rbibli - Personal Library Management System

A modern, full-featured personal library management system built entirely in Rust using Slint for the user interface. Designed for small-scale use (friends and family) with a focus on simplicity, data integrity, and flexible deployment options.

✨ Features

Currently Implemented (Phase 3 - ~88% Complete)

• 📚 Title Management - Full CRUD operations with ISBN lookup via Google Books API
• 📖 Volume Management - Track multiple physical copies per title with unique barcodes
• ✍️ Author Management - Complete biographical information and title associations
• 🏢 Publisher Management - Company details and catalogs
• 🎭 Genre Management - Categorize your collection
• 📚 Series Management - Organize titles into series (e.g., Asterix, Harry Potter)
• 📍 Location Management - Hierarchical storage organization (House > Room > Shelf)
• 👥 Borrower Management - Track who you lend books to
• 👪 Borrower Groups - Organize borrowers with custom loan policies
• 📅 Loan Management - Barcode-based lending with automatic due dates
• 📊 Statistics Dashboard - Visual analytics for your library:
  • Library overview (titles, volumes, authors, genres, active/overdue loans)
  • Volumes per genre with bar charts
  • Volumes per location
  • Loan status breakdown
• 🔍 Dewey Decimal Classification - Manual code entry and categorization
• 🌐 Multi-language Support - Internationalization infrastructure ready

Architecture Highlights

• Title/Volume Separation - Titles represent abstract book metadata, volumes are physical copies
• Barcode System - Code 128 format for volume tracking (VOL-XXXXXX)
• Hierarchical Locations - Organize storage with parent-child relationships
• Trust-Based Lending - Simple loan management without complex restrictions
• Cross-Platform UI - Native desktop now, WASM for web deployment later

🛠️ Technology Stack

Frontend

• Slint 1.14.1 - Declarative UI framework for native and web
• Rust - Type-safe, memory-safe systems programming language
• Reqwest - HTTP client for API communication
• WASM Optimization - Configured for minimal binary size (~55MB -> optimized)

Backend

• Actix-web 4.11.0 - High-performance web framework
• Tokio 1.47.1 - Async runtime
• SQLx - Compile-time verified SQL queries
• MariaDB - Production-grade relational database

Development Approach

• Native-first - Develop as desktop app for faster iteration
• WASM-ready - Same codebase will compile to WebAssembly for browser deployment
• Client-Server - REST API backend with native/web frontend options

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable) - Install from rustup.rs

• MariaDB/MySQL - Installation guide

• SQLx CLI - For database migrations:

  cargo install sqlx-cli --no-default-features --features mysql

Docker

You can run rbibli using Docker. Official images are available on Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/gcorbaz/rbibli

Example docker-compose.yml:

services:
  rbibli:
    image: gcorbaz/rbibli:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      # Database Connection
      # Note: Use APP__ prefix (double underscore) for configuration
      - APP__DATABASE__URL=mysql://user:password@db:3306/rbibli
      # Optional: Individual fields can also be used
      # - APP__DATABASE__HOST=db
      # - APP__DATABASE__USERNAME=user
      # - APP__DATABASE__PASSWORD=password

Configuration: The application is configured entirely via environment variables.

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/rbibli.git
   cd rbibli

2. Set up the database

   a. Configuration Create a .env file in the project root:

   DATABASE_URL=mysql://rbibli:your_password@127.0.0.1:3306/rbibli
   HOST=127.0.0.1
   PORT=8000

3. Run database migrations

   cd backend
   sqlx database create
   sqlx migrate run

4. Start the application

   Option A: Docker (Recommended)

   docker compose up --build

   The application will be available at http://localhost:8080.

   Option B: Manual (Development) Start the backend:

   cd backend
   cargo run --release

   Start the frontend (in a new terminal):

   cd frontend
   trunk serve --release

   The frontend will be available at http://localhost:8080. Note: trunk serve is configured to proxy API requests to the backend at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

📖 Usage

Main Features

1. Manage Your Collection

   • Add titles with ISBN lookup for automatic metadata
   • Create multiple volumes (physical copies) per title
   • Organize volumes in hierarchical storage locations

2. Track Loans

   • Scan barcodes to check out books
   • Automatic due date calculation based on borrower groups
   • Visual indicators for overdue items

3. View Statistics

   • See which genres dominate your collection
   • Track where volumes are located
   • Monitor active and overdue loans

Navigation

• Titles - Browse and manage your book collection
• Locations - Organize physical storage spaces
• Authors - Manage author information
• Publishers - Track publishing companies
• Genres - Categorize your books
• Series - Organize titles into series collections
• Loans - Check out, return, and manage loans
• Statistics - View library analytics
• About - Application information

📁 Project Structure

rbibli/
├── frontend/           # Slint UI application
│   ├── src/           # Rust source code
│   │   ├── main.rs    # Entry point
│   │   ├── models.rs  # Data structures
│   │   └── api_client.rs  # HTTP client
│   └── ui/            # Slint UI files
│       ├── app-window.slint
│       ├── pages/     # Page components
│       └── side_bar.slint
├── backend/           # REST API server
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs    # Server entry point
│   │   ├── handlers/  # API endpoints
│   │   └── models/    # Database models
│   └── migrations/    # SQLx database migrations
└── documentation/     # Detailed documentation
    ├── requirements.md
    ├── architecture.md
    ├── api.md
    └── ...

📚 Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in the documentation/ folder:

• Requirements - Complete functional specifications
• Architecture - Technical design and data models
• API Documentation - REST API endpoints
• Development Setup - Detailed setup instructions
• Planning - Development roadmap

🎯 Development Status

Current Phase: Late Phase 3 (88% Complete)

✅ Completed

• Database integration with 15 migrations
• Full CRUD for titles, authors, publishers, genres, series, locations
• Volume management with barcode support
• Complete loan management system
• Statistics dashboard with visualizations
• ISBN lookup integration
• Dewey Decimal Classification (Manual input)
• Series management with title associations
• Cover image upload API

🔄 In Progress

• Title-Author relationship management
• WASM compilation support (Async UI refactoring complete)

⏳ Planned (Phase 4)

• Barcode generation (Code 128)
• Import/export functionality (CSV, JSON)
• Duplicate detection algorithms
• Cover image upload UI
• Progressive Web App (PWA) features

🔑 Key Concepts

Title vs Volume

The system makes a crucial distinction:

• Title - Abstract book metadata (ISBN, authors, genre, summary)
• Volume - Physical copy with unique barcode, condition, location

This allows:

• Wishlist functionality (titles with 0 volumes)
• Multiple copies tracking
• Individual volume notes and locations

Barcode System

• Volume Barcodes - VOL-000001 (Code 128) for physical copies
• ISBN Barcodes - Standard EAN-13 for title identification

Loan Management

• Title-based requests, volume-specific fulfillment
• Automatic due date calculation based on title type
• Simple, trust-based system (no fines or suspensions)

🤝 Contributing

This is currently a personal project. Feel free to fork and adapt for your own use!

📄 License

Licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Slint - Cross-platform UI framework
• Actix-web - Web framework
• SQLx - SQL toolkit
• Google Books API - ISBN metadata lookup

📬 Contact

For questions or suggestions, please open an issue on GitHub.

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Built with ❤️ using Rust and Slint