RemoteTeamPro

A lightweight, self-hosted Remote Team Management System — built with PHP & MySQL for small to medium teams.
Centralizes project coordination, task tracking, attendance & timesheets, internal messaging, notifications, client portals, and basic reporting — all without subscriptions or cloud dependency.

Run it locally with XAMPP or on any shared LAMP/LEMP host.

Key Features • Technology Stack • User Roles • Installation • Usage • API Documentation • Troubleshooting • Contributing • Contributors • License

Screenshots

Home / Landing Page – Welcome screen with login/register options

Admin dashboard with analytics, user management, and reports

Manager view: creating projects, assigning tasks, monitoring team progress

Employee interface: updating task status, logging attendance & hours

Client portal: viewing milestones, downloading reports, messaging manager

✨ Key Features

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) — Four roles: Admin, Manager, Employee, Client — each with tailored dashboards and strict permissions
• User Management — Secure registration with OTP email verification, password reset, profile picture upload, activity logging
• Project & Task Management — Create projects, assign tasks with deadlines, track real-time progress and status updates
• Attendance & Timesheets — Check-in/out logging, task-linked hours, manager review, automatic cron-based checkout for open sessions
• Internal Messaging — Role-aware conversations, send/fetch messages, mark as read, auto-seeded conversations for new users
• Notifications — In-app alerts + email notifications for tasks, deadlines, messages (via PHPMailer)
• Client Portal — Project timelines, milestone tracking, report downloads, direct manager communication
• Reporting — Generate and export PDF reports (Dompdf), timesheet exports, performance analytics
• Advanced Auth — OTP flows for login, registration, password reset, email change verification
• Responsive & Clean UI — Works on desktop, tablet, mobile

💻 Technology Stack

• Backend — PHP (7.4+ recommended)
• Database — MySQL / MariaDB
• Frontend — HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (vanilla + custom loaders & notification scripts)
• Libraries
  • PHPMailer — reliable email / OTP delivery
  • Dompdf — PDF report generation
• Tools — Composer for dependency management, XAMPP for local development
• Server — Apache (XAMPP) or any LAMP/LEMP stack

👥 User Roles & Functionalities

Admin

• Full control: manage users, companies, projects, settings
• View activity logs, handle contact requests, generate reports
• System configuration (SMTP, notifications, etc.)

Manager

• Create/assign projects & tasks, monitor team progress
• Review attendance, timesheets, client requests
• Communicate with employees and clients

Employee

• View & update assigned tasks/projects
• Log daily attendance and task hours
• Send/receive messages, manage profile

Client

• View assigned project timelines and progress
• Download reports/PDFs
• Direct messaging with assigned manager
• Receive automated notifications

🛠️ Installation and Configuration

Prerequisites

• XAMPP (Apache + MySQL + PHP ≥7.4)
• Composer
• Git (optional)
• VS Code or any code editor

1. Clone / Extract the project
   Place the folder in your web root (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\RemoteTeamPro)

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/RemoteTeamPro.git

2. Install dependencies

   composer install

3. Database Setup

   • Start Apache & MySQL in XAMPP
   • Open http://localhost/phpmyadmin
   • Create a new database (e.g. remoteteampro)
   • Import database/schema.sql

4. Configure the application

   • Edit backend/config/database.php — set DB host, username, password, database name
   • Edit backend/config/smtp.php — configure Gmail / SMTP credentials (App Password recommended for Gmail)
   • Make sure uploads/profile_pictures/ is writable (chmod 755 or 775)

5. Launch

   Open browser:
   http://localhost/RemoteTeamPro

   Complete initial setup (create first company/admin via the UI).

For production: secure config files, enable HTTPS, harden permissions.

🚀 Usage

• Start XAMPP (Apache + MySQL)
• Go to http://localhost/RemoteTeamPro
• Register a new account (OTP verification required) or log in
• Create a company → invite users → start managing projects/tasks

Cron Job (recommended)
Schedule auto-checkout for unfinished attendance:

# Example: run every day at midnight
0 0 * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/RemoteTeamPro/backend/api/attendance/auto-checkout-cron.php

🔌 API Documentation

The backend exposes REST-like endpoints in backend/api/. All endpoints require authentication (session or OTP) and use JSON for requests/responses. Base URL: /RemoteTeamPro/backend/api/.

Endpoints are grouped by category. Use POST for most actions. Always include CSRF token where applicable.

Auth Endpoints

Handles login, registration, OTP verification, password reset, etc.

Endpoint	Method	Description	Parameters	Response
auth/login.php	POST	User login	email, password	{ "success": true, "user": {...} } or error
auth/register.php	POST	Register new user	email, password, role	Success with OTP sent
auth/verify-otp.php	POST	Verify OTP	otp, email	{ "verified": true }
auth/forgot-password.php	POST	Request password reset	email	OTP sent
auth/reset-password.php	POST	Reset password	otp, new_password	Success
auth/logout.php	POST	Logout user	None	{ "logged_out": true }
auth/change-email.php	POST	Change email	new_email	OTP sent for verification

Attendance Endpoints

For logging and managing attendance/timesheets.

Endpoint	Method	Description	Parameters	Response
attendance/attendance-employee.php	POST	Employee check-in/out	action: 'checkin' or 'checkout', task_id (optional)	{ "status": "checked_in" }
attendance/attendance-manager.php	GET	Manager view timesheets	employee_id (optional)	Array of timesheets
attendance/auto-checkout-cron.php	GET	Auto-checkout open sessions (cron)	None	Success log

Messages Endpoints

For internal chat and notifications.

Endpoint	Method	Description	Parameters	Response
messages/send_message.php	POST	Send message	conversation_id, message	{ "sent": true }
messages/fetch_messages.php	GET	Fetch chat history	conversation_id	Array of messages
messages/fetch_conversations.php	GET	List conversations	None	Array of conversations
messages/mark_read.php	POST	Mark message read	message_id	Success

Reports Endpoints

For generating and exporting reports.

Endpoint	Method	Description	Parameters	Response
reports/generate-report.php	POST	Generate report	type: 'timesheet' or 'project', filters	Report data
reports/export-pdf.php	GET	Export as PDF	report_id	PDF file download
reports/send-report-mail.php	POST	Email report	report_id, email	Success

Other Endpoints

• users.php (GET/POST): Manage users (list/create/update)
• projects.php (GET/POST): Manage projects/tasks
• dashboard/admin-dashboard.php (GET): Admin stats
• profile/upload_profile_picture.php (POST): Upload avatar
• Full list: See backend/api/ directory for all files.

Notes:

• Authentication: Use session cookie after login.
• Error Handling: Responses include { "error": "message", "code": 400 }.
• Rate Limiting: Not implemented; add in production.
• Testing: Use Postman with base URL http://localhost/RemoteTeamPro/backend/api/.
  For full OpenAPI spec, generate with Swagger (future enhancement).

⚠️ Troubleshoot

Email / OTP not sending
Causes & Fixes:

1. Wrong Gmail address or App Password in backend/config/smtp.php
2. Gmail blocked "less secure apps" — use App Password
3. Run composer update && composer install if PHPMailer issues persist

Database connection error / Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception
Causes & Fixes:

1. MySQL service stopped → start it in XAMPP
2. Wrong credentials in backend/config/database.php
3. Database not created or schema not imported

Pages not loading / blank
Causes & Fixes:

1. PHP version < 7.4 → upgrade XAMPP
2. Missing vendor/ folder → run composer install again
3. Check backend/logs/ for detailed PHP errors

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

• Fork the repo
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
• Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
• Open a Pull Request

Please update documentation / schema if needed.

🙏 Acknowledgements

• PHPMailer — powerful email library
• Dompdf — clean PDF generation
• Tailwind CSS & Chart.js — modern styling & visuals (if used)

👥 Contributors

Big thanks to the core team:

• Ribin K Roy — Main Contributor
• Kevin Cyriac — Co-Developer

License

Distributed under the MIT License.
See LICENSE for full details.
Free to use, modify, and distribute.