Role-Based Login System in Django with MySQL

A secure, scalable Django web application that implements role-based login authentication using MySQL as the database backend. This project supports user roles like Counsellor, HOD, Accountant, and Principal, and redirects each to a custom dashboard after login. Perfect for college or institutional admission workflows, internal panels, or any system requiring controlled role access.

Key Features

• Role-based authentication using Django’s built-in User model
• Extend user data with a custom UserProfile model
• Secure login with role detection and dashboard redirection
• Role & user management via the Django Admin Panel
• MySQL integration for production-ready relational storage
• Environment variables for configuration using python-decouple
• Clean, modular app structure for easy scalability

Screenshots

Project Structure

Project Root (rolebasedlogin/)

File	Purpose
.env	Stores environment variables like DB_NAME, DB_USER, SECRET_KEY. Not tracked by Git (sensitive info).
.gitignore	Tells Git which files/folders to ignore (e.g. __pycache__, .env, *.pyc).
manage.py	Command-line utility to run/manage your Django project (e.g. runserver, migrate, createsuperuser).
README.md	Markdown file for project documentation on GitHub.

rolebasedlogin/ (project folder)

File	Purpose
__init__.py	Marks the folder as a Python package.
settings.py	Django project settings (installed apps, DB config, middleware, etc).
urls.py	Root URL routing configuration. Includes URLs from the users app.
asgi.py / wsgi.py	Entry points for serving the app with ASGI/WSGI servers in production. Leave untouched for now.

users/ (your app)

File	Purpose
__init__.py	Marks the users folder as a Python package.
admin.py	Registers UserProfile in Django Admin to assign roles to users.
apps.py	Django app config. Auto-generated. Rarely changed.
decorators.py	Custom decorators like @role_required to restrict access by user role.
forms.py	Contains LoginForm or any future custom forms.
models.py	Defines UserProfile model for storing roles (counsellor, hod, etc.).
signals.py	Automatically creates a UserProfile when a User is created (via Django signals).
tests.py	Placeholder for unit tests. You can ignore for now unless writing tests.
urls.py	Routes app-specific URLs like /user/login. Included in main urls.py.
views.py	Handles requests/responses. Contains login logic and role-based redirection.

Getting Started

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/rolebasedlogin.git cd rolebasedlogin

2. Set Up Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory with your database credentials:

DB_NAME=your_db_name
DB_USER=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306

3. Install Dependencies

pip install Django mysqlclient python-decouple

4. Run Migrations & Create Superuser

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

5. Start Development Server

python manage.py runserver

Visit: http://localhost:8000/user/

User Roles & Access

Each user must be assigned a role through the Django Admin Panel.

Role	URL Path	Access Page
Counsellor	/user/counsellor_dashboard/	Student enquiry & basic form
HOD	/user/hod_dashboard/	Department-level decisions
Accountant	/user/accountant_dashboard/	Payment verification
Principal	/user/principal_dashboard/	Final approval & admission print

How It Works

• Admin creates a user in the Django Admin Panel.
• A UserProfile is auto-generated via signals.
• Admin assigns a role (e.g., counsellor, hod).
• On login, user is authenticated and redirected to a role-specific dashboard.

Role-Based View Protection

Use the @role_required(['role1', 'role2']) decorator to restrict views:

@role_required(['hod'])
def hod_dashboard(request):

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! If you have ideas for new features or want to improve role handling, fork the repo and submit a PR.

If this project helps you, please give it a ⭐ on GitHub to support it!