🍽️ SmartCanteen - Digital Food Ordering & Token Management System

SmartCanteen is a role-based web application designed for campus canteens to digitize food ordering, reduce queues, and improve pickup flow using a token-based serving system.

It provides separate dashboards for Students, Hotel Admins, and Super Admins, enabling transparent, efficient, and organized canteen operations.

📌 Problem Statement

Most campus canteens still rely on manual food ordering and token systems. This results in:

• Long queues during peak hours
• Order handling errors
• No real-time order status visibility
• Poor coordination between students and canteen staff
• Time wastage and operational inefficiency

There is a need for a digital platform that manages ordering, pickup, and monitoring in a structured and transparent way.

💡 Solution Overview

SmartCanteen provides a complete digital food ordering and token-based pickup system with:

• Online menu browsing and ordering
• Smart pickup slot selection based on live load
• Automatic token generation
• Real-time order status tracking
• Dedicated dashboards for different roles
• Demo-ready payment flow (UPI, Card, Cash)
• Mobile-responsive and user-friendly UI

👥 Core Roles

• Student - Places orders and tracks tokens
• Hotel Admin - Manages menu and prepares orders
• Super Admin - Controls and monitors the entire system

✨ Key Features

Student

• View available hotels and menus
• Get smart pickup slot recommendations
• Place orders and generate digital token
• Demo payment via UPI, Card, or Cash
• Track order status and ETA
• View order history

Hotel Admin

• Manage menu items and pickup slots
• View and process live orders
• Kitchen Display System (KDS) for real-time workflow
• Update order status (Placed -> Preparing -> Ready -> Collected)
• Validate tokens at pickup

Super Admin

• Add hotels and create hotel admins
• Assign hotel admins to hotels
• Manage users (block/unblock)
• View system dashboards and metrics
• Monitor peak hours and delays

🔄 System Workflow (Demo Flow)

1. Student logs in and selects a hotel
2. Student places an order and receives a token
3. Student completes payment
4. Hotel Admin receives order in Orders/KDS view
5. Hotel Admin updates order status to Ready
6. Student tracks order and collects food using token
7. Super Admin monitors system activity and metrics

This demonstrates a complete end-to-end digital ordering flow.

🛠️ Technology Stack

Frontend:

• React.js
• CSS
• Axios

Backend:

• Python Flask (REST APIs)

Database:

• MySQL

Tools:

• Git & GitHub
• Postman

🗂️ Project Structure

Team-6/
|-- app.py
|-- canteen_management_system.sql
|-- README.md
`-- smartcanteen-frontend/
    |-- public/
    `-- src/
        |-- components/
        |-- services/
        `-- pages/
            |-- Student pages
            |-- Hotel Admin pages
            |-- Super Admin pages
            `-- Order, Payment & Token pages

🗄️ Database Overview

Main tables used:

• users
• hotels
• menu_items
• pickup_slots
• orders
• order_items
• order_tokens
• payments

🚀 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+ and npm
• MySQL Server

Backend Setup

1. Create database and tables using:
   • canteen_management_system.sql
2. Update database credentials in app.py.
3. Install dependencies:

pip install flask flask-cors mysql-connector-python

4. Run backend:

python app.py

Backend runs at:

http://127.0.0.1:5000

Frontend Setup

1. Navigate to frontend folder:

cd smartcanteen-frontend

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Run frontend:

npm start

Frontend runs at:

http://localhost:3000

🌍 Real-World Impact

SmartCanteen helps institutions by:

• Reducing physical queue length
• Saving student time between classes
• Improving canteen efficiency during rush hours
• Providing transparency in order handling
• Digitizing operations for better accountability

It can be applied in:

• Colleges
• Office cafeterias
• Hostels
• Food courts

🔮 Future Scope

Planned enhancements include:

• Real payment gateway integration (UPI/Card)
• QR-based token scanning
• Push notifications for order updates
• AI-based rush prediction and smart slot recommendations
• Inventory management system
• Analytics dashboards for peak hours and sales
• Multi-campus deployment with cloud hosting
• Enhanced security with JWT and encrypted passwords

📌 Demo Tip

For project demonstration:

• Start with Student flow (place order -> token -> payment -> track order)
• Switch to Hotel Admin to update order status and validate token
• Show Super Admin dashboard for system monitoring

🏁 Conclusion

SmartCanteen is a complete digital food ordering and token management system that makes campus food service:

Faster, smarter, and more organized.