chore(backend): local-path-configs

[sabrina553]

Description

Introduce environment variables for path-config and backdrop-folder.

Linked Issue

fixes #1592

Changes

1. added APP_PATH_CONFIG and APP_BOOKDROP_FOLDER to application.yaml as Environment variables
2. added application-dev.yaml to reflect (1) as well as database configuration for the backend_db docker service
3. updated backend/development.md to reflect the changes above.

Manual Testing Steps

1. ran api within IDE, just run, dev-up, and just image-build && just image-run with and without environment variables set.
2. verifying that they worked in unity across both dev environment and user environment

Screenshots (Optional)

Additional Context (Optional)

AI Disclosure

None

Checklist

• This PR links and implements an accepted issue.
• This PR is a single focused change.
• There are new or updated tests validating this change.
• I ran just ui check and just api check.
• I have added screenshots if there were any UI changes.
• I have disclosed any AI usage as per the organization AI Policy above.
• I understand all of my submitted changes.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Clarified development setup with explicit IDE profile/workdir guidance and examples to run in dev mode; documents the default development configuration file.

• Chores

  • Added a default development configuration and made key application paths and datasource settings configurable via environment variables for simpler local and containerized development.

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

Parameterize application paths with environment variables, add an application-dev.yaml dev profile with app path and datasource defaults, and update DEVELOPMENT.md with instructions to use the dev profile and IDE/bootRun settings.

Changes

Development Configuration Externalization

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Environment-driven application configuration backend/src/main/resources/application.yaml, backend/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml	Base configuration now reads app.path-config and app.bookdrop-folder from APP_PATH_CONFIG and APP_BOOKDROP_FOLDER with defaults. New application-dev.yaml provides development defaults for app.* and spring.datasource using DATABASE_URL, DATABASE_USERNAME, and DATABASE_PASSWORD fallbacks (localhost MariaDB defaults).
Development setup and IDE configuration backend/DEVELOPMENT.md	Documented that application-dev.yaml is the default development configuration and added IDE instructions: Spring Boot active profile/work directory and Gradle bootRun args to enable the dev profile.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant SpringBoot
  participant ConfigFiles
  participant Database
  SpringBoot->>ConfigFiles: load `application.yaml` (env placeholders)
  SpringBoot->>ConfigFiles: load `application-dev.yaml` when 'dev' profile active
  SpringBoot->>Database: connect using `spring.datasource` (env or defaults)

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Suggested reviewers

• imajes
• balazs-szucs

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check	✅ Passed	The PR description covers all required sections with adequate detail: objectives, linked issue, changes, manual testing steps, and AI disclosure.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes fully implement issue #1592 requirements: APP_PATH_CONFIG and APP_BOOKDROP_FOLDER environment variables are added to application.yaml and application-dev.yaml, enabling configurable data and bookdrop paths with environment variable support.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly related to the objective: environment variables for path configuration, development configuration file, and documentation updates—no unrelated or extraneous changes detected.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title 'chore(backend): local-path-configs' follows the conventional commit format with type and scope, and accurately describes the main change of making local paths configurable via environment variables.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

✨ Simplify code

• Create PR with simplified code

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@backend/DEVELOPMENT.md`:
- Around line 68-69: Add a blank line immediately after the "### IDE" Markdown
heading so the heading is properly separated from the following paragraph
("**Spring Boot:**  Active Profile = `dev`,"); update the section where the
heading "### IDE" appears to insert one empty line below it to satisfy
markdownlint MD022 and ensure correct rendering.

In `@backend/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml`:
- Line 7: The dev datasource URL overrides the base spring.datasource.url but
omits required connection params; update the default value for the `url`
property (the `${DATABASE_URL:...}` entry) so the fallback JDBC string includes
`createDatabaseIfNotExist=true`, `connectionTimeZone=UTC`, and
`forceConnectionTimeZoneToSession=true` (keeping the existing host/port/schema
and allowing env override via DATABASE_URL) to restore parity with the base
profile and avoid timezone/schema mismatches.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Repository YAML (base), Organization UI (inherited)

Review profile: ASSERTIVE

Plan: Pro

Run ID: e5bba260-257e-43f7-9a66-0cfb8e462ac2

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 32acb61 and 7eb184b.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• backend/DEVELOPMENT.md
• backend/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml
• backend/src/main/resources/application.yaml

📜 Review details

🧰 Additional context used

📓 Path-based instructions (1)

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• Jackson 3 (new package: tools.jackson.* instead of com.fasterxml.jackson.*)
• Hibernate 7.3.x (Jakarta Persistence 3.2, new APIs; avoid deprecated Hibernate 5/6 patterns)
• Angular 21 (signals-based reactivity, no NgModules unless legacy)

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• Prefer: records, sealed classes/interfaces, pattern matching (switch expressions, instanceof), structured concurrency (StructuredTaskScope), scoped values, string templates, unnamed patterns/variables.
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Files:

• backend/src/main/resources/application.yaml
• backend/DEVELOPMENT.md
• backend/src/main/resources/application-dev.yaml

🧠 Learnings (1)

📚 Learning: 2026-05-18T14:54:39.422Z

Learnt from: alexhb1
Repo: grimmory-tools/grimmory PR: 1379
File: frontend/src/assets/styles/tailwind.css:3-4
Timestamp: 2026-05-18T14:54:39.422Z
Learning: In the grimmory-tools/grimmory repository, Biome is not used for linting/formatting (no `biome.json` and no Biome dependency in `package.json`). During code reviews, do not raise Biome-related issues or recommend adding/changing `biome.json`/Biome dependencies for formatting or linting in this project.

Applied to files:

• backend/DEVELOPMENT.md

🪛 markdownlint-cli2 (0.22.1)

backend/DEVELOPMENT.md

[warning] 68-68: Headings should be surrounded by blank lines
Expected: 1; Actual: 0; Below

(MD022, blanks-around-headings)

🔀 Multi-repo context grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs

Linked repositories findings

grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs

• docs/installation.md — references bookdrop path and Docker volume mapping (./bookdrop:/bookdrop) and suggests creating ~/grimmory/bookdrop. [::grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs::docs/installation.md]
• docs/getting-started.md — instructs creating ~/grimmory/{...,bookdrop} and shows Docker mapping ./bookdrop:/bookdrop. [::grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs::docs/getting-started.md]
• docs/bookdrop.md — multiple references to /bookdrop and examples showing - /path/to/bookdrop:/bookdrop (UI screenshots and explanatory text). [::grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs::docs/bookdrop.md]
• sidebars.ts — contains entries linking Bookdrop docs (indirect consumer of bookdrop documentation). [::grimmory-tools/grimmory-docs::sidebars.ts]

Notes: I did not find occurrences of the new environment variable names (APP_PATH_CONFIG or APP_BOOKDROP_FOLDER) in this repo; docs currently assume /bookdrop or a host-mounted ./bookdrop path.

🔇 Additional comments (1)

backend/src/main/resources/application.yaml (1)

2-3: LGTM!

[imnotjames]

Good aside from the minor markdown nit

[imnotjames]

Thanks for the contribution!