Introduction

Welcome to the Backend Team at Wavelet/Big Ledger! We’re excited to have you on board and help you get started with our backend development environment. This section will provide you with an overview of our environment, the tools we use, and the resources available to you.

Our backend operations primarily rely on the Java programming language, which serves as the foundation for creating robust backend services. We’ve built our backend framework using the Java Spring framework, coupled with essential tools and applications that streamline the backend development process. Some of these tools include DBeaver for efficient database management, PGadmin for PostgreSQL database control, Postman for API call testing, and Spotlight for clear API documentation. As you journey through our backend world, you’ll become familiar with these tools that play a crucial role in our development workflow.

General Environment Overview

  • Repository: Most of our backend-related code resides in the blg-akaun-platform-java repository. This is where you’ll find the core of our backend system, including RESTful API endpoints, database interactions, automated tests, job processors and much more.

  • Development, Staging, and Production: We operate in three distinct environments: development, staging, and production. Each environment has its own database and configuration settings to ensure that changes are thoroughly tested before they go live. Here are some links if this is your first time hearing these terms.

    • Development (akaun.dev): This is where you’ll do most of your coding and testing. It allows for rapid iteration and experimentation.

    • Staging (akaun.cloud): Staging mimics the production environment closely. It’s used for final testing and quality assurance before deploying changes to production.

    • Production (akaun.com): Our live environment where our application is accessible to users. Changes are deployed here only after thorough testing in the staging environment.

Software Tools Overview

To streamline our development process, we use the following software tools:

  • IntelliJ IDEA: We strongly recommend using IntelliJ IDEA as your Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It offers excellent Java support and integrates seamlessly with our codebase.

  • Postman: Postman is our go-to tool for testing API endpoints. It allows you to send requests, inspect responses, and ensure that our APIs function correctly.

  • DBeaver: DBeaver is a universal database tool that helps you interact with our databases efficiently. You’ll use it for database exploration, querying, and management.

  • Stoplight: Stoplight is our collaborative API design platform. It’s an integral part of our workflow, making API documentation and testing efficient. You can also use Stoplight to call APIs on various environments.

Some links to help you get a feel of the topics that are important in the backend:

  1. What is Backend?

  2. What is a RESTful API?

  3. The anatomy of an API call

Below are a couple of links of recorded sessions of seniors going through the setup. It covers most of what this documentation covers and it can serve as a good reference while you go through this documentation. Bigledger setup training links:

  1. Backend setup and training link 1

  2. Backend setup and training link 2

Before you dive into the repositories, ensure that you have SSH access set up and Bitbucket permissions granted. This will usually be part of your orientation issues. You’ll need these set up before you can clone repositories and collaborate with the team.

After going through the documentation thoroughly, feel free to reach out to your team members if you have any questions or need assistance with any of these aspects. We’re here to support you on your journey to becoming a backend development pro!