Milo as a Service (MiloAAS)

Milo as a Service (MiloAAS) is a backend web API built using Java and Spring Boot.
The goal of this project is to practice building a production-style, enterprise-inspired backend with layered architecture, authentication, authorization, and cloud-ready infrastructure.

The business domain is intentionally simple — serving photos of my cat Milo 🐈 — so the focus stays on backend design, security, and maintainability.

Core Features (Planned)

• Retrieve random Milo photos
• Authentication & authorization using JWT
• Role-based access control (VIEWER, CONTRIBUTOR, ADMIN)
• User-contributed Milo photos
• Enterprise-style layered architecture
• Structured logging & consistent error handling

A detailed breakdown of the API design lives in docs/endpoints.md.

Architecture Overview

MiloAAS follows a three-layer architecture:

• Controller layer – REST APIs, DTOs, validation
• Service layer – business logic & authorization
• Repository layer – persistence using Spring Data JPA

Infrastructure:

• PostgreSQL (Docker)
• Object storage for images (planned)

Getting Started

TL;DR

The intended way to run MiloAAS is via VS Code Dev Containers.
This provides a fully reproducible development environment with Java, Maven, PostgreSQL, and debugging tools preconfigured.

No local Java, Maven, or PostgreSQL installation is required.

Prerequisites

You need:

• Docker Desktop
• VS Code
• VS Code extension: Dev Containers

That’s it.

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Running the App (Dev Containers + Docker Compose)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/miloaas.git
cd miloaas

2. Open in Dev Container

In VS Code:

Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → Dev Containers: Reopen in Container

What happens automatically:

• The Dev Container is built (Java, Maven, CLI tools)

• PostgreSQL is started via docker compose

• Both services are attached to the same Docker network

• No manual Docker commands required.

3. Start the Spring Boot application

Inside the Dev Container terminal:

./mvnw spring-boot:run

4. Access the API

• API base URL: http://localhost:8080

• PostgreSQL: internal Docker network (milo-db:5432)

Example health check:

curl http://localhost:8080/actuator/health

Database Config

The application connects to PostgreSQL running as a Docker service.

Spring configuration (simplified):

spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:postgresql://milo-db:5432/milo
    username: milo
    password: secret

The hostname is milo-db, not localhost.

Dev Container Tooling

The Dev Container includes debugging tools used during development:

• psql – connect to PostgreSQL directly
• netcat (nc) – test network connectivity
• curl – test API endpoints

These tools are intentionally kept in the container for future debugging and observability.