jhipster-intro-as-a-route-to-rapid-development-of-a-robust-java-back-end.md

Regarding

[prototyping] some backend functionality for a WebApp (using GraphQL or REST to CRUD a json feed...) (message on coda.io forum)

JHipster, and open-source tool for generating webapps with Java (Spring) back ends is great at this and can give you some excellent bonus features for free. Potential entry points, or things you may want to touch on along the way:

• Their introductory video
• Use JDL-Studio to map out the schema for an app.
• Use JHipster to generate the webapp, and use the resulting README to get it started. Options include:
  • what to generate
    • just the back end (along with scripts to populate a DB, and/or even run the DB within Docker containers)
    • just a front end (outside scope of your question)
    • a set of microservices (1 or more back ends, with or without a front end, with or without an API gateway)
  • how to generate
    • answer questions on JHipster Online and download a .zip file of ready-out-of-the-box made application
    • answer questions via a command line tool (Scroll down to #2, 3, or 4 here)
  • how to design your schema
    • one entity at at time via the command line tool (scroll down to Tutorial here)
    • using the surprisingly fun JDL-Studio tool or one of the more powerful IDE integrations
  • how to apply schema to the webapp
    • one entity at a time (see above)
    • import the JDL file created via JDL-Studio, one of the IDE integrations, or - once comfortable - free-style coding

Note: The JDL can even be used to assign certain entities to certain microservices when generating the whole application via command line.

Reach out if you like.