Lost and Found Management System
A centralized Lost and Found Management System with reporting, claims, notifications, and admin moderation
Problem
Lost and found items at HCDC were reported informally, word of mouth, group chats, bulletin boards. No central record meant items went unclaimed and disputes had no audit trail.
Solution
HCDC Lost and Found Management System is a full-stack web application built as an academic project to streamline lost and found reporting within an organization. The platform allows users to report lost or found items, upload images, interact through claims and comments, and receive real-time notifications. An admin dashboard enables moderation, report validation, and status management to ensure accurate and secure item recovery.
Role
Sole Full Stack Developer
Stack
- React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Shadcn/ui
- Django REST Framework
- PostgreSQL
- Cloudinary
Key Features
- 01
User authentication and profile management
- 02
Create and manage lost and found item reports
- 03
Image uploads using Cloudinary
- 04
Item claiming system with activity and resolution logs
- 05
Real-time notifications for claims and report updates
- 06
Commenting system for report discussions
- 07
Admin dashboard for report review, approval, and moderation
- 08
Role-based access control (user and admin roles)
- 09
Responsive UI with light, dark, and system theme support
03 / Technical Decisions
- 01 /
Role-based access at the API layer, not just the UI: admin-only endpoints validate the role on every request so a user who inspects the frontend cannot call moderation routes directly.
- 02 /
Cloudinary for image uploads: offloads resizing and storage from the Django server, keeping the API layer stateless and the server footprint small.
- 03 /
Real-time notifications via polling rather than WebSockets: the notification surface (claim updates, report status) does not need sub-second latency, and polling avoids maintaining a persistent connection on a shared hosting environment.
Screenshots
