A playful client and project management dashboard built with Laravel.
Clientboard started as a learning project to deepen my knowledge of PHP, Laravel and full-stack development while keeping the interface visually creative. Instead of building a standard admin dashboard, I wanted to create a small workspace for managing clients, projects, progress and deadlines with a more distinctive UI.
- Client management
- Create, edit and delete clients
- Project creation and editing
- Project cards with status and progress
- Project detail drawer
- Editable deadlines
- Project archive and restore flow
- Permanent deletion protection for active projects
- Notes per project
- Client filtering
- Dashboard statistics
- Next-deadline overview
- Responsive dashboard layout
- Interactive UI states
- Custom animated landscape interface
- Form validation and database persistence
- Laravel
- PHP
- Blade
- JavaScript
- Tailwind CSS
- MySQL
- Vite
- Git
Clientboard follows Laravel's MVC structure.
The application uses Eloquent models for clients, projects and notes.
Relationships include:
- A client has many projects
- A project belongs to a client
- A project has many notes
- A note belongs to a project
Application logic is separated into dedicated controllers:
DashboardControllerClientControllerProjectControllerNoteController
Dashboard logic is handled by DashboardController, keeping routes/web.php focused on routing rather than queries and presentation logic.
Client validation is handled through a dedicated Laravel Form Request.
This keeps validation rules outside the controller and gives the controller a clearer responsibility.
Project actions also validate incoming data before updating the database.
Project statuses are centralized using a PHP enum:
- Design
- Development
- Waiting for feedback
- Done
This avoids repeating status values throughout the application and creates a single source of truth for the project workflow.
While developing Clientboard, I focused increasingly on keeping the code structured and maintainable.
Some examples include:
- Separating dashboard logic from route definitions
- Using controllers for application logic
- Using Form Requests for validation
- Using Eloquent relationships instead of manually connecting records
- Centralizing workflow states with a PHP enum
- Keeping routes focused on mapping URLs to controller actions
- Using small, focused Git commits while refactoring
The project is still intentionally a learning project, but it has also been used to practice applying MVC and SOLID principles in a real Laravel application.
Clientboard was my first larger Laravel application.
During the project I worked with:
- Laravel routing
- MVC architecture
- Controllers and request handling
- Laravel Form Requests
- Blade templates
- Database migrations
- Eloquent models and relationships
- PHP enums
- CRUD operations
- Form validation
- JSON responses
- Connecting front-end interactions to backend functionality
- Organising a larger application into clearer responsibilities
- Refactoring existing code for maintainability
- Git and incremental commits
Coming from mainly WordPress and front-end development, Clientboard helped me better understand how a modern PHP framework structures an application and how the different layers of an application work together.
Clone the repository and install the PHP dependencies:
composer installInstall the front-end dependencies:
npm installOn Windows PowerShell, use npm.cmd install if script execution blocks npm.ps1.
Create your local environment file and application key:
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generateConfigure the database connection in .env, then run the migrations:
php artisan migrateStart the Laravel development server:
php artisan serveIn a second terminal, start Vite:
npm run devOn Windows PowerShell, npm.cmd run dev can be used instead.
Run the test suite:
php artisan testCreate a production front-end build:
npm run buildOn Windows PowerShell, use npm.cmd run build if needed.
Clientboard is a learning and portfolio project. The core client and project management flows are functional, and I continue to use the project to practise Laravel architecture, maintainability and full-stack development.