HR Management System (Java RMI)

A client-server Human Resource Management system for a start-up, built with Java RMI. HR staff register employees and generate yearly reports; employees manage their own profile and family details and handle leave. All data is stored centrally and all client-server traffic is encrypted.

Built as a group project for the Distributed Computer Systems module (Year 3, Semester 1). The scenario company is "BHEL".

Project status

Work in progress. Updated as pull requests are merged.

Area	Status
Shared contract (HRMService, data classes, exceptions)	Done
RMI over TLS connection	Done
Database schema and data-access layer (MySQL)	Done
Service logic (login, employee registration, leave, yearly report)	Done
Swing client (HR and employee screens)	Done: login, password change, connection handling, employee screens (leave, details, family) and HR screens (employees, leave requests, yearly report)
Test manual, use case diagram, demo walkthrough	Planned

Features

Actor	Capabilities
HR staff	Register employees (first name, last name, IC/passport number), approve or reject leave, generate a yearly report per employee (profile, family details, leave history)
Employee	Log in, view/update own profile and family details, check leave balance, apply for leave, check leave application status
System	Central database, TLS-secured RMI, role-based access, thread-safe server, client retry on server failure

Architecture

Swing GUI client  --(RMI over TLS)-->  RMI server  --(JDBC)-->  Database
 (HR / Employee)                      (service layer)

• Remote interface: HRMService is the contract between client and server.
• Data classes: Employee, FamilyMember, LeaveApplication, YearlyReport implement Serializable.
• Layers: client GUI, remote interface, service logic, data access.

Requirements

• JDK 25 (LTS) or newer (any OS). Older Java will not build this project.
• Apache Maven 3.9+ (NetBeans, IntelliJ and Eclipse can open the pom.xml directly)
• MySQL 8.4 (the team's chosen database, see DECISION.md)
• Git

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/Maneet7805/hr-management-system-java-rmi.git
cd hr-management-system-java-rmi

Quick start (Windows)

Needs JDK 25, Maven, MySQL 8.4 with the hrm database and a MySQL user hrm_app, and its password saved as HRM_DB_PASSWORD in your Windows user settings.

1. Once: double-click setup.bat. It chooses a password for the development keys and saves it in your Windows user settings (never in a file of the project), makes the keys and the settings files, creates the database tables, and offers to create the first HR account. It never overwrites a settings file you already have.
2. Every time: double-click run.bat. It starts MySQL if it is not running, builds the program, starts the server in the background, opens the window, and stops the server again when you close the window.

If MySQL is installed somewhere else, set HRM_MYSQLD (full path of mysqld.exe) and HRM_MYSQL_DATA (its data folder). If something goes wrong, the message says what to do; the server's own messages are in target/server.log.

The manual steps below do the same things one by one, for other systems or for running from an IDE.

Manual setup

1. Install the tools listed under Requirements.
2. Create the TLS keystore and truststore with scripts/generate-keys.sh (macOS/Linux) or scripts/generate-keys.bat (Windows).
3. For each file in config/, copy *.example.properties to the same name without .example and fill in your values. The real files are git-ignored.
4. Set HRM_DB_PASSWORD, HRM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD and HRM_TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD as environment variables.
5. Create the database tables (see Creating the database tables).

To create the first HR account, start the server and open the client, follow Manual first run.

Creating the database tables

To create the tables in the development database hrm, run com.bhel.hrm.server.db.DatabaseSetupMain (it needs HRM_DB_PASSWORD).

Testing

The system is tested by hand. Follow the cases in docs/test-manual.md and record what you see in the same file, using your part's ID prefix (P1-, P2-, P3-, P4-).

Manual first run (for example from an IDE)

Set these environment variables in the run configuration, never in a file: HRM_DB_PASSWORD, HRM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD, and for the client HRM_TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD.

1. scripts/generate-keys.bat makes the development keystore and truststore.
2. Copy config/server.example.properties to config/server.properties and config/client.example.properties to config/client.properties.
3. Run DatabaseSetupMain to create the tables.
4. Run com.bhel.hrm.server.SeedHrMain to create the first HR account. It asks for the name, IC/passport number and password (typed without echo). With no console, pass the three details as arguments and set HRM_SEED_PASSWORD.
5. Run com.bhel.hrm.server.HrmServerMain to start the server, then com.bhel.hrm.client.SmokeTestMain to check the connection.
6. Run com.bhel.hrm.client.HrmClientMain to open the window and log in. If the server is not running yet, the login screen says so and you can try again; the client also retries by itself for a few seconds.

Passwords are stored only as salted PBKDF2 hashes. An employee registered by HR gets a temporary password and must change it at first login.

Project layout

pom.xml                          build file (Maven, Java 25)
config/                          *.example.properties templates; real config and keystores are git-ignored
scripts/                         generate-keys.sh / .bat (local TLS keys); setup.ps1, run.ps1, common.ps1 (used by setup.bat and run.bat)
setup.bat, run.bat               one-time setup and everyday start (Windows)
src/main/java/com/bhel/hrm/
  common/                        HRMService remote interface + model/ data classes (shared contract)
  net/                           TLS and RMI helpers shared by client and server
  server/                        RMI server and HRMServiceImpl (business rules)
    service/                       rules per area: auth, employees, leave, reports
    dao/                           data-access interfaces
    dao/jdbc/                      JDBC implementations
    db/                            connection setup
    security/                      sessions, password hashing, deserialization filter
  client/                        client entry point and server connection
    ui/                            Swing screens
src/main/resources/              SQL schema and other resources
docs/                            test manual and diagrams

Secrets are never stored in files: set HRM_DB_PASSWORD, HRM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD and HRM_TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD as environment variables.

Known gaps

Open work is tracked in GitHub issues: client timeouts, HR password reset and employee edit/deactivate, running on two computers, macOS/Linux support, fault tolerance and the Payroll System.

Documentation

• CONTRIBUTING.md: how to work on a branch and open a pull request
• DECISION.md: running log of project decisions and why they were made
• docs/test-manual.md: manual test cases
• docs/diagrams/: use case and architecture diagrams

Team workflow

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before making changes. In short: never push to main, work on a branch, open a pull request, get one teammate to review it.

main is protected: changes need a pull request, and the test check in CI must pass before merging. Use the issue templates in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE for tasks and bugs.

License

Released under the MIT License.