USTA Gallery: Plataforma web para gestión y exhibición del semillero de artes

Abstract

USTA Gallery is a web platform developed as a undergraduate thesis project by Oscar Javier Cardozo Díaz at Universidad Santo Tomás, Tunja campus, under the supervision of Ing. Manuel Leonardo Castro Barinas. The problem: the university's arts semillero lacked a digital channel. Artwork was only visible at in-person exhibitions, with no participation records or data to justify the group's continuity before university authorities. The solution: a full-stack platform with a NestJS/Bun backend, PostgreSQL database managed with Prisma ORM (21 tables), and a React 19 frontend with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. The entire system runs on Docker Compose over a Linux virtual machine provided by the university's TIC group, accessible at gallery.santototunja.edu.co. The system features three roles — student, teacher and administrator — JWT authentication stored in an HttpOnly cookie, and email verification via OTP. It includes 10 functional modules: artwork management with a PENDING → APPROVED / REJECTED workflow, a public gallery, cultural event management with a group invitation system, and a real-time class attendance module added as a scope extension beyond the original objectives. Testing was conducted in two layers: 95 unit tests with Jest at 100% pass rate, and 125 integration requests with Newman covering 9 modules. Result: all 4 specific objectives met and the platform fully operational in production. Main limitation: the semillero was inactive during development. Future work includes multi-tenancy support, WebSockets notifications, and an institutional analytics module.