💸 SplitBill — Group Expense Tracker & Settlement System

SplitBill is a beginner-friendly full-stack web application developed in PHP and MySQL for an undergraduate CSE course project. It allows roommates, travel groups, and friends to track shared expenses, calculate net balances, and generate a simplified "Settle Up" plan with minimal payment transactions.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

• Backend: Procedural PHP (mysqli)
• Database: MySQL (relational database with foreign keys)
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3 (Modern, Responsive Vanilla CSS), Vanilla JavaScript
• Local Server: XAMPP (Apache + MySQL)

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📁 Project Structure

SplitBill/
│
├── css/
│   └── style.css            # Clean, modern, responsive CSS stylesheet
├── js/
│   └── script.js            # Vanilla JavaScript form validation & checkbox toggles
├── sql/
│   └── schema.sql           # Database schema, table definitions & starter demo data
├── includes/
│   ├── header.php           # Common HTML header, navigation bar & session detection
│   └── footer.php           # Common HTML footer & script tag
│
├── db.php                   # Database connection script using plain mysqli
├── index.php                # Welcoming landing page & feature overview
├── register.php             # User registration with password_hash()
├── login.php                # User login with password_verify() and session start
├── logout.php               # Session destruction and logout handler
├── dashboard.php            # Group creation and group list
├── group.php                # Core group page: expenses, member balances & settle-up
└── README.md                # Documentation & viva presentation guide

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🚀 Setup Instructions (Step-by-Step for XAMPP)

Step 1: Install & Launch XAMPP

1. Download and install XAMPP.
2. Open the XAMPP Control Panel.
3. Click Start next to Apache and MySQL. Both should turn green.

Step 2: Place the Project in htdocs

1. Make sure this SplitBill folder is located inside your XAMPP htdocs directory:

   C:\xampp\htdocs\SplitBill   (or D:\XAMPP\htdocs\SplitBill)
   

Step 3: Import the Database

1. Open your web browser and go to: http://localhost/phpmyadmin
2. Click on the Import tab at the top.
3. Click Choose File and browse to SplitBill/sql/schema.sql.
4. Click Import (or Go) at the bottom.
5. The database splitbill_db and its tables will be created automatically with sample demo data.

Step 4: Open SplitBill in Browser

1. In your browser, navigate to:

   http://localhost/SplitBill
   

2. You should see the SplitBill landing page!

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🔑 Demo Accounts (For Quick Testing & Viva)

The database includes 3 pre-configured demo users that belong to a demo group called "Trip to Cox's Bazar":

Name	Email	Password
Tanvir Ahmed	tanvir@example.com	password123
Sarah Khan	sarah@example.com	password123
Rahim Chowdhury	rahim@example.com	password123