EmbarkX Full-Stack Demo

A minimal full-stack app used to demonstrate deploying to a VPS with Docker and CI/CD.

• backend/ – Spring Boot 4.1 (Java 25, Maven)
• frontend/ – React 19 + Vite 8, plain CSS

Prerequisites

• Java 25
• Node.js 20.19+ (or 22.12+)

You don't need Maven installed – the backend ships with the Maven Wrapper (mvnw / mvnw.cmd).

Run locally

Use two terminals: one for the backend, one for the frontend.

1. Backend (http://localhost:8080)

macOS / Linux

cd backend
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Windows (PowerShell)

cd backend
.\mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

Windows (Command Prompt)

cd backend
mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

2. Frontend (http://localhost:5173)

Same on every OS:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. The Vite dev server proxies /api to the backend on port 8080.

Run with Docker

cp .env.example .env      # then edit the values
docker compose up -d --build

Open http://localhost. After changing .env, run docker compose up -d again to apply it (docker compose restart does not pick up changes). Stop everything with docker compose down.

The Nginx config used in production is in frontend/nginx.conf.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/message	Returns message, version, serverTime
GET /actuator/health	Health check

Configuration (environment variables)

Variable	Default
APP_MESSAGE	Hello from EmbarkX
APP_VERSION	local

Variables are read once, when the backend starts. Set them in the same terminal you start the backend from, then restart the backend so the new values take effect.

macOS / Linux (bash, zsh)

One-off, for a single run:

APP_MESSAGE="Hello from my Mac" APP_VERSION="1.0.0" ./mvnw spring-boot:run

Or for the whole terminal session (note the export – without it the variable is not passed to the app):

export APP_MESSAGE="Hello from my Mac"
export APP_VERSION="1.0.0"
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:APP_MESSAGE = "Hello from Windows"
$env:APP_VERSION = "1.0.0"
.\mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

Windows (Command Prompt)

No quotes around the value – CMD would include them in the message.

set APP_MESSAGE=Hello from Windows
set APP_VERSION=1.0.0
mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

Any OS: pass the values as arguments

This doesn't rely on the shell's environment at all:

./mvnw spring-boot:run -Dspring-boot.run.arguments="--APP_MESSAGE='Hello from args' --APP_VERSION=1.0.0"

On Windows, use .\mvnw.cmd (PowerShell) or mvnw.cmd (CMD) in place of ./mvnw.

Running the built JAR

cd backend
./mvnw clean package

# macOS / Linux
APP_MESSAGE="Hello from the JAR" APP_VERSION="1.0.0" java -jar target/backend-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:APP_MESSAGE = "Hello from the JAR"; $env:APP_VERSION = "1.0.0"
java -jar target\backend-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Running from IntelliJ / VS Code

IDE run configurations do not inherit variables set in a terminal. Add them in the run configuration instead:

• IntelliJ: Run → Edit Configurations → BackendApplication → Environment variables → APP_MESSAGE=Hello from IntelliJ;APP_VERSION=1.0.0
• VS Code: add "env": { "APP_MESSAGE": "Hello from VS Code", "APP_VERSION": "1.0.0" } to the launch configuration in .vscode/launch.json

Verify

curl http://localhost:8080/api/message

(PowerShell: Invoke-RestMethod http://localhost:8080/api/message)

Still seeing the defaults?

An older backend instance is probably still running on port 8080. The new one then fails with "Port 8080 was already in use", and you keep talking to the old one. Stop it, then start again:

• macOS / Linux: lsof -i :8080 to find the PID, then kill <PID>
• Windows: netstat -ano | findstr :8080 to find the PID, then taskkill /PID <PID> /F

Build

cd backend && ./mvnw clean package   # -> backend/target/backend-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
cd frontend && npm run build         # -> frontend/dist/

On Windows, use mvnw.cmd clean package for the backend.