MySchool Installation and Setup Guide

The MySchool system has two parts. The Laravel backend is a web application that runs on your server. It provides the admin panel for managing students, courses, fees, and all school data. It also provides the API that the mobile app connects to. The Flutter mobile app is the student-facing app for Android and iOS. Students use it to check their results, fees, timetable, attendance, and more.

Quick Start for Non-Technical Users

Never used a terminal or command line before? This section gets your school online using only your web browser and your hosting company's control panel (usually called cPanel). It skips ahead of the detailed sections below — come back to them later if you want to customise email, payments, or branding.

cd myschool && php artisan key:generate && php artisan migrate --seed && php artisan storage:link

That's it — your school's admin panel is live. See the Mobile App Setup section for a visual walkthrough of what students see when they open the app for the first time.

1Requirements

Server Requirements

Required PHP Extensions

Make sure these extensions are enabled in your php.ini:

pdo_mysql
mbstring
openssl
fileinfo
gd
curl
zip
exif

Mobile App Development Requirements

2Server Setup

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

npm install
npm run build

chmod -R 775 storage
chmod -R 775 bootstrap/cache

chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

3Database Setup

CREATE DATABASE myschool CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

cp .env.example .env

copy .env.example .env

php artisan key:generate

php artisan migrate

php artisan db:seed

==============================================
  DEFAULT ADMIN CREDENTIALS
----------------------------------------------
  Email    : admin@myschool.com
  Password : Admin@12345
----------------------------------------------
  IMPORTANT: Change this password immediately
  after your first login.
==============================================

php artisan db:seed --class=DemoDataSeeder

Manual Database Backup

Your MySchool database holds student records, grades, fees, and settings. Make a backup regularly (for example once a week, and always before a major update). The steps below use phpMyAdmin, which is available on most shared hosting panels and local setups such as XAMPP — no command line needed.

mysqldump -u your_db_user -p myschool > /path/to/backups/myschool-backup.sql

4Environment Configuration

Open the .env file in a text editor such as Visual Studio Code, Notepad++, Sublime Text, or any editor of your choice. This file controls all settings specific to your installation.

Application Settings

APP_NAME="Your School Name"
APP_ENV=production
APP_KEY=base64:...generated automatically...
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourschool.com
APP_TIMEZONE=Africa/Lagos

Common Timezone Values

Database Settings

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=myschool
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password

For XAMPP, the default username is root and the password is blank (leave DB_PASSWORD empty).

5Institution Settings

After logging into the admin panel, go to Settings > Institution Settings. These settings control what students see in the mobile app.

6Email Configuration

Email is required for the "Forgot Password" feature in the mobile app. Without it, students who forget their password have no way to recover their account.

General SMTP Setup

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.yourprovider.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=noreply@yourschool.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_email_password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="noreply@yourschool.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Your School Name"

Using Gmail

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=youraccount@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_app_password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="youraccount@gmail.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Your School Name"

Testing Your Email Configuration

After setting up, test by running this in your terminal from the backend folder:

php artisan tinker
Mail::raw('Test email', function($m) { $m->to('your@email.com')->subject('MySchool Test'); });

If you receive the email, the configuration is correct. Also check your spam folder if it does not arrive within a minute.

7Payment Portal Setup

MySchool does not process payments itself. The mobile app has a "Make Payment" button that opens an external payment link. This gives your institution full control over how payments are collected and reconciled.

How It Works

When a student has an outstanding fee balance, a "Make Payment" button appears on their fee screen. Tapping it opens the payment URL you configure in your browser. After paying, the student shows their receipt to the finance office, and an admin records the payment in the admin panel.

Step by Step

8AI Academic Advisor Setup

The AI Academic Advisor is an optional feature. All other features in the mobile app and admin panel work whether or not this is configured.

The system supports two AI providers: Anthropic Claude and OpenAI. You choose which one to use in the admin panel under Settings > AI Advisor. You only need to configure one.

Option A — Anthropic Claude (Recommended)

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here

Option B — OpenAI (ChatGPT)

To Disable the AI Advisor

Leave both API key fields blank in the admin panel settings. When students open the AI chat screen, they will see a message that the feature is unavailable. No other features are affected.

Estimated Cost

For a school of 500 students each sending 10 AI messages per day, the cost is typically under $5 per month with either provider. Monitor your actual usage in the respective console dashboard and set a spending limit to avoid unexpected charges.

9SMS Notifications Setup

SMS notifications are optional. When configured, the system can send text messages to students for password resets, fee reminders, and important notices. All other features work without SMS.

Configure your SMS provider in the admin panel under Settings > SMS Gateway. Three providers are supported.

Africa's Talking

Recommended for Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and most of Africa. Sign up at africastalking.com and create an application to get your API key and username.

Twilio

Supported worldwide. Sign up at twilio.com and get a phone number from the console.

UGSMS (Uganda)

A local SMS gateway for Uganda. Sign up at ugsms.ug.

10Online Class Integrations

The system integrates with seven video conferencing platforms. Choose the one your institution already uses or prefers. Only one needs to be configured. All are optional — if none is configured, administrators can still add a meeting URL manually when scheduling a class.

Configure your preferred provider in the admin panel under Settings > Online Classes.

Jitsi Meet (Free — Recommended)

Jitsi Meet is free and requires no account for basic use. The public server at meet.jit.si works immediately with no API key. For a private Jitsi server (JaaS), enter your domain and JWT credentials.

Daily.co

Sign up at daily.co and create a room. Copy your API key from the dashboard.

Zoom

Create a Server-to-Server OAuth app in your Zoom Marketplace developer account to get your credentials.

Google Meet

Requires a Google Workspace account. Create a Service Account in Google Cloud Console, enable the Google Calendar API, and download the JSON credentials file. Paste the entire JSON content into the setting field.

Microsoft Teams

Register an app in the Azure Active Directory portal. Grant it the OnlineMeetings.ReadWrite.All permission.

Whereby

Sign up at whereby.com. Go to the Embedded section in your dashboard and create an API key.

BigBlueButton (Self-Hosted)

BigBlueButton is an open-source video conferencing platform designed for education. It requires a self-hosted server.

11File Storage Setup

Uploaded files such as study materials, profile photos, and the institution logo are stored in storage/app/public. You must create a storage link so these files are accessible from the web.

Create the Storage Link

Run this command once after installation:

php artisan storage:link

This creates a symbolic link from public/storage to storage/app/public. If you skip this step, uploaded images will not display in the app or admin panel.

Amazon S3 (Optional)

For production installations with many file uploads, storing files on Amazon S3 is recommended. Add these values to your .env:

FILESYSTEM_DISK=s3
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_key_id
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_secret_key
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1
AWS_BUCKET=your_bucket_name

12Running the Application

XAMPP (Local Development)

Start the Apache and MySQL modules in the XAMPP control panel. Then open your browser and go to:

http://localhost/myschool/public

You should see the login screen. Log in with the admin credentials that were shown after running the database seeder.

Apache Virtual Host (Production)

Create a virtual host configuration file pointing to the public/ folder:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourschool.com
    DocumentRoot /path/to/myschool/public

    <Directory /path/to/myschool/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable mod_rewrite and restart Apache. Make sure the public/.htaccess file is present — it handles URL routing.

Nginx (Production)

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourschool.com;
    root /path/to/myschool/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/path/to/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Performance Caching (Production Only)

Run these commands on your live server to improve response times:

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Shared Hosting / cPanel

Many buyers deploy on shared hosting (Namecheap, Hostinger, SiteGround, etc.) where you cannot run a terminal as root. Follow these steps:

require __DIR__.'/../myschool/vendor/autoload.php';
$app = require_once __DIR__.'/../myschool/bootstrap/app.php';

cd ~/myschool
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --seed
php artisan storage:link

13Queue Worker and Scheduled Tasks

The system uses Laravel queues to process background jobs such as sending emails and notifications without slowing down the web request. The scheduler handles recurring tasks. Both need to be running for the system to work correctly.

Queue Driver

The default queue driver is database. This is set in your .env file and works out of the box with no extra software. For high-traffic installations, Redis is faster but requires a Redis server.

QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

Running the Queue Worker

The queue worker processes background jobs. On a VPS or dedicated server, start it and keep it running:

php artisan queue:work --tries=3 --timeout=60

To keep the worker running permanently even after a server reboot, use a process manager like Supervisor. Create a config file in your Supervisor configuration directory (commonly under the system's Supervisor conf.d folder), for example /path/to/supervisor/conf.d/myschool-worker.conf:

[program:myschool-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /path/to/myschool/artisan queue:work --tries=3 --timeout=60
autostart=true
autorestart=true
numprocs=1
user=www-data
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/path/to/logs/myschool-worker.log

Then run:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start myschool-worker:*

Cron Job (Scheduler)

Add a single cron entry to your server that runs every minute. This triggers all scheduled tasks defined in the application.

On Linux/Mac, open your crontab with crontab -e and add:

* * * * * cd /path/to/myschool && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

On cPanel, go to Cron Jobs and add a new job. Set the time fields all to * (every minute) and use this command:

cd /path/to/myschool && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

php artisan queue:restart

14Mobile App Setup

flutter doctor

flutter pub get

flutter run

How the App Communicates with the Backend

The app never talks to your database directly — every screen is powered by a JSON request to the Laravel API over HTTPS. This diagram shows the full exchange, from the first connection check through login to a normal authenticated screen load:

Visual Walkthrough — First Login and Setup

What a student sees the first time they open the app, in order:

15Changing the App Bundle ID

A bundle identifier uses the format com.yourorganisation.appname. Use only lowercase letters, numbers, and dots. No spaces or special characters.

Android

Open android/app/build.gradle.kts in a text editor and change:

applicationId = "com.myschool.app"

to your identifier:

applicationId = "com.universityofmaiduguri.portal"

iOS

Open Xcode by double-clicking ios/Runner.xcworkspace. In the left panel, select Runner. Click the Signing and Capabilities tab. Change the Bundle Identifier field.

Alternatively, open ios/Runner.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj in a text editor and replace every occurrence of com.myschool.app with your identifier.

Changing the App Name

Android — open android/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml:

<string name="app_name">Your School Portal</string>

iOS — open ios/Runner/Info.plist and update both:

<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
<string>Your School Portal</string>
<key>CFBundleName</key>
<string>Your School Portal</string>

16Building the Mobile App

Android APK (Direct Installation)

flutter build apk --release

The APK is saved to build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk. You can send this file directly to students to install.

Android App Bundle (Google Play)

First, create a release signing keystore. You only need to do this once. Store the file safely — you need the same keystore for every future update:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore release.jks -alias myschool \
  -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

Then build with your keystore:

KEYSTORE_PATH=/path/to/release.jks \
KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=your_keystore_password \
KEY_ALIAS=myschool \
KEY_PASSWORD=your_key_password \
flutter build appbundle --release

The App Bundle is saved to build/app/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab.

iOS IPA (App Store or TestFlight)

iOS builds require a Mac with Xcode and a paid Apple Developer account ($99 per year).

flutter build ipa --release

Open build/ios/archive/Runner.xcarchive in Xcode Organizer to distribute to the App Store or TestFlight.

17Customising App Branding

App Icon

Replace assets/myschool.png with your institution logo. Requirements:

• Square format (equal width and height)
• At least 512 x 512 pixels
• PNG format with a solid background (not transparent)

After replacing the file, regenerate all icon sizes:

dart run flutter_launcher_icons

Rebuild the app after running this command.

Colours

Open lib/theme/app_theme.dart in your text editor. The main brand colours are defined in the AppColors class:

static const navy      = Color(0xFF0F2040);
static const navyMid   = Color(0xFF1A3560);
static const gold      = Color(0xFFC9922A);
static const goldLight = Color(0xFFE8B84B);
static const goldDark  = Color(0xFFA87820);

Change the hex values to your institution's colours. The gold and goldLight values are used most visibly for buttons, highlights, and the navigation bar. Rebuild the app after saving.

Dark and Light Theme

The app ships with both a dark and light theme. Students can switch between them from the Settings screen inside the app. No code change is needed to enable this — it works out of the box.

Institution Name and Logo in the App

The school name, abbreviation, logo, and currency shown in the mobile app come from your backend settings, not from the app code. Update them in the admin panel under Settings > Institution Settings. The app fetches this data from the server automatically on each launch.

18User Roles and Staff Accounts

The system has six built-in roles. Each role has its own dashboard and can only access the areas relevant to their job. The Super Admin creates all staff accounts from the admin panel under Users > Add User.

Creating a Staff Account

Creating a Student Account

Student accounts are created by the Super Admin or Registrar from Students > Add Student. The student's login credentials are set during account creation. Students log in through the mobile app only — they do not have access to the web admin panel.

19Admin Panel Overview

Admin Panel Screenshots

The admin panel ships with a dark, responsive interface. The screenshots below are taken from the bundled demo data so you can see exactly what each screen looks like after a fresh install.

20API Reference (For Developers)

The mobile app talks to the backend over a small, stateless JSON API. This section documents every endpoint so developers can extend the system, build additional clients, or integrate with other software. The web admin panel uses standard server-rendered Laravel routes and is not part of this API.

Base URL

All endpoints are served under the /api prefix of your backend installation:

https://your-backend-domain.com/api

Replace your-backend-domain.com with wherever you deployed the Laravel backend.

Authentication

Authentication is token based. A client first calls POST /api/auth/login with an email and password. On success the response contains a Bearer token (stored in the api_token column on the user). Send that token in the Authorization header on every protected request:

Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json

Protected routes are guarded by the auth.api middleware. A missing or invalid token returns 401 Unauthorized.

Public Endpoints

Authenticated Endpoints

Example — Log In

POST /api/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "email": "student@myschool.demo",
  "password": "your-password"
}

A successful response returns a token you then attach to every protected call:

GET /api/student/dashboard
Authorization: Bearer <token-from-login>
Accept: application/json

21Common Problems and Solutions

php artisan storage:link

php artisan tinker
Mail::raw('Test', function($m) { $m->to('test@email.com')->subject('Test'); });

php artisan config:cache

flutter pub run flutter_launcher_icons
flutter build apk --release

Final Checklist Before Going Live

Work through every item on this list before giving students access to the system.

• APP_DEBUG is set to false in .env
• APP_URL is set to the live HTTPS URL
• APP_TIMEZONE is set to your local timezone
• QUEUE_CONNECTION is set to database in .env
• The default admin password has been changed
• Institution name, abbreviation, logo, and currency are configured in the admin panel
• Email is configured and a test email was received
• php artisan storage:link has been run
• All database migrations ran without errors
• A manual database backup has been downloaded and stored safely (see Database Backup)
• php artisan config:cache and route:cache have been run on the production server
• The cron job for php artisan schedule:run has been added to the server
• The queue worker is running (Supervisor or cPanel cron)
• Lecturer accounts have been created and linked to Lecturer profile records
• Finance, HOD, and Registrar accounts have been created with correct roles
• The mobile app connects successfully to the production server URL
• The app bundle identifier has been changed from com.myschool.app
• The app icon has been replaced with your institution logo
• dart run flutter_launcher_icons has been run after replacing the icon
• A release signing keystore has been created and stored safely (Android)
• The Payment Portal URL has been set if your institution accepts online payments
• The AI Advisor API key is configured (Anthropic or OpenAI) if the feature is needed
• SMS gateway is configured if SMS notifications are needed
• Online class provider is configured if virtual classes will be used

Credits & Third-Party Licenses

MySchool is built on top of the open-source components listed below. Every one of them is distributed under a permissive licence (MIT, BSD, Apache 2.0 or the SIL Open Font Licence) that allows redistribution inside a commercial product. The licence texts ship with each package (in vendor/ for the backend and the pub cache for the mobile app); the summaries here are provided for convenience.

Backend — PHP packages (Composer)

Backend — front-end build tools (npm)

Mobile app — Flutter / Dart packages (pub.dev)

Fonts & icons

Changelog

Version history for the MySchool backend and mobile app. Both are versioned together.

• Laravel 11 backend with role-based access (Super Admin, Admin, Accountant, HOD, Registrar, Lecturer, Student).
• Academic management: departments, programmes, courses, sessions, timetables, course allocation and registration.
• Finance: fee structures, online payments (Stripe, Flutterwave, Paystack, PawaPay, DPO, Orange Money), receipts and statements.
• Grading, transcripts and HOD grade approval workflow.
• Attendance with QR scan-in, assignments, study materials, notices, discussions and student elections.
• Online classes via Jitsi, Daily.co, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Whereby and BigBlueButton.
• Optional AI Academic Advisor (Anthropic Claude or OpenAI).
• SMS notifications via Africa's Talking, Twilio and UGSMS.
• Companion Flutter student app (Android & iOS) with configurable server URL.

Support and Contact

If you run into any issues during installation or setup that are not covered in this guide, you can reach the developer directly using any of the channels below. Please include your CodeCanyon purchase code when making contact so your request can be verified and handled quickly.

What to Include in Your Support Request

To get help as quickly as possible, provide the following information when you make contact:

• Your CodeCanyon purchase code (found in your Envato account under Downloads)
• The step in this guide where the problem occurred
• The exact error message shown in your browser or terminal
• Your server environment: XAMPP, shared hosting, VPS, or cloud server
• Your PHP version (run php -v in terminal to check)
• Your operating system: Windows, Mac, or Linux