.

The system supports three distinct roles — Admin, Student, and Teacher — each with its own permissions, menus, and responsibilities. DawsonDial was designed with clean architecture principles, strong separation of concerns, and secure authentication practices.

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User Roles & Features

Authentication & Access Control

• Login as Admin, Student, or Teacher
• Register directly as a Student from the application
• Secure password hashing using PBKDF2 (SHA-256) with salt
• Role-based menu routing and access enforcement

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Admin Features

Admin Menu

Admins have full control over the system through a centralized admin interface.

Profile

• View personal profile information
• Update profile details
• Reset password

Admin Logs

• View a complete audit log of all admin actions
• Logs include action description, timestamp, and responsible admin

User Management

• View all users in the system
• Create new users (Admin, Student, Teacher)
• Update user information
• Enable or disable user accounts

Room Management

• View all rooms
• Create new rooms
• Modify room details

Course Management

• View all courses
• Create new courses
• Modify course information

Event Management

• View all events
• Create and update events

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Student Features

Student Menu

Profile

• View and update profile information
• Change password

Courses

• View all available courses
• Enroll in a course
• View enrolled courses
• Drop courses

Scheduling & Conferences

• View available conferences
• Book teacher meetings
• View personal schedule
• View upcoming conferences and meetings

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Teacher Features

Teacher Menu

Profile

• View and update profile information

Courses

• View assigned courses

Scheduling

• Manage availability and schedules

Events

• View and manage events related to assigned courses

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Technical Features

• Role-based navigation and authorization
• Secure password hashing and verification
• PostgreSQL relational database with EF Core migrations
• Admin activity logging with cascading relations
• Repository and service-layer architecture
• MVVM pattern with Avalonia UI
• Strong separation between GUI, services, and data layers

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Technology Stack

Backend & Core

• C# (.NET)
• Entity Framework Core
• PostgreSQL

Frontend

• Avalonia UI (XAML)
• MVVM Architecture

Security

• PBKDF2 password hashing (SHA-256)
• Environment-based database configuration

Tooling

• Docker (PostgreSQL)
• Git / GitHub

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Project Structure

DawsonDial/
├── DawsonDial/              # Core application logic
│   ├── Controllers/         # Application controllers
│   ├── Helpers/             # Utility helpers
│   ├── Migrations/          # EF Core migrations
│   ├── Models/              # Domain models (People, Rooms, Events, etc.)
│   ├── Repositories/        # Data access layer (interfaces & implementations)
│   ├── Security/            # Password hashing & security utilities
│   ├── Services/            # Business logic & service layer
│   └── Views/               # Core views / handlers
│
├── DawsonDialGUI/           # Desktop UI (Avalonia)
│   ├── Assets/              # Images and static assets
│   ├── Converters/          # XAML value converters
│   ├── ViewModels/          # MVVM ViewModels
│   └── Views/               # XAML Views
│
├── DawsonDialTests/         # Unit tests
│   ├── ManagerService/      # Service-level tests
│   └── Models/              # Model tests
│
├── db_cred.sh               # Database environment variables
├── docker-compose.yml       # PostgreSQL container setup
└── README.md                # Project documentation

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Running the Project Locally

⚠️ Important: This project requires multiple setup steps due to database configuration and environment variables.

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK
• PostgreSQL or Docker
• Git

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1. Clone the Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd DawsonDial

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2. Start PostgreSQL (Docker Recommended)

docker-compose up -d

This will start PostgreSQL on port 5432.

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3. Load Database Environment Variables

Using Git Bash:

source ./db_cred.sh

This exports:

• POSTGRES_HOST
• POSTGRES_DB
• POSTGRES_USER
• POSTGRES_PASSWORD
• POSTGRES_PORT

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4. Apply Database Migrations

dotnet ef database update --project DawsonDial --startup-project DawsonDial

This creates all required tables.

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5. Run the Application

dotnet run --project DawsonDialGUI

The desktop application will launch.

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Demo

A full demo walkthrough of the application is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVbZ24Strk

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Final Notes

DawsonDial demonstrates advanced C# application architecture, secure authentication, database integration, and a complete role-based desktop UI suitable for real-world academic systems.