Backend development setup

v1.0

Installing development tools After you’ve installed WSL2 and Docker Desktop, you can start installing the tools necessary to contribute to o

Installing development tools After you’ve installed WSL2 and Docker Desktop, you can start installing the tools necessary to contribute to our backend codebase. Step 1: Install Scoop Scoop is a command-line package manager for Windows that allows you to install apps without having to leave the terminal. It also makes setup easy by hiding GUI installers, handling dependencies, and installing apps without need for admin rights. Install Scoop by copy-pasting this entire block on your terminal. Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://get.scoop.sh | Invoke-Expression When prompted, click “Paste anyway,” then hit Enter to run the second command. Step 2: Installing Core Tools You’ll be able to appreciate Scoop following these steps. You never have to leave the terminal when installing the dev tools! Run this on your terminal: scoop install git Run this on your terminal: scoop bucket add extras
scoop bucket add java Run this on your terminal: scoop install openjdk21 idea-ultimate Isn’t IDEA Ultimate a paid IDE? Why download that? As of IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, the Community and Ultimate versions are consolidated into one installer. Upon installation of IDEA Ultimate, you will likely be given a 30-day free trial without needing to enter any payment information. However, you can safely deactivate this trial, which will put you in the free Community version. Why IntelliJ IDEA instead of VS Code? IntelliJ IDEA is still the leading Java IDE, and with the free GitHub Student Developer pack, you can gain free access to the Ultimate version while you’re a student , unlocking advanced support for the Spring framework (which we use in this project) and more. Getting used to IntelliJ IDEA is a resume skill. That said, you may stick with VS Code if you wish, but I will not be able to provide support beyond basic setup. scoop install github Setting up the tools After installing all the tools, you are now ready to set up the tools so you can start coding or testing! Step 1: Set up GitHub Desktop and clone the repository You can just use the default directory when asked where to clone. After doing these steps, the repository should be good to go on your machine! Step 2: Open the project on IntelliJ Do not select the root emma folder. Doing so will confuse the IDE and may break things unexpectedly. Instead, select the backend folder when opening the project. You may see several loading stages (see below) as the project loads. Open any Java class in the project (you will find them in `src/main/java/dev.ailuruslabs.emmaserver). You will likely be met with tons of errors in the file and an IDE warning like the following: Simply click “Configure…” , select the JDK we installed in the previous steps (JDK 21), and the errors should be resolved. Look to the right side of the window and find the database icon. Open it and click the + icon, then press “Import Data Sources…” . IntelliJ should auto-detect the database configuration from the project’s application.yml file (found in src/main/resources ). Make sure to download the missing driver files . Hit OK to save the data source. You may be prompted to set the Default SQL Dialect on the bottom right of the screen. Press “set PostgreSQL” when prompted. If you don’t see this prompt, you may have to open IncidentRepository.java first. Step 3: Running the server After all that, you should now be ready to run the server on your local machine! Make sure you’re able to reach the app’s homepage without seeing any errors. In IntelliJ, press the green play button beside the text “EmmaServerApplication” , and it should start the server! When you press the play button, you should start seeing logs appear. Spring Boot will automatically start the Docker container defined by the project’s compose.yaml . You may see it download and extract resources for a while; just let it run. When everything is working fine, you should see this on both the IDE and Docker Desktop. Open your browser and navigate to localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html . You should see this page: If you do, everything is working, and you’re ready to start contributing to the backend!