October, 26th 2025 4 min read
Full-stack CRM system built with Spring Boot, React, and Docker

Full-stack CRM system built with Spring Boot, React, and Docker

🌐 Live Demo

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GitHub Repository

GitHub - Full-stack CRM system

🚀 Project Overview

SimpleCRM is a lightweight yet extensible Customer Relationship Management system designed to track customer data, interactions, and follow-up tasks in a clean, structured way.

The project focuses on clarity, scalability, and real-world usability, starting with a solid foundation and evolving toward more advanced CRM capabilities such as analytics, automation, and integrations.

Although currently implemented as a functional base version, the architecture is intentionally designed to support future enhancements.

🛠️ Technology Stack

Backend

  • Java 21
  • Spring Boot (Web, Data JPA, Security)
  • REST API architecture
  • MapStruct (DTO mapping)
  • Lombok

Frontend

  • React
  • Material UI (MUI)
  • Axios

Database

  • MySQL
  • JPA / Hibernate

DevOps & Infrastructure

  • Docker
  • Docker Compose (multi-container setup)

Architecture

  • Layered architecture (Controller → Service → Repository)
  • Scheduled background jobs
  • Scalable, containerized system design

System diagram (Current implementation + planned architecture)

Docker Environment

Database Layer

Backend - Spring Boot

Frontend Layer

HTTP / Axios

1:N

1:N

Optional

Update Overdue Tasks

Recalculate Health Score

React App (MUI)

Controller Layer

Service Layer

Repository Layer (JPA)

Security Layer (Spring Security)

Mapper Layer (MapStruct)

MySQL Database

Customer

InteractionLog

Task

Frontend Container

Backend Container

Database Container

Scheduled Jobs

🧠 Core Concept

At its heart, SimpleCRM revolves around three core entities:

  • Customers — who you work with
  • Interactions — how you communicate
  • Tasks — what needs to be done

This structure reflects real business workflows, making the system both practical and intuitive.

🗂️ Data Model

The backend is built around a relational schema with three main tables:

Customer

Stores essential contact and identification details:

  • Name, email, phone, address
  • Creation timestamp
  • Acts as the central entity

Interaction Log

Tracks all communication history:

  • Calls, emails, meetings, notes
  • Linked to a specific customer
  • Includes summaries and detailed notes

Task

Manages follow-ups and action items:

  • Deadlines, priority levels, and status
  • Can be linked to customers and/or interactions
  • Supports lifecycle states: OPEN, COMPLETED, OVERDUE

⚙️ Backend Design

The backend exposes a clean REST API that enables full CRUD operations and business-specific queries.

Key Capabilities

  • Customer management (create, update, delete, view)

  • Interaction tracking per customer

  • Task management with filtering (status, priority, deadlines)

  • Derived insights such as:

    • Overdue tasks
    • Upcoming deadlines
    • Customers needing attention

Data Integrity & Safety

  • No cascade delete → protects historical interaction data

  • Controlled persistence using:

    • PERSIST (create)
    • MERGE (update)

⏱️ Automation & Background Processing

The system includes logic for handling time-based behavior:

  • Tasks automatically become OVERDUE based on deadlines
  • Implemented via scheduled background jobs
  • Ensures the database reflects real-world time progression

📊 Customer Health Scoring

A key planned feature is a Customer Health Score, designed to prioritize engagement:

Factors include:

  • Interaction frequency
  • Recency of communication
  • Interaction quality (meeting > call > email > note)
  • Task completion status

Outcome:

  • 🟢 Healthy
  • 🟡 At risk
  • 🔴 Needs attention

This enables smarter decision-making and proactive follow-ups.

🧩 Frontend Architecture

Customer View

Customer View

Edit Customer

Edit Customer

Confirm Deletion

Confirm Deletion

Create Interaction

Create Interaction

Built with a modern React-based stack:

  • React + Material UI (MUI) for a polished interface
  • React Router for navigation
  • Axios for API communication

UI Structure

Master–Detail Layout:

  • Left / main section → Customer overview
  • Right / detail section → Interactions and activity

Features

  • Searchable customer navigation
  • DataGrid for interaction history
  • Modal-based workflows (create/view logs)
  • Clean, component-driven design

📅 Timeline Visualization (Planned)

A future enhancement introduces a unified activity timeline:

Instead of separate tables, users see a chronological story:

  • Customer created
  • Emails sent
  • Calls logged
  • Tasks created / overdue

This improves usability and aligns with how users naturally think about customer relationships.

🔮 Future Enhancements

The project roadmap includes features commonly found in production-grade systems:

  • Authentication & role-based access (JWT/OAuth2)
  • Soft deletes with recovery
  • Pagination & filtering for scalability
  • Export functionality (CSV/PDF)
  • Error handling with UI notifications
  • DTO mapping for clean architecture
  • Global exception handling
  • ERP integrations (e.g., SAP, Dynamics)
  • Audit logging
  • Machine learning for customer risk scoring

🏗️ Design Philosophy

SimpleCRM is built with:

  • Separation of concerns (clean backend/frontend boundaries)
  • Extensibility (easy to add features without refactoring core logic)
  • Real-world alignment (mirrors actual CRM workflows)
  • Data safety (no accidental data loss)

📌 Current Status

✅ Core system implemented and functional 🚧 Advanced features in planning / partial implementation

This project serves both as:

  • A working CRM foundation
  • A blueprint for a more advanced, production-ready system

💡 Key Takeaway

SimpleCRM demonstrates how a minimal system can evolve into a powerful platform by starting with strong fundamentals and layering in intelligent features over time.