Habit Track

Habit Track is a web-based habit tracking system developed as a final year project for the Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) program at D.A.V. College, Tribhuvan University.

About

Habit Track lets users organize habits into categories, break them into subtasks, log daily activity, and automatically track current and longest streaks. Reminders and calendar events are generated from subtask activity, giving users a simple, unified view of their daily progress.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Backend: PHP 8.2
• Email: PHPMailer
• Database: MySQL
• Containerization: Docker & Docker Compose
• Web server: Apache (php:8.2-apache)
• Version control: Git & GitHub
• Design: Figma (desktop wireframes)
• Diagramming: draw.io, Excalidraw

Features

Implemented

• Secure user registration (CSRF protection, input validation, password hashing)
• Email verification for new accounts with Gmail/SMTP delivery, verification links, and six-digit OTP fallback
• Secure login (session-based auth, generic error messaging, session regeneration)
• Logout with full session and cookie cleanup
• Session-protected dashboard with habit overview and streak display
• Category CRUD with pagination and cascading deletes
• Habit CRUD with measurement types (boolean, count, duration, weight, distance, rating, steps, custom, money, time of day, score, volume, partial), target values, and frequency targets
• Subtask CRUD with optional flag, reordering, and logging
• Daily habit logging (dashboard toggle and subtask-level logging with value/unit)
• Automatic streak calculation (current and longest) on every log change
• Habit insights dashboard with weekly/monthly completion rates, missed days, streak KPIs, progress charts, and consistency ranking
• Bad habit progress tracking with value and notes
• Reminders linked to subtasks (once, daily, weekly) with pause/resume
• Calendar auto-populated from subtask activity with month grid and activity log
• Category-based expansion without altering the ER schema

Database Design

The system is built on a locked, 9-entity ER diagram:

Entity	Description
USER	Registered user accounts
EMAIL_VERIFICATION	Email verification tokens for new accounts
CATEGORY	User-defined habit categories
HABIT	Individual habits under a category
SUBTASK	Breakdown items within a habit
HABIT_LOG	Daily completion records
STREAK	Auto-calculated current and longest streak per habit
BAD_HABIT_PROGRESS	Progress tracking for habits marked "bad"
REMINDER	Reminders linked to subtasks
CALENDAR_EVENT	Calendar entries auto-generated from subtask activity

Future modules (Finance, Health, Goals) will be added as CATEGORY values with their own HABIT/SUBTASK entries — no new entities will be introduced.

Project Structure

habit-track/
├── apache.conf
├── composer.json
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── index.php                  # Landing page and application entry point
├── landing.css
├── assets/
│   ├── css/
│   ├── images/
│   └── js/
├── includes/
│   ├── auth.php
│   ├── csrf.php
│   ├── db.php
│   ├── functions.php
│   └── logo.php
├── modules/
│   ├── auth/
│   │   ├── login.php
│   │   ├── logout.php
│   │   ├── register.php
│   │   ├── resend-verification.php
│   │   └── verify-email.php
│   ├── calendar/
│   │   ├── Calendar.php
│   │   ├── Calendar.css
│   │   └── Calendar.js
│   ├── categories/
│   │   ├── categories.php
│   │   └── categories.css
│   ├── dashboard/
│   │   ├── dashboard.php
│   │   └── dashboard.css
│   ├── habits/
│   │   ├── habits.php
│   │   ├── habits.css
│   │   └── habits.js
│   ├── bad-habit-progress/
│   │   ├── bad-habit-progress.php
│   │   └── bad-habit-progress.css
│   ├── reminders/
│   │   ├── reminders.php
│   │   └── reminders.css
│   └── subtasks/
│       ├── subtasks.php
│       └── subtasks.css
├── sql/
│   └── schema.sql              # MySQL schema loaded on first database start
└── vendor/                     # Composer dependencies

Setup Instructions

Docker (recommended)

Prerequisites: Docker Desktop with Docker Compose.

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Samuk515/Habit-Track.git
   cd Habit-Track

2. Start the application stack:

   docker compose up --build

3. Open the application at http://localhost:8080.
4. Create an account from the Sign Up link, or go directly to http://localhost:8080/modules/auth/register.php.

The stack includes:

Service	Address	Purpose
Habit Track	http://localhost:8080	PHP application
phpMyAdmin	http://localhost:8081	Database administration
Mailpit	http://localhost:8025	Local email inbox
MySQL	localhost:3307	Database access from the host

The MySQL database is initialized from sql/schema.sql the first time the database volume is created. To recreate the database from the schema, remove the existing volume before starting the stack again:

docker compose down -v
docker compose up --build

Local PHP development

1. Install PHP 8.2+, MySQL 8+, Composer, and Apache.
2. Install the PHP dependency:

   composer install

3. Create the habit_track_db database and import sql/schema.sql.
4. Configure the database environment variables used by includes/db.php, then serve the repository root through Apache.

The Docker development credentials are root / root. Do not reuse these credentials in a production deployment.

Email Verification

New users must verify their email before logging in. The verification email contains both a link and a six-digit OTP. To use the OTP, open the application's Verify account with email OTP page, enter the registration email and code, then log in.

For local development, Docker sends email to Mailpit. After registering, open http://localhost:8025 and open the verification message. The OTP verification page is available at http://localhost:8080/modules/auth/verify-email.php.

For a non-Docker or production deployment, configure these environment variables in your server environment. When using Docker Compose, put them in a .env file next to docker-compose.yml so verification emails go to real inboxes instead of the local Mailpit inbox:

APP_URL=http://localhost:8080
SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_SECURE=tls
SMTP_USERNAME=your-smtp-user
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-smtp-password
MAIL_FROM=no-reply@example.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Habit Track"

APP_URL must be the URL that the recipient can open. For another user, do not leave it as http://localhost:8080; use the application's public HTTPS URL. Restart the web container after changing .env with docker compose up -d --build web.

SMTP_SECURE should be tls for a typical port 587 provider. For Mailpit, leave it empty and use port 1025. Never commit real SMTP credentials to the repository.

Project Status

The core Habit Track application is complete, including authentication, Gmail/SMTP email delivery, OTP verification, habits, subtasks, logging, streaks, reminders, calendar integration, and dashboard insights.

Next Steps

1. Deploy the Docker application to a server with a public HTTPS domain.
2. Set APP_URL to that public domain so verification links work for other users.
3. Configure production SMTP credentials in the server environment or an ignored .env file.
4. Replace the development MySQL and phpMyAdmin credentials before production use.
5. Back up the database and test registration, OTP verification, login, password handling, and account recovery on the deployed system.

Development

PHP dependencies are managed with Composer. JavaScript and CSS are served directly by Apache; there is no frontend build step.

Useful commands:

# Start the application and follow logs
docker compose up

# Stop the application without deleting database data
docker compose down

# Check the PHP dependency tree
composer show

Development Roadmap

This project follows an iterative development model:

• Iteration 1 — User Authentication
• Iteration 2 — Habit and Category Management
• Iteration 3 — Subtask and Logging
• Iteration 4 — Streak Calculation
• Iteration 5 — Reminders
• Iteration 6 — Calendar Integration

Author

Samir Singh BCA, D.A.V. College — Tribhuvan University