A native Android client for COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus (CUIIT) students
to manage, download, and submit assignments — and view your weekly timetable — without ever opening a browser.
Battle-tested. This app has been personally used by the developer to submit real assignments through the COMSATS student portal. Every feature has been validated in production, not just on paper.
Assignly is a purpose-built Android client for the COMSATS Student Information System (SIS) portal. It authenticates using your student credentials, scrapes the assignment portal, and presents everything in a clean and usable interface — with one-tap download and upload support, a full weekly timetable planner, background sync with push notifications, and automatic update detection.
No more squinting at a tiny browser, fighting with broken mobile web layouts, or missing deadlines buried inside a clunky table.
- Log in using your COMSATS registration number (e.g.
SP25-BCS-001) and password. - Credentials are stored using Android EncryptedSharedPreferences (AES-256 encryption) — never in plain text.
- On app launch, Assignly automatically signs you in using saved credentials. No re-typing required.
- Existing plain-text credentials from older versions are automatically migrated to encrypted storage.
- Logout clears all saved credentials and session cookies immediately.
Upon logging in, a personalised card greets you with:
- Your full name, parsed from the portal.
- Your profile photo, fetched directly from the portal.
- A dynamic status message that adapts to your workload:
| Pending Assignments | Message Tone |
|---|---|
| 3 or more | Sarcastic roast |
| 1–2 | Motivational nudge |
| None | Genuine appreciation |
| No assignments posted yet | A gentle jab at your professors |
A horizontally scrollable table surfaces your currently actionable pending assignments:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
# |
Row number |
Course Title |
The course this assignment belongs to |
Title |
Assignment name |
Start Date |
When the assignment was posted |
Deadline |
Full deadline with time |
Status |
Pending |
Download |
Tap to fetch instruction files |
Submit |
Tap to pick and upload a file |
A tappable card at the top of the assignments list shows at a glance:
- Total assignments across all states
- Pending count — highlighted in yellow
- History count — highlighted in green
Tapping this card navigates to the full Assignment History screen.
A fully integrated timetable viewer fetches your semester schedule directly from the portal:
- Swipe navigation — swipe left and right to smoothly move between days of the week.
- Pill-style day selector — tap Mon through Sat to jump to any day. The current day is automatically selected on open.
- Smart HTML parsing — extracts clean structured data from the portal's raw timetable, including multi-word lab names (e.g. "DLD Microprocessor Lab", "Physics Lab").
- Compact class cards showing course name, session type (Lecture/Lab), time, room, and instructor.
- Live "Now" indicator — highlights the class currently in progress.
- Next Class widget — shows your upcoming class at a glance when viewing today's schedule.
- Offline caching — timetable data is cached locally so it loads instantly on subsequent opens.
- Performance optimised — pre-grouped data, memoized computations, and keyed lists for buttery smooth scrolling.
- Tap Download on any assignment to fetch instruction files attached by your professor.
- A dialog lists all available files, each with its own Download button.
- Files are saved to a location of your choice via Android's native file picker.
- Handles both direct file URLs and ASP.NET PostBack-based download triggers.
- Follows redirect chains up to 6 hops deep to resolve the actual file.
- Detects and skips HTML error pages masquerading as valid downloads.
- Tap Upload File on any pending assignment to open the file picker.
- Accepts any file type — the portal supports
.zip,.rar,.doc,.docx, and.pdf. - Handles both standard form submissions and ASP.NET PostBack-based upload flows.
- Preserves the original file extension when uploading.
- On success, automatically refreshes the assignment list so your submission is immediately reflected.
- Provides clear error messages for: wrong file format, file too large, assignment closed, network failure, or server timeout.
- Upload timeout is 90 seconds, with retry logic for transient network errors.
A dedicated screen lists submitted items and missed closed submissions:
- Shows course name, assignment title, deadline, and submission state.
- Missed deadlines appear with a Not Submitted tag.
- Colour-coded Open / Closed status based on a live deadline comparison.
- If the deadline is still open, a "Change File" button lets you re-upload a corrected submission.
- A "Download Instructions" button remains available regardless of deadline status.
- Instructor feedback is displayed when available.
Assignly works even when you're not looking:
- Periodic background sync via WorkManager fetches new assignments every 6 hours (configurable in settings).
- New assignment alerts — push notifications for newly posted assignments you haven't seen yet.
- Deadline reminders — automatic reminders at 24 hours, 6 hours, and 1 hour before each deadline.
- Upload & download progress — notification channels for ongoing file transfers.
- Smart notification permission flow — prompts for notification access on first launch (Android 13+), and gently re-prompts on the 3rd app open of the day if notifications are still disabled.
- All notification channels are individually configurable in app settings.
- Checks the GitHub Releases API for newer versions using version code tags (e.g.
vc12). - In-app update dialog — shown every time you open the app when a newer version is available, with a direct link to download.
- Background update notification — fires once per day via the background sync worker as a passive reminder.
- Supports update download via the Assignly website with automatic fallback to GitHub releases.
Hit the refresh icon in the top bar at any time to re-fetch your assignments and timetable from the portal. Profile photo and student name are also re-synced on refresh.
Instead of a blank screen or a spinner, Assignly shows animated shimmer skeleton screens while data loads — with separate skeleton layouts for the Pending and Historical screens so transitions feel natural.
A dedicated settings screen lets you configure:
- Background sync toggle and interval (1–24 hours)
- Notification preferences — independently toggle assignment alerts, deadline reminders, upload notifications, and update notifications
- Download behaviour — ask every time, or download directly
- Theme mode — Light, Dark, or follow System default
- Automatic retry with exponential backoff for transient
IOExceptionerrors (up to 3 attempts). - Login timeout: 45 seconds. Upload timeout: 90 seconds.
- Descriptive error messages distinguish between: timeout, no internet, wrong credentials, CAPTCHA triggered, and generic server errors.
If the COMSATS portal triggers a CAPTCHA (e.g. after too many failed attempts), Assignly detects this and shows a clear message advising you to log in via browser first to clear it.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Language | Kotlin |
| UI | Jetpack Compose + Material 3 |
| Networking | OkHttp 4 |
| HTML Parsing | Jsoup 1.18 |
| Credential Storage | AndroidX Security Crypto (EncryptedSharedPreferences) |
| Background Work | AndroidX WorkManager |
| Build System | Gradle (Kotlin DSL) |
| Min SDK | Android 8.0 (API 26) |
| Target SDK | Android 15 (API 35) |
- Android Studio Hedgehog or newer
- JDK 21 (configured via Gradle toolchain)
- An active COMSATS student account at sis.cuiatd.edu.pk
git clone https://github.com/danycli/assignmentchecker.git
cd assignmentchecker
./gradlew assembleDebugOr open the project in Android Studio and hit Run.
./gradlew assembleReleaseRelease builds enable R8 minification and resource shrinking. Android Log calls are stripped via ProGuard rules.
app/src/main/java/com/danycli/assignmentchecker/
├── MainActivity.kt # App entry, navigation, update & notification dialogs
├── MainViewModel.kt # ViewModel bridging use cases to UI
├── PortalRepository.kt # All networking: login, fetch, upload, download, timetable
├── PortalUseCases.kt # Clean architecture use cases
│
├── Assignment.kt # Assignment data model, status enum, deadline parsing
├── Timetable.kt # TimetableLecture data model
├── SettingsModels.kt # Settings enums (DownloadBehavior)
├── ThemeMode.kt # Theme mode enum
├── UiModels.kt # Shared UI models
│
├── AppSettingsStore.kt # App preferences (sync, notifications, theme)
├── AssignmentCacheStore.kt # Offline assignment cache
├── TimetableCacheStore.kt # Offline timetable cache
├── CredentialsStore.kt # Encrypted credential storage
├── NotificationPromptStore.kt # Daily open tracking & notification prompt state
├── UpdateNotificationStore.kt # Update notification dedup
│
├── AssignmentNotifications.kt # Notification channels & assignment alerts
├── AssignmentReminderWorker.kt # Deadline reminder WorkManager worker
├── BackgroundSyncWork.kt # Periodic sync scheduler & worker
├── DownloadWork.kt # Background download worker
├── UploadWork.kt # Background upload worker
├── DownloadQueueStore.kt # Download queue persistence
├── UploadQueueStore.kt # Upload queue persistence
├── DownloadNotifier.kt # Download progress notifications
├── UploadNotifier.kt # Upload progress notifications
│
├── AppUpdateChecker.kt # GitHub Releases API version checker
├── UpdateNavigationManager.kt # Update download URL resolution
├── UpdateNotifier.kt # Update available notification
├── NotificationGate.kt # Notification permission check utility
│
├── SecurityUtils.kt # Crypto utilities
├── IoRetry.kt # Retry with backoff helper
├── UiUtils.kt # UI constants & helpers
├── SettingsScreen.kt # Settings UI
│
└── ui/
├── AssignmentsScreen.kt # Pending assignments UI
├── HistoryScreen.kt # Assignment history UI
├── LoginScreen.kt # Login screen UI
├── TimetableScreen.kt # Timetable bottom sheet UI
├── CommonUi.kt # Shared UI components & skeletons
└── theme/ # Material 3 theming
SP25-BCS-001
│ │ └── Roll number (zero-padded)
│ └────── Program code (e.g. BCS, BEE, BBA)
└─────────── Session (SP = Spring, FA = Fall + 2-digit year)
The app automatically normalises your input to uppercase and parses the three parts separately to populate the portal's session dropdown, program dropdown, and roll number field.
This is an unofficial third-party client for the COMSATS SIS portal. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or maintained by COMSATS University. Use it responsibly and in accordance with your institution's policies.
Built by danycli — a student who got tired of the portal's web experience and decided to fix it.
Made with frustration, caffeine, and Jetpack Compose.