Client Side Desktop App

Flutter desktop client for exam/assignment display and control. The app connects to a backend over WebSocket, receives activation/deactivation/timer events, fetches exam and student details through REST APIs, and renders information on a large-screen dashboard UI.

Screenshots

Features

• Desktop-oriented layout with a left announcements panel and center student/timer cards.
• Persistent device identity: prompts once for PC name and saves it locally.
• Real-time backend communication over WebSocket.
• Activation flow to load live exam + student data from REST endpoints.
• Deactivation flow to reset the UI to sample values.
• Live timer updates from backend (seconds -> HH:MM:SS).

Tech Stack

• Flutter (Dart SDK >= 3.4.3 < 4.0.0)
• web_socket_channel for WebSocket communication
• http for REST API calls
• path_provider for local file storage (pc_name.txt)

Project Structure

• Main application entry and UI logic: lib/main.dart
• App icon/logo asset: assets/itfac-logo.png
• Flutter configuration and dependencies: pubspec.yaml

Runtime Behavior

1) First launch

• If no saved PC name exists, a dialog asks the user to enter one.
• Value is saved to application documents directory as pc_name.txt.

2) WebSocket connection

• App connects to:
  • ws://bcca-112-135-76-91.ngrok-free.app
• Immediately sends the saved/entered PC name to backend.

3) Incoming socket messages

• activate,<studentIndex>,<examId>
  • Sends activate_received
  • Fetches exam details from /api/v1/exams/{examId}
  • Fetches student details from /api/v1/students/{studentIndex}
• deactivate
  • Resets screen data to sample placeholders
  • Sends deactivate_received
• timer,<seconds>
  • Updates countdown text in HH:MM:SS
  • Sends timer_received

API Endpoints Used

• GET https://bcca-112-135-76-91.ngrok-free.app/api/v1/exams/{examId}
• GET https://bcca-112-135-76-91.ngrok-free.app/api/v1/students/{studentId}

The current implementation sends these headers:

• Content-Type: application/json
• Authorization: Bearer "ngrok-skip-browser-warning": "69420"

Prerequisites

• Flutter SDK installed and available in PATH
• A desktop target enabled (Windows, macOS, or Linux)

Check setup:

flutter doctor

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository.
2. Install dependencies:

flutter pub get

3. Run on your desktop platform:

flutter run -d windows

Use macos or linux target instead if needed.

Build

Windows

flutter build windows

macOS

flutter build macos

Linux

flutter build linux

Development Notes

• This code currently keeps backend URLs and auth-related header values hardcoded in lib/main.dart.
• Consider moving environment-specific settings to a config layer (for example, compile-time defines via --dart-define) for safer deployments.

Troubleshooting

• If the app cannot connect, verify the WebSocket host is reachable and still active.
• If data is not displayed after activation, check backend API responses for the provided IDs.
• If the PC name prompt appears repeatedly, ensure app has permission to write to its documents directory.

License

No license file is currently defined in this repository.