Overview

RBAC ensures that the system checks a user's role before allowing certain actions. This creates a more realistic and maintainable design, similar to what many organizations use in real applications.

User Roles

• Admin — Full access to all features and settings.
• Manager — Can manage inventory and view system activity.
• Staff — Can view product information but cannot make changes.

Benefits of RBAC

• Protects important actions such as updating stock or marking featured products.
• Creates a clear structure for future additions or access levels.
• Aligns the system with common software engineering practices.

Technical Enhancements

Key Updates Implemented

• Added custom permissions tied to inventory and product management.
• Created Admin, Manager, and Staff roles using Django Groups.
• Applied permission checks in key views to protect sensitive actions.
• Updated the navigation to show certain links only to authorized roles.
• Restricted the “featured product” toggle to Manager and Admin roles.
• Built a new management command (setup_rbac) to create roles automatically.

Files Updated for RBAC

• inventory/models.py — Added custom permissions.
• inventory/views.py — Applied login and permission decorators.
• templates/base.html — Role-aware navigation.
• templates/inventory/product_list.html — Restricted featured toggle.
• inventory/management/commands/setup_rbac.py — New command to set up roles.

Outcome & Reflection

This enhancement strengthened the system's design by introducing clear, maintainable rules for what each user can access. It supported the Software Engineering/Design outcome by improving structure, security, and clarity without altering the original purpose of the project.

I learned how to apply Django's permission framework in a practical way and determine which parts of the code needed changes. Being intentional about modifying only the necessary files helped keep the enhancement clean and easy to document.

GitHub & Tools

View the enhancement branch on GitHub:

View on GitHub

Technologies

• Python
• Django
• MySQL
• RBAC
• HTML/CSS

Screenshots

The following screenshots highlight the RBAC enhancement and improved UI components added to the Inventory Management System.

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  Login Page

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  Inventory Dashboard

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  Product List

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  Product Detail View

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  Low Stock Report

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  User Menu (RBAC)