Issuetracker

Backend for a crowd-sourced mobile issue reporting application (Java + Spring Boot).

Summary

• Purpose: report nearby issues (with location and optional image), track their lifecycle and comments.
• Backend: Java + Spring Boot (JPA / Hibernate)
• Database: PostgreSQL with PostGIS for location geometry
• Mobile client: Flutter (mobile app not included in this repository)

Key features

• Create and view geolocated issues (PostGIS Point column)
• Issue lifecycle tracked via an enum (IssueStatus)
• JPA entities, Spring Data JPA repositories and REST endpoints

Repository layout (top-level)

• src/main/java/... — backend Java sources (entities, controllers, services)
• src/main/resources/application.properties — runtime configuration
• pom.xml — Maven project file
• compose.yaml — local development compose (if present)

Prerequisites

• Java JDK 17 (recommended LTS) — confirm java -version on your machine.
  • The project pom.xml exposes a java.version property; adjust or confirm it if you need to compile with a different JDK.
• Maven 3.8+ (or latest). Verify with mvn -version.
• PostgreSQL (13+) with PostGIS extension (geometry column used in Issue entity).
• pgAdmin (optional, for GUI DB management).

Database setup (PostgreSQL + PostGIS)

1. Install PostgreSQL and PostGIS. On Windows you can use the Postgres installer that includes Stack Builder to add PostGIS, or use the distro of your choice.
2. Create the database and a user (replace password values):

# run in PowerShell or psql shell (adjust paths/usernames accordingly)
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE issue_tracker;"
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE USER tracker_user WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'tracker_pass';"
psql -U postgres -c "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE issue_tracker TO tracker_user;"

3. Enable PostGIS in the new database (run from psql -d issue_tracker or pgAdmin query tool):

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS postgis;

4. Configure connection in src/main/resources/application.properties (defaults included in the repo):

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/issue_tracker
spring.datasource.username=tracker_user
spring.datasource.password=tracker_pass
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update

Notes about schema changes and existing columns

• This project uses spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update by default. That setting lets Hibernate add new columns and tables but it does not remove or rename existing columns.
• To remove stale/unused columns manually (recommended for production only after reviewing data), use pgAdmin or psql:

ALTER TABLE issue DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS status;

• Alternatively, use a destructive reset in development (DESTROYS DATA):

# in application.properties (temporary)
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create

Then restart the app and switch ddl-auto back to update.

Build and run (backend)

1. Build with Maven (from project root):

mvn clean install

2. Run the application (from project root):

mvn spring-boot:run

3. Confirm the app is running (defaults):

• The server typically starts on http://localhost:8080 unless overridden in application.properties.

pgAdmin notes

• Use pgAdmin to connect to localhost:5432 and the issue_tracker database.
• Use the Query Tool to run the DDL statements above (PostGIS extension, ALTER TABLE to remove old columns).

PostGIS geometry column

• The Issue entity declares the location column as geometry(Point,4326); make sure PostGIS is installed and the extension is enabled in the database before the app attempts to persist geometry values.

Troubleshooting

• If connection gets refused on pgAdmin, then do windows + R and check if Postgres service is running. If not, click on Run.