README.md

Geekster Dashboard with Next.js and Tailwind CSS

Description

This project implements a secure and responsive web application using Next.js and Tailwind CSS. It features a login page and a protected advanced dashboard.

Features

• Login Page: Allows users to log in with a username and password.
• Protected Dashboard: Accessible only to authenticated users.
• Responsive Design: Ensured through Tailwind CSS, the application is responsive and looks good on both desktop and mobile devices.
• Logout Functionality: Users can log out and be redirected to the login page which contains form validation for username and password.
• Middleware Protection: Ensures that only authenticated users can access the dashboard.
• Session Management: Authentication state is persisted across page reloads using cookies. The session reloads in 1 hour.

Approach

1. Authentication: Implemented a simple hardcoded authentication mechanism using Next in-built API route for login and logout.
2. Protected Routes: Used Next.js middleware to protect the dashboard route and redirect unauthenticated users to the login page.
3. State Management: Managed authentication state using cookies to persist the user's login state across page reloads.
4. Styling: Utilized Tailwind CSS for quick and efficient styling of the components to ensure a responsive design.
5. Componentization: Broke down the dashboard into reusable components such as Sidebar, Table, Dynamic Columns for better code organization and maintainability.
6. Extra functionalities: Implemented a advance table with data and Dynamic columns.

Challenges

• Integrating the Next built in API: I had never used it so reading the documentation and implementing it was a big task.
• State Persistence: Ensuring that the authentication state persisted across page reloads required careful handling of cookies and server-side checks.
• Middleware Configuration: Configuring the middleware to correctly handle route protection and redirects based on authentication state was critical for security.
• Responsive Design: Ensuring the application looked good on various screen sizes required detailed styling adjustments with Tailwind CSS.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (>= 14.x)
• npm (>= 6.x) or Yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Ojas13-git/geekster-dashboard.git
   cd geekster-dashboard
   

2.Install dependencies:

npm install
or
yarn install

3.Set up environment variables:

4. Start the development server:

   npm run dev
   # or
   yarn dev

5. Authentication details:

   Username: admin
   password: admin123

ScreenShots