This document explains how you can setup a development environment for Appsmith server. As the server codebase is written in Java and is powered by Spring + WebFlux we need Java and Maven installed to build the code. In addition we also need one instance of MongoDB and Redis each to run Appsmith server. Lastly, we will set up IntelliJ IDEA to let you edit the code. Let's get those prerequisites installed on your machine.
>If you are not setting up a development environment you can get the Appsmith server up and running quickly with `Docker`. Please refer to the [Setup Guide](../app/server/README.md#run-locally-with-docker) on how to do that.
- A MongoDB database - Refer to the [Setting up a local MongoDB instance](#setting-up-a-local-mongodb-instance) section to setup a MongoDB instance using `Docker`.
- A Redis instance - Refer to the [Setting up a local Redis instance](#setting-up-a-local-redis-instance) section to setup a Redis instance using `Docker`.
- An IDE - We use IntelliJ IDEA as our primary IDE for backend development. To set it up, refer to the [Setting up IntelliJ IDEA](#setting-up-intellij-idea) section.
This document doesn't provide instructions to install Java and Maven because these vary between different operating systems and distributions. Please refer to the documentation of your operating system or package manager to install these. Next we will setup MondoDB and Redis using `Docker`.
Please change the `/path/to/store/data` to a valid path on your system. This is where MongoDB will persist it's data across runs of this container.
Note that this command doesn't set any username or password on the database so we make it accessible only from localhost using the `127.0.0.1:` part in the port mapping argument. Please refer to the documentation of this image to learn [how to set a username and password](https://hub.docker.com/_/mongo).
MongoDB will now be running on `mongodb://localhost:27017/appsmith`.
### Setting up a local Redis instance
The following command will start a Redis docker instance locally:
```sh
docker run -p 127.0.0.1:6379:6379 --name appsmith-redis redis
```
Redis will now be running on `redis://localhost:6379`.
This generates a bunch of classes required by IntelliJ for compiling the rest of the source code. Without this step, your IDE may complain about missing classes and will be unable to compile the code.
5. Ensure that the environment variables `APPSMITH_MONGODB_URI` and `APPSMITH_REDIS_URI` in the file `.env` point to your local running instances of MongoDB and Redis.
- If the volume containing docker's data root path (macOS: `~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms/0/`, Ubuntu: `/var/lib/docker/`) has less than 2 GB of free space, then the script may fail with the following error:
```
Check failed: Docker environment should have more than 2GB free disk space.
```
There are two ways to resolve this issue: (1) free up more space (2) change docker's data root path.
9. You can check the status of the server by hitting the endpoint: [http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080) on your browser. By default you should see an HTTP 401 error.
To run the project from within the IDE, you will need to make use of the run configuration that is part of the repository. The run configuration uses the [EnvFile](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7861-envfile) plugin to include environment variables in the path. Any and all tests can be run within the IDE by cloning this run configuration.
1. Install the plugin EnvFile from https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7861-envfile. This is required to load the environment configurations when the server starts.
2. Configure the Run/Debug configuration as shown in the screenshot below:
<imgwidth="1070"alt="Screenshot 2021-03-03 at 1 50 48 PM"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/458946/109775553-a6dcf780-7c27-11eb-8bfe-a5e34e14a3f8.png">
For being able to run or debug plugins, two are especially important:
- VM Options: `-Dpf4j.mode=development -Dpf4j.pluginsDir=appsmith-plugins` .
- Working Directory: The folder that contains `appsmith-server`, `appsmith-plugins` etc.
- If you are unable to resolve any issue while doing the setup, please feel free to ask questions on our [Discord channel](https://discord.com/invite/rBTTVJp) or initiate a [Github discussion](https://github.com/appsmithorg/appsmith/discussions) or send an email to `support@appsmith.com`. We'll be happy to help you.