The original registration system for the Student Science Conference was built using procedural PHP. While functional, it lacks structure, flexibility, and scalability. It can only be managed by a single person, making maintenance and collaboration difficult. The goal of my semester project was to modernize this system by redesigning it using the Laravel PHP framework and implementing a structured, maintainable, and user-friendly web application.
Laravel was chosen for its clean architecture, active community, and easy use of various packages. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which encourages the separation of data handling, application logic, and the user interface. This structure makes the application easier to understand, update, and expand, especially when multiple developers are involved. Laravel also provides tools for routing, validation, authentication, and integration with third-party plugins, which helped with the development process.
A major improvement over the original version is the introduction of user accounts. In the past, users received a unique email link to edit their submissions, which was an unreliable method that often failed if the email was lost or never delivered. The new system replaces this with secure login and account-based submission management. Users can now register as either university or high school students and, depending on their selection, submit a contribution or a poster. Submissions can be edited directly within the system, eliminating the need for email-based access.
The system defines three roles: Admin, Editor, and User. Admins have access to full system management, including handling registrations, user accounts, conference sessions, and generating documents such as programs, certificates, and result summaries in PDF or Excel format. Editors share some admin privileges but only within their assigned sessions, where they can manage contributions and leave feedback. Users, the conference attendees, can register and edit their submissions and receive notifications about their review status or session assignments.
Additional features include support for English and Slovak language versions, email and in-app notifications, and GDPR compliant data handling during registration. Users are also required to provide banking details in case of awards. The interface is role-specific and includes navigation tools, search functionality, and dynamic content display depending on the user’s access rights.
At this stage, user registration, login, submission forms, and multilingual support are complete. The next phase includes finishing the review workflow, expanding automated output generation, and creating APIs for integration with other systems. The ultimate goal is to extend this system into a robust platform for managing the larger and more complex Process Control conference.