Add pre-requisites instructions to server setup (#1217)

contributions/ServerSetup.md

@@ -1,14 +1,22 @@
 ## Running Server Codebase
-- We use the Spring framework in Java for all backend development.
+
-- We use `maven` as our build tool.
+The server codebase is written in Java and is powered by Spring + WebFlux. This document explains how you can setup a development environment to make changes and test your changes.
-- We use pf4j as a library for plugins.
+
-- We use MongoDB for our database.
+## Pre-requisites
-- We use IntelliJ as our primary IDE for backend development
+
+- Java --- OpenJDK 11.
+- Maven --- version 3+ (preferably 3.6).
+- A MongoDB database --- A simple way to get this up is explained [further down in this document](#setting-up-a-local-mongodb).
+- A Redis instance --- A simple way to get this up is explained [further down in this document](#setting-up-a-local-redis).
+- An IDE --- We use IntelliJ IDEA as our primary IDE for backend development.
+
+## Steps for Setup
 
 1. After cloning the repository, change your directory to `app/server`
 
 2. Run the command  
-```bash
+
+```sh
 mvn clean compile
 ```  
   
@@ -16,7 +24,7 @@ This generates a bunch of classes required by IntelliJ for compiling the rest of
 
 3. Create a copy of the `envs/dev.env.example` 
 
-    ```shell script
+```sh
 cp envs/dev.env.example .env
 ```
 
@@ -25,6 +33,7 @@ This command creates a `.env` file in the `app/server` folder. All run scripts p
 4. Modify the property values in the file `.env` to point to your local running instance of MongoDB and Redis.
 
 5. In order to create the final JAR for the Appsmith server, run the command:
+
 ```
 ./build.sh
 ```
@@ -36,8 +45,33 @@ This command will create a `dist` folder which contains the final packaged jar a
 ```
 ./scripts/start-dev-server.sh
 ```
+
 By default, the server will start on port 8080.
 
 7. When the server starts, it automatically runs migrations on MongoDB and will populate it with some initial required data.
 
-8. 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 blank page.
+8. 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 a blank page.
+
+## Setting up a local MongoDB
+
+The following command can bring up a MongoDB docker instance locally.
+
+```sh
+docker run -p 127.0.0.1:27017:27017 --name appsmith-mongodb -e MONGO_INITDB_DATABASE=appsmith -v /path/to/store/data:/data/db mongo
+```
+
+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).
+
+When using this command, the value of `APPSMITH_MONGODB_URI` should be set to `mongodb://localhost:27017/appsmith` (which is what's provided in the example env file).
+
+## Setting up a local Redis
+
+The following command can bring up a Redis docker instance locally.
+
+```sh
+docker run -p 127.0.0.1:6379:6379 --name appsmith-redis redis
+```
+
+When using this command, the value of `APPSMITH_REDIS_URI` should be set to `redis://localhost:6379`.