BudgetBuddy

BudgetBuddy is a secure, user-friendly personal finance tracker application designed for young adults and students to manage their financial data privately.

The backend, built with Java and Spring Boot, handles core functionality including user authentication, profile management, financial account CRUD operations, and transaction management. The frontend, developed in React.js with Chart.js, provides intuitive UI components such as forms for signup/login, account/transaction entry, and an interactive dashboard displaying spending visualizations.

Features

Backend Features (Java/Spring Boot)

• User Authentication & Profile Management (Epic 1): Secure registration with email/password validation, login/logout with JWT tokens, and profile view/update (name, email, password).
• Financial Account Management (Epic 2): Add, view, edit, and delete accounts (name, type, balance) with strict ownership checks to ensure data privacy.
• Transaction Management (Epic 3):
  • Log new transactions (amount, type: income/expense, category, date, description).
  • Automatic balance updates on create/edit/delete.
  • Transaction history with filtering (by category), sorting (date/amount asc/desc), and pagination.
• Interactive Dashboard (Epic 4): A single summary endpoint providing total balance, recent transactions (top 10), monthly income/expense aggregates, and category spending (last 6 months).

Frontend Features (React.js)

• Authentication: Signup and login forms with validation and password strength indicators.
• Profile Page: Interface for viewing and updating user information.
• Account Management: Forms to add, edit, or delete accounts and a list view.
• Transaction Entry: Intuitive forms with dropdowns for type, category, and account.
• History View: A responsive, paginated, and filterable transaction history table.
• Dashboard: Visual layout featuring pie charts for spending categories and bar charts for income vs. expense trends.

Technologies Used

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React.js, Chart.js, Tailwind CSS
Backend	Java, Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA, Spring Security (JWT & Hashing)
Database	PostgreSQL (Users, Accounts, Transactions tables)
Tools	GitHub, Jira, Maven

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed before starting:

• Java JDK: Version 17+
• Node.js: Version 16+ (includes npm)
• PostgreSQL: Version 13+ (Local or hosted, e.g., Railway)
• Maven: Version 3.8+

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Setup Instructions

1. Backend Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/your-repo/budgetbuddy.git](https://github.com/your-repo/budgetbuddy.git)
   cd budgetbuddy/backend

2. Configuration: Update src/main/resources/application.properties with your PostgreSQL details and JWT secret:

   spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/budgetbuddy
   spring.datasource.username=your_username
   spring.datasource.password=your_password
   jwt.secret=your_secure_secret_key

3. Run Migrations: If using Flyway, run migrations automatically. Otherwise, manually execute SQL scripts located in db/migrations/ via psql.

4. Build and Run:

   mvn clean install
   mvn spring-boot:run

   The backend will start on http://localhost:8080.

2. Frontend Setup

1. Navigate to the frontend directory:

   cd ../frontend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Configuration: Configure the API base URL in src/services/api.js:

   const API_URL = "http://localhost:8080/api";

4. Run the application:

   npm start

   The frontend will run on http://localhost:3000.

3. Database Setup

1. Create the database:

   CREATE DATABASE budgetbuddy;

2. Initialize Schema: Run the provided SQL scripts via psql or pgAdmin:

   • V1__create_users_table.sql
   • V2__create_accounts_table.sql
   • V3__create_transactions_table.sql

   Note: The application uses spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update for automatic schema updates during development.

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Running the Application

1. Start the Backend (mvn spring-boot:run).
2. Start the Frontend (npm start).
3. Open your browser to http://localhost:3000.
4. Workflow: Sign up, log in, add accounts, log transactions, and view the dashboard visualizations.

Testing

Backend Tests

Run all unit and integration tests (Controllers, Services, Repositories):

cd backend
mvn test

Authors

• Gavin Barro
• Rhys Jones