Project Time Tracker

Project Time Tracker is a simple web application to manage and track project times, developed by Thomas Vannier.
It allows you to:

• Add, edit, and delete projects
• Track active and finished projects
• Assign researchers and engineers
• Record time automatically with a timer or manually
• Visualize project distribution with charts
• Save and persist your work on the server

The app runs inside a Docker container with a Node.js/Express backend that stores data in a projects.json file.
It is served behind a Caddy reverse proxy.

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Features

• Dynamic front-end (HTML + JavaScript + Chart.js)
• Backend API to persist data (/api/projects)
• Projects stored in JSON for simplicity
• Dockerized deployment (easy to run anywhere)
• Reverse proxy compatible (tested with Caddy)

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Getting Started

Requirements

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Password Configuration

The app requires a password to be set before running. A template file named password.setup.env is provided in the repository.

Steps:

1. Rename password.setup.env to password.env:

mv password.setup.env password.env

2. Open password.env and set your password and session secret:

PASSWORD=your_password
SESSION_SECRET=put_a_long_random_string_here_min_32_chars

Important: The password.env file is not tracked by Git (it is listed in .gitignore). Never commit it to the repository.

Build and Run

Clone the repository and run:

docker-compose build
docker-compose up -d

The app will be available at:

http://localhost:4020

(or your reverse proxy domain if configured with Caddy).

API Endpoints

GET /api/projects

Returns all stored projects as JSON.

POST /api/projects

Saves the given projects array to projects.json.

Request body example:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Example Project",
    "researchers": ["Alice"],
    "engineers": ["Thomas Vannier"],
    "institute": "IBDM",
    "submissionDate": "2025-09-22",
    "startDate": "2025-09-22",
    "endDate": "",
    "totalHours": "02:30:00",
    "lastUpdate": "2025-09-22",
    "category": "Bioinformatics",
    "status": "active"
  }
]

Project Structure

.
├── Dockerfile         # Node.js + Express server
├── docker-compose.yml # Deployment configuration
├── server.js          # Backend server logic
├── index.html         # Front-end (HTML + JS)
├── projects.json      # Data persistence file
└── README.md          # Project documentation

Author

Developed by Thomas Vannier.