💼 JobTrack — Job Application Tracking System

A production-ready Full-Stack Job Tracker built with React, TypeScript & PocketBase

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📌 Overview

JobTrack is a modern, multi-user job application tracking system designed to help users manage their job search efficiently.

It provides secure data isolation, intuitive analytics, and resume management, making it ideal for students, job seekers, and professionals.

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🏗️ Architecture

Browser (React App)
│
▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│   Vercel Frontend    │  (React + Vite + nginx)
└─────────┬────────────┘
          │ REST API (HTTPS)
          ▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│   PocketBase API     │  (Go binary on Railway)
└─────────┬────────────┘
          │
          ▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│  SQLite DB + Files   │  (Railway persistent volume)
└──────────────────────┘

Layer	Role
🌐 Frontend	UI, routing, charts, state management — hosted on Vercel
⚙️ Backend	Auth, REST API, file storage — PocketBase on Railway
🗄️ Database	SQLite embedded in PocketBase, persisted via Railway volume

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✨ Features

🔐 Authentication & Security

• Multi-user system with strict data isolation — enforced at database level
• JWT-based authentication with auto-refresh via PocketBase SDK
• Server-side access rules prevent any cross-user data access

📊 Job Management

• Add / Edit / Delete job applications
• Fields: company, role, job link, status, location, CTC, company rating, notes
• Attach resume PDFs per application (max 5MB, PDF only)

🔍 Search & Filtering

• Search by company name or role
• Filter by status and location
• Paginated results (10 per page)

📈 Dashboard & Analytics

• Total applications count and per-status breakdown
• Donut chart visualization powered by Chart.js

🎨 UI/UX

• Fully responsive — mobile and desktop
• Clean, minimal UI with dark mode (auto system preference)

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, TypeScript, Vite 5
Backend	PocketBase 0.22 (Go)
Database	SQLite (embedded in PocketBase)
Charts	Chart.js 4 + react-chartjs-2
Routing	React Router v6
Frontend hosting	Vercel
Backend hosting	Railway
Containerization	Docker + nginx

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✅ Prerequisites

Tool	Version
Node.js	18+
npm	Latest
PocketBase binary	Latest
Docker (optional, for local container testing)	Latest

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🚀 Local Development

1️⃣ Clone & install dependencies

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd jobtrack
npm install

2️⃣ Download and run PocketBase

Download the PocketBase binary for your OS from pocketbase.io.

# macOS / Linux
chmod +x pocketbase
./pocketbase serve

# Windows
pocketbase.exe serve

Admin UI will be available at: http://127.0.0.1:8090/_/

3️⃣ Import the database schema

1. Open http://127.0.0.1:8090/_/ in your browser
2. Create your admin account (first time only)
3. Go to Settings → Import Collections
4. Upload pocketbase_schema.json from the project root
5. Click Review → Confirm and import

4️⃣ Configure environment

cp .env.example .env.local

The default .env.local already points to local PocketBase — no changes needed:

VITE_PB_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8090

5️⃣ Start the frontend dev server

npm run dev

App runs at: http://localhost:5173

Keep both terminals running — one for PocketBase (./pocketbase serve) and one for Vite (npm run dev).

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📡 Security Rules

Data isolation is enforced at the PocketBase collection rule level, not just the frontend. Even direct API calls are rejected if the authenticated user doesn't own the record.

listRule:   "@request.auth.id = user"
viewRule:   "@request.auth.id = user"
createRule: "@request.auth.id != \"\""
updateRule: "@request.auth.id = user"
deleteRule: "@request.auth.id = user"

⚠️ Note: Rules use = user (direct ID comparison), not = user.id — this is correct for PocketBase's relation field syntax.

✅ Prevents unauthorized cross-user data access
✅ Server-side enforcement — bypassing the frontend UI has no effect

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🐳 Docker

The project includes two Dockerfiles — one for each service.

Frontend (React + nginx)

# Build the image (VITE_PB_URL is required at build time)
docker build \
  --build-arg VITE_PB_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8090 \
  -t jobtrack-frontend .

# Run locally (nginx listens on $PORT, defaults to 8080)
docker run -p 8080:8080 jobtrack-frontend

VITE_PB_URL must be passed as a build argument — Vite bakes it into the JS bundle at compile time and cannot read it at runtime.

PocketBase backend

# Build
docker build -f Dockerfile.pocketbase -t jobtrack-pb .

# Run locally (data stored in ./pb_data on your host)
docker run -p 8090:8090 -v $(pwd)/pb_data:/pb/pb_data jobtrack-pb

There is no docker-compose.yml in this project. Services are deployed independently to Vercel (frontend) and Railway (backend).

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☁️ Deployment

🔹 Backend — Railway (PocketBase)

1. Push the repo to GitHub

2. On railway.app, create a new project → Deploy from GitHub repo

3. In the service Variables tab, add:

   Variable	Value
   RAILWAY_DOCKERFILE_PATH	Dockerfile.pocketbase

4. Go to Settings → Networking → Generate Domain to get your public URL

5. Attach a persistent volume (right-click service on canvas → Attach Volume):

   • Mount path: /pb/pb_data

6. Open https://your-pb-domain.up.railway.app/_/ and import pocketbase_schema.json

🔹 Frontend — Vercel (React)

1. On vercel.com, import the same GitHub repo

2. Add environment variable (mark it as a Build Variable):

   Variable	Value
   VITE_PB_URL	https://your-pb-domain.up.railway.app

   No trailing slash. VITE_PB_URL must be a Build Variable — Vercel must pass it during npm run build, not at runtime.

3. Deploy — vercel.json handles SPA routing automatically

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📁 Project Structure

jobtrack/
│
├── Dockerfile                  # Frontend — multi-stage Node + nginx build
├── Dockerfile.pocketbase       # Backend — PocketBase binary on Alpine
├── docker-entrypoint.sh        # Injects Railway $PORT into nginx at startup
├── nginx.conf                  # nginx config — SPA routing + asset caching
│
├── .env.example                # Environment variable template
├── vercel.json                 # Vercel SPA rewrite rules
├── pocketbase_schema.json      # PocketBase collection schema + access rules
│
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg
│
├── src/
│   ├── App.tsx                 # Root router + AuthProvider
│   ├── main.tsx                # React entry point
│   ├── index.css               # Global styles + CSS design tokens
│   │
│   ├── lib/
│   │   └── pb.ts               # PocketBase client instance
│   │
│   ├── types/
│   │   └── index.ts            # TypeScript types + constants
│   │
│   ├── hooks/
│   │   ├── useAuth.tsx         # Auth context — login, register, logout
│   │   └── useJobs.ts          # CRUD operations for job applications
│   │
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── JobModal.tsx        # Add / Edit job form modal
│   │   ├── ProtectedRoute.tsx  # Auth guard — redirects to /auth if not logged in
│   │   ├── StatusBadge.tsx     # Colour-coded status pill
│   │   └── StatsChart.tsx      # Donut chart with legend
│   │
│   └── pages/
│       ├── Auth.tsx            # Login + Register page
│       └── Dashboard.tsx       # Main dashboard
│
├── index.html
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── vite.config.ts

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🔮 Future Improvements

• 📅 Interview scheduling with calendar view
• 📧 Email reminders (Resend / SMTP integration)
• 📊 Advanced analytics — application rate over time, conversion by company
• 📂 Resume version tracking — link multiple resume versions per application
• 🔐 OAuth login (Google / GitHub) via PocketBase OAuth2

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📜 Scripts

npm run dev      # Start Vite dev server (http://localhost:5173)
npm run build    # TypeScript check + production build → dist/
npm run preview  # Preview production build locally
npm run lint     # Run ESLint

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⭐ Built for developers & job seekers
💡 Clean • Secure • Scalable