DSEC Notebook

A centralised resource hub for Deakin University students studying SIT (IT, computer science, and cybersecurity) and Mathematics units. Students can share study notes, ask questions, and browse content organised by unit and topic.

Written by students, for students. This project is not affiliated with Deakin University.

Features

📚 Notes — post study notes in Markdown, organised by unit and topic.
❓ Questions & answers — ask questions, post answers, and mark questions as solved.
💬 Comments — discuss notes directly.
👍 Voting — upvote or downvote notes and questions.
🔍 Search — find notes by title or content.
🎓 Deakin-only sign in — only @deakin.edu.au email addresses can contribute.
🗂️ Units & topics — browse content by Deakin unit code (e.g. SIT102, SIT192) or topic (e.g. Algorithms, Mathematics).
💾 Persistent storage — all data is stored in a local SQLite database.

Tech stack

SvelteKit with Svelte 5
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS 4
adapter-node for the Node.js server
Node's built-in node:sqlite for persistence
Vitest for unit and browser tests

Requirements

Node.js 24 or newer (Node 22+ may work, but the project is developed and containerised against Node 24)
npm

Getting started

Clone the repository and install dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Configure environment variables (optional):
```
cp .env .env.local
```
The only variable is DATABASE_PATH, which defaults to data/dsec.db.
Start the development server:
```
npm run dev
```
Open the URL printed in the terminal (usually http://localhost:5173).

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Default
`DATABASE_PATH`	Path to the SQLite database file	`data/dsec.db`
`HOST`	Host the Node server binds to (build)	`0.0.0.0`
`PORT`	Port the Node server listens on (build)	`3000`

Scripts

Script	Description
`npm run dev`	Start the Vite/SvelteKit development server
`npm run build`	Build a production bundle
`npm run preview`	Preview the production build locally
`npm run check`	Run `svelte-check` type checking
`npm test`	Run unit and browser tests once
`npm run test:unit`	Run tests in watch mode

Running with Docker

A Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml are included. The app runs on port 3000 inside the container and is mapped to host port 4073.

docker compose up --build

Then open http://localhost:4073.

The SQLite database is persisted in the dsec-data Docker volume. To change the exposed port, edit docker-compose.yml.

Project structure

src/
├── lib/
│   ├── components/     # Reusable UI components (Navbar, FeedRow, VoteStack)
│   ├── server/         # Server-side API and SQLite database logic
│   ├── stores/         # Svelte stores (auth state)
│   ├── api.ts          # Client-side API helper
│   ├── types.ts        # Shared TypeScript types
│   └── time.ts         # Relative time formatting
├── routes/
│   ├── +page.svelte    # Home page
│   ├── +layout.svelte  # App layout and nav
│   ├── notes/          # Notes feed and note detail pages
│   ├── questions/      # Questions feed and question detail pages
│   ├── post/           # Create note / question forms
│   ├── topics/[slug]/  # Topic pages
│   ├── units/[code]/   # Unit pages
│   ├── search/         # Search page
│   ├── auth/login/     # Sign in page
│   └── api/+server.ts  # JSON API endpoint
└── app.html

How it works

The frontend calls a single JSON API endpoint (POST /api) with a function name and arguments.
The server dispatches those calls to handlers in src/lib/server/api.ts, backed by SQLite.
On first run, the database is created automatically and seeded with common Deakin SIT/Math units and CS/maths topics.
Authentication is session-token based: signing in with a valid @deakin.edu.au email creates or reuses a user and stores a token in localStorage.

Data model

The SQLite database contains the following tables:

users — Deakin email accounts
units — Deakin unit codes and names
topics — CS and maths topics
notes — shared study notes
questions — student questions
comments — note comments and question answers
votes — upvotes/downvotes on notes and questions

Disclaimer

DSEC Notebook is a community resource for Deakin University students. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to Deakin University.

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