Research Registry API

This project is a Django REST API for managing research studies, participants, and applications. It simulates a backend service that could be used in a research environment to register studies, collect participant applications, and manage approval workflows.

The project is built with Django, Django REST Framework, PostgreSQL, and Docker.

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Features

• Custom user model with roles (admin / researcher)
• Study management
• Participant management
• Application workflow
• Approve / reject actions
• Object-level permissions
• Filtering, search, ordering, pagination
• Seed demo data
• Docker setup with PostgreSQL
• Ready for Gunicorn + Nginx deployment

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Tech Stack

• Python 3
• Django
• Django REST Framework
• PostgreSQL
• Docker / Docker Compose
• django-filter

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Project Structure

backend/ accounts/ studies/ participants/ applications/ core/ research_registry/

docker-compose.yml start.sh README.md

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Setup

1. Clone repository

git clone cd research_registry

2. Create env file

cp .env.example .env

Edit values if needed.

3. Start with docker

./start.sh

or manually

docker compose up --build

4. Run migrations

docker compose exec web python manage.py migrate

5. Initialize roles

docker compose exec web python manage.py init_roles

6. Seed demo data

docker compose exec web python manage.py seed_demo_data

7. Create superuser

docker compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

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API

Base URL

http://localhost:8000/api/

Examples

GET /api/studies/ GET /api/studies/?search=memory GET /api/studies/?status=active GET /api/studies/?page=2

POST /api/applications/1/approve/ POST /api/applications/1/reject/

GET /api/me/

Browsable API

http://localhost:8000/api-auth/login/

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Permissions

Admin:

• full access

Researcher:

• access only own studies and applications

Anonymous:

• read-only

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Development

Run shell

docker compose exec web python manage.py shell

Run tests

docker compose exec web python manage.py test

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Future Improvements

• JWT authentication
• Export CSV
• File uploads
• Study tags
• Email notifications
• Logging
• Audit trail
• Production deployment with Gunicorn + Nginx

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License

Example project for learning Python and Django.