FocusFlow — Productivity SaaS Backend (Django REST Framework)

FocusFlow is a multi-user productivity SaaS backend built using Django and Django REST Framework (DRF). The project demonstrates scalable backend architecture, secure API design, and real-world SaaS patterns.

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Project Overview

FocusFlow allows users to organize work using a hierarchical structure:

User → Workspace → Project → Task

Each user can create workspaces, manage projects, track tasks, and view productivity analytics through a dashboard API.

This project was built to practice real backend engineering concepts such as:

• REST API architecture
• Authentication & permissions
• Relational data modeling
• API performance optimization

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Tech Stack

• Python
• Django
• Django REST Framework
• SQLite (development)
• django-filter

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Features

Authentication & Permissions

• Authenticated API access
• Object-level permissions
• Owner-based data filtering

Core Modules

• Workspaces
• Projects
• Tasks
• Dashboard analytics

Advanced API Capabilities

• Pagination
• Filtering (?is_completed=true)
• Search (?search=keyword)
• Ordering (?ordering=-created_at)
• Custom actions (mark_complete)

Performance Improvements

• Optimized queries using select_related
• Clean serializer responses with nested fields

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API Endpoints

Workspaces

GET    /api/workspaces/
POST   /api/workspaces/
PATCH  /api/workspaces/{id}/
DELETE /api/workspaces/{id}/

Projects

GET    /api/projects/
POST   /api/projects/

Tasks

GET    /api/tasks/
POST   /api/tasks/
POST   /api/tasks/{id}/mark_complete/

Dashboard

GET /api/dashboard/

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🧪 Query Examples

Filter completed tasks:

/api/tasks/?is_completed=true

Search tasks:

/api/tasks/?search=array

Order tasks:

/api/tasks/?ordering=-created_at

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🏗️ Project Structure

focusflow/
├── workspaces/
├── projects/
├── tasks/
├── dashboard/
└── config/

The project follows a domain-based app structure instead of a single API app, making it scalable and closer to real production backends.

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▶️ Getting Started

1️⃣ Create virtual environment

python -m venv env
source env/Scripts/activate

2️⃣ Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3️⃣ Run migrations

python manage.py migrate

4️⃣ Start server

python manage.py runserver

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🎯 Learning Goals

This project focuses on mastering:

• ModelViewSet vs APIView design
• Custom DRF actions
• Serializer customization
• Query optimization
• Clean API architecture

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📌 Future Improvements

• Team collaboration system
• Role-based permissions
• JWT authentication
• Deployment (Docker / Render / AWS)

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👨‍💻 Author

Kunal Yadav Backend Developer (Django + DRF)