A professional inventory and barcode web application built for Safe Future Foundation, Inc. to support diaper-bank and community resource operations with reliable item tracking, QR workflows, and reporting.
Official organization website: https://www.asafefuture.org/
This document is intended for both non-technical stakeholders and technical maintainers.
- If you are a client stakeholder, operations lead, or reviewer:
- Start with Executive Summary, Client Context, Original Use Case and Business Need, Proposal Feature Alignment, Impact Statement.
- Then review Quick Start and Production Readiness Checklist for rollout confidence.
- If you are a developer or technical maintainer:
- Start with Quick Start, Technology Stack, Architecture Overview, Data Model Summary, Configuration, Operational Workflows.
- Then review Deployment and Production Readiness Notes, Known Gaps, and Recommended Next Phase.
Reading time guidance:
- Business overview path: about 8 to 12 minutes
- Technical handoff path: about 15 to 25 minutes
- Project Name: Safe Future Barcode for Good
- Client: Safe Future Foundation, Inc.
- Repository: SafeFutureInventorySystem
- Current Version: v1.0.0
- Last Updated: 2026-04-05
- Primary Environment: ASP.NET Core MVC on .NET 9 with SQLite
This section provides the fastest path to run and review the application.
- Build and run:
dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project SafeFutureInventorySystem- Open in browser:
- Sign in with seeded bootstrap account:
- Email: admin@safefuture.com
- Password: admin1234
- First recommended action:
- Change the admin password after first successful login.
- Verify core client workflows:
- Open the dashboard and review inventory summary cards.
- Use the dashboard to jump into low stock, no stock, or expiring soon inventory views.
- Create or merge an inventory item.
- Open item details and confirm QR generation.
- Scan QR on mobile and verify the item details page opens.
- Print selected QR labels from the inventory list.
- Export inventory as CSV, PDF, and Excel.
This project was delivered in response to the original Safe Future Foundation proposal for a custom barcode-enabled inventory platform.
The application helps the organization:
- Track incoming and outgoing donated inventory with auditable quantity updates.
- Reduce manual errors in stock handling and recordkeeping.
- Improve visibility into inventory status for operations and reporting.
- Support mission delivery for families in need by making distribution logistics more reliable.
Safe Future Foundation, Inc. is a Jacksonville, Florida nonprofit focused on supporting children and families through programs such as diaper distribution, food support, education, and community outreach. The inventory system in this repository is designed to support those operational goals.
Client reference information from the original proposal:
- Organization: Safe Future Foundation, Inc.
- Website: https://www.asafefuture.org/
- Contact: Chris Tobey
- Email: Info@asafefuture.org
- Phone: 904-803-0034
The foundation requested a system to:
- Prevent inventory loss and reselling by improving item traceability.
- Keep accurate counts of items received and distributed.
- Generate item labels that combine machine-readable QR codes with human-readable information.
- Enable scan-to-open item pages from mobile devices.
- Produce downloadable inventory reports for internal and external stakeholders.
The delivered application provides the technical foundation for these needs and includes a clear roadmap for future enhancements.
| Requested Capability | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile and desktop accessibility | Implemented | Responsive ASP.NET MVC web app available through browser on desktop and phone. |
| Generate QR code labels with human-readable context | Implemented | QR generation is implemented, resolves to item details pages, and supports batch printable QR label sheets for selected items. |
| Add product info with QR linkage | Implemented | Item creation and persistence are in place with associated QR generation. |
| Scan QR to open product page and act | Implemented | QR points to item details route where users can review and manage item data. |
| Download all inventory data | Implemented (partial) | Admin users can export full inventory data as CSV, PDF, and Excel. Selected-item PDF export remains available from the inventory workspace. |
| Search and view product information | Implemented | Search, filters, sorting, and details pages are available. |
| Simple login protection | Implemented | ASP.NET Identity with role-based access and login flow is active. |
| Upload inventory information | Planned | Upload/import workflow is a recommended next enhancement. |
| Low-stock alerts and monitoring | Implemented | Per-item low-stock thresholds, admin-managed editing, low/no-stock indicators, summary cards, export visibility, and low/no-stock filtering are available. |
| Reports and summaries | Implemented | Home dashboard summary cards, attention lists, and CSV/PDF/Excel reporting are available; broader KPI dashboards can still be expanded. |
- Secure account system with Admin and Volunteer roles.
- Inventory management with duplicate-merge logic for cleaner stock records.
- Donation and adjustment logs for operational traceability, including metadata edits.
- Expiration-state awareness for proactive stock management.
- Low-stock threshold tracking with admin-managed editing, alert visibility, and stock summary cards.
- Home dashboard with operational summary cards, attention lists, expired and expiring item visibility, and recent activity feed.
- Explicit navigation for Dashboard, Inventory, Export, and Admin workflows.
- QR code generation for direct scan-to-item workflows.
- Batch printable QR labels for selected inventory items.
- PDF, CSV, and Excel export for reporting, with full exports restricted to admins.
- Inventory list state is preserved when navigating to item details and back.
- Centralized error handling and logging support.
The repository includes multiple organization logo files for use in UI polish, printed materials, and deployment branding:
- SafeFutureInventorySystem/wwwroot/images/safe-future-logo.png
- SafeFutureInventorySystem/wwwroot/images/safefuture-logo-original.png
- SafeFutureInventorySystem/wwwroot/images/safefuturelogo.webp
These alternatives may also be used for presentations, printed materials, or future branding updates.
- ASP.NET Core MVC (.NET 9)
- Entity Framework Core 9
- ASP.NET Core Identity
- SQLite
- ZXing.Net and SkiaSharp (QR generation)
- iTextSharp (PDF export)
- EPPlus (Excel export)
- MVC controllers coordinate auth, inventory actions, exports, and QR endpoints.
- Razor views provide browser-based UX for staff and volunteers.
- Static resources are served from wwwroot.
- ApplicationDbContext stores inventory entities and history logs.
- AuthDbContext stores users, roles, and authentication state.
At application startup:
- Inventory and auth databases are created if missing.
- Roles are seeded: Admin and Volunteer.
- A default admin account is seeded if absent.
- Name, description, quantity, category
- ExpirationDate, DateAdded, LastUpdated
- Computed ExpirationStatus (Expired, Expiring Soon, Expiring This Month, Good, No Expiration)
- One-to-many relationship with donation and adjustment logs
Legacy barcode support remains in the data model, but QR-code routing is the primary item-identification workflow used by the application.
- Tracks donation events by item and quantity with optional donor context
- Tracks manual quantity changes, reason, user context, and timestamps
- ASP.NET Identity user extended with first and last name
- .NET SDK 9.0 or later
- Windows, macOS, or Linux
dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project SafeFutureInventorySystemDefault development URLs:
Main configuration file: SafeFutureInventorySystem/appsettings.json
Important settings:
- ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection (inventory database)
- ConnectionStrings:AuthConnection (identity/auth database)
- QrCodeBaseUrl (public base URL for QR links)
Example:
{
"ConnectionStrings": {
"DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=SafeFutureDB;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true",
"AuthConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=SafeFutureAuthDB;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
},
"QrCodeBaseUrl": ""
}Production recommendation:
Set QrCodeBaseUrl to the public domain so mobile scans resolve outside local networks.
- Login route: /Account/Login
- Seeded roles: Admin, Volunteer
- Cookie session: 8 hours with sliding expiration
Seeded bootstrap admin account:
- Email: admin@safefuture.com
- Password: admin1234
Important:
Change this password immediately in staging/production environments.
| Capability | Admin | Volunteer |
|---|---|---|
| View dashboard and inventory | Yes | Yes |
| Search, filter, sort, and review item details | Yes | Yes |
| Adjust quantity | Yes | Yes |
| Create or merge inventory items | Yes | Yes |
| Print QR labels and selected-item PDF export | Yes | Yes |
| Edit item metadata | Yes | No |
| Remove inventory items | Yes | No |
| Full inventory export from navbar | Yes | No |
| Access admin user management | Yes | No |
- Home now serves as the operational dashboard landing page.
- Dashboard cards provide quick counts for total items, low stock, no stock, expiring soon, and expired inventory.
- Summary cards and action buttons link directly into the detailed inventory workspace.
- The top navigation now separates Dashboard, Inventory, Export, and Admin tasks more clearly.
- The recent activity feed summarizes donations, quantity changes, and metadata updates with user context and timestamps.
- Search by name and description
- Filter by expiration condition, low-stock status, no-stock status, and date window
- Sort and paginate for high-volume inventories
- Preserve current page, filters, and sorting when navigating into item details and back
When staff adds an item:
- Match by normalized item name.
- Merge quantity into the existing item when matched.
- Create a new item when no match is found.
The current operational workflow relies on item-name merge logic. A legacy barcode field remains in the model, but barcode-based intake is no longer the primary path after the move to QR-driven item lookup.
- Quantity changes are logged with old/new values, reason, timestamp, and user context.
- Admin metadata edits are also recorded in recent adjustment history for auditability.
- Item details pages show current status, threshold, donation history, and recent adjustments.
- Admins can open a dedicated edit page to update item metadata such as name, description, category, quantity, expiration date, and low-stock threshold.
- Volunteers can review item details but cannot access the item metadata edit flow.
- Admin-only navbar export dropdown for full inventory PDF, CSV, and Excel exports
- Selected-item PDF export from the inventory list for authenticated users
- QR code values are generated for item details links.
- Scan opens the associated item details page.
- URL generation supports configured public base URL or request-host fallback.
- Staff can select multiple items from the inventory list and print a batch QR label sheet.
- Batch QR labels support multiple print layouts and label templates for denser or more detailed sheets.
- Batch QR labels support named stock presets and PDF export for print-ready sharing.
- Open the inventory list.
- Select one or more items using the table checkboxes.
- Click
Print Selected QR Labels. - The app routes to the QR batch label page and passes the selected item IDs as query parameters.
- Choose the preferred stock preset, label template, and print layout.
- Print the sheet directly or export the batch as PDF.
This project is production-capable with additional hardening recommended before client go-live:
- Move from EnsureCreated to migration-driven startup and release flow.
- Strengthen password requirements and add account lockout policy.
- Add explicit authorization attributes on all sensitive endpoints.
- Add environment-specific secrets management and HTTPS certificate strategy.
- Add CI checks for build, tests, and security scanning.
Status key: Complete, In Progress, Planned
- Authentication and role-based access: Complete
- Centralized error handling and logging: Complete
- QR-based item traceability: Complete
- Export for reporting (CSV/PDF/Excel): Complete
- Password policy hardening for production: Planned
- Migration-based deployment strategy: Planned
- Full endpoint authorization audit: Complete
- Backup/restore runbook: Planned
- Monitoring and alerting strategy: Planned
- Safe Future Foundation, Inc.
- Contact: Chris Tobey
- Email: Info@asafefuture.org
- Phone: 904-803-0034
- Product Owner (Client): Approves workflow changes and operational priorities.
- Technical Maintainer (Student team or designated successor): Implements updates and release fixes.
- Operations Contact (Client): Confirms day-to-day usability and issue priority.
- Submit request with business impact, urgency, and expected behavior.
- Triage request as bug, enhancement, or compliance requirement.
- Estimate effort and deployment risk.
- Approve and schedule into release window.
- Validate in staging before production rollout.
- Inventory data file: SafeFutureInventory.db
- Auth data file: SafeFutureAuth.db
- Minimum recommended cadence: daily backup with weekly restore verification.
- Build and test in staging environment.
- Back up both SQLite files prior to deployment.
- Deploy new build.
- Validate login, search, QR scan, and export paths.
- If rollback is needed, redeploy previous build and restore latest validated database backup.
To make this README client-ready for board members, funders, or operations staff, include the following screenshots:
- Login screen
- Dashboard landing page
- Inventory list with filters and search
- Item details page with quantity history
- QR generation and mobile scan result
- CSV and PDF export examples
Suggested location for these assets:
- docs/screenshots/login.png
- docs/screenshots/dashboard.png
- docs/screenshots/inventory-list.png
- docs/screenshots/item-details.png
- docs/screenshots/qr-scan-flow.png
- docs/screenshots/reports-export.png
- Inventory upload/import is not implemented yet.
- Richer operational dashboards and KPI summaries can be expanded further.
- Add CSV/Excel inventory import with validation and dry-run preview.
- Add notifications and broader dashboard widgets on top of the implemented low-stock system.
- Add production security hardening and comprehensive automated tests.
- Add role-specific reporting views for board and grant reporting support.
This system directly supports Safe Future Foundation operations by reducing inventory uncertainty, improving accountability, and enabling faster, safer distribution workflows for families who depend on the organization.