FoodShare: Community Food Sharing System

Project Overview

FoodShare is a full-stack, database-driven web application designed to combat food waste and enhance community support by creating an efficient platform for sharing surplus food. The system manages the entire lifecycle of a donation, from listing and securing requests to volunteer assignment and final delivery confirmation.

Tech Stack & Architecture

This project is built using a classic, robust LAMP-like stack (Linux/Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) for simplicity and reliability.

Category	Technology	Role & Details
Frontend	HTML, CSS, JavaScript	Provides a modern, responsive user interface. Utilizes custom CSS (style.css) for consistent theming.
Backend	PHP	Handles all session management, business logic, and database interaction. Focuses on simple, direct execution.
Database	MySQL	Stores user data, food donations, requests, and administrative logs.
Server	XAMPP	Provides the necessary local development environment, including Apache (web server) and MySQL (database).

Key Security & Integrity Features

After hardening the application, the following security and data integrity measures are implemented:

1. SQL Injection Prevention: All critical database operations (Login, Registration, Data Insertion, Updates, Deletions) utilize MySQLi Prepared Statements and parameter binding to treat user input as data, not executable code.

2. Transactional Integrity: The Request Module uses database transactions (BEGIN TRANSACTION, COMMIT, ROLLBACK) to ensure that quantity subtraction and request insertion either both succeed or both fail, preventing phantom inventory or data corruption.

3. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Mitigation: All user-supplied data displayed on the dashboard is passed through htmlspecialchars() for output escaping.

Detailed Feature Modules

1. Multi-Role User Authentication

• Roles: Supports Donor, Receiver, Volunteer, and Admin roles, each routed to a dedicated dashboard upon successful login.
• Navigation: Includes Home links on the login/registration pages for easy navigation.

2. Donor Dashboard (Inventory Management & Feedback)

• Control: Donors can Edit or Delete their listed donations, but only if the item status is 'Available' (preventing disruption of active deliveries).
• Feedback/Notifications: Displays "Thank You" notifications for all past donations that have been successfully marked as Delivered.

3. Receiver Dashboard (Quantity-Based Requesting)

• Real-Time View: Displays only Available items with remaining quantity.
• Quantity Input: Receivers submit requests using a number input box that validates against the maximum available stock.
• Request Logic: The system uses a transaction to securely subtract the requested quantity from the total stock. If the quantity reaches zero, the item status is set to 'Unavailable'.

4. Admin Dashboard (Workflow Control & Logging)

• Workflow Tabs: The dashboard is structured into three dedicated views for clear status management: Pending, In Progress, and Delivered.
• Automatic Logging: All Admin actions (Accept, Decline, Assign) are automatically logged into the admin_logs table.

5. Volunteer Dashboard (Delivery Management)

• Task View: Displays only requests that have been explicitly Assigned to the logged-in volunteer.
• Status Update: Volunteers manage the delivery progress by updating the status from Assigned $\rightarrow$ Picked Up $\rightarrow$ Delivered.
• Seamless Operation: Uses iframe target fixes to ensure action buttons execute and refresh the main dashboard without nesting.

Setup & Installation

1. Clone or Download this repository.
2. Install XAMPP (or equivalent WAMP/MAMP stack).
3. Place Files: Move the project folder into your XAMPP's htdocs directory.
4. Database Setup:
   • Open phpMyAdmin (via XAMPP Control Panel).
   • Create a new database named community_food_sharing_login.
   • Import the provided community_food_sharing_login.sql file.
5. Access: Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost/FoodShare/index.html (assuming "FoodShare" is your project folder name).

Developed By

• Ashwin Joseph Monteiro