From Spring Boot to Node.js: A Survivor’s Guide for the Brave and the Frustrated

From Spring Boot to Node.js: A Survivor’s Guide for the Brave and the Frustrated

So you’re a seasoned Spring Boot developer, living comfortably in the land of mvn clean install, fat JARs, and opinionated frameworks. And then one day someone drops Node.js and TypeScript in your lap. Suddenly, you’re knee-deep in npm, docker-compose, AWS SSO logins, and wondering why every dev tool insists on fighting with your VPN and Zscaler. Welcome to the club.

This post is for anyone making the switch. Consider it a survival guide—snarky, but practical.

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1. Same Problems, Different Ecosystem

Spring Boot had:

• Maven/Gradle → dependency management, builds, packaging

• Spring Boot plugins → self-contained fat JARs

• JUnit → unit tests

• Dockerfile + Compose → local runtime and networking

Node.js has its own stack:

• npm/yarn/pnpm → dependency management (and yes, lockfiles will bite you)

• ts-node / nodemon → live reload and hot-recompile for TypeScript

• Jest/Mocha/Chai → unit tests

• Dockerfile + Compose → same concepts, but wrapping JavaScript apps instead of JARs

Same architecture. More moving parts.

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2. Essential Tools for Node.js Survival

Here’s what you’ll want in your toolbox:

• nvm → Node Version Manager, like sdkman but for Node.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

nvm install 20

nvm use 20

• Prettier + ESLint → like Checkstyle + Spotless for your JS/TS code.

• Jest → testing framework (drop-in like JUnit).

• npm audit / Snyk → dependency security scanning.

• Docker Buildx / BuildKit → faster, smarter Docker builds.

• Tilt or Skaffold → if you’re headed toward Kubernetes dev workflows.

• aws-vault or saml2aws → clean AWS credential management.

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3. Local Dev Bootstrap: The Happy Path

You want a repeatable, team-friendly bootstrap flow. Something like:

# 1. Node setup

nvm use 20

# 2. Install dependencies

npm install

# 3. Run local build

npm run build

# 4. Spin up local services

docker-compose up --build

That gets you running locally with networking between services, just like docker-compose up does for Spring Boot microservices.

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4. AWS SSO Login and Artifactory (CodeArtifact)

If your Artifactory is hosted in AWS, here’s the recipe:

Step 1. Login via SSO

aws sso login --profile my-sso-profile

Step 2. Login to ECR for Docker Images

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-1 --profile my-sso-profile \

  | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <account_id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Step 3. Login to Artifactory (CodeArtifact) for npm packages

aws codeartifact login --tool npm \

  --repository my-repo \

  --domain my-domain \

  --domain-owner <account_id> \

  --profile my-sso-profile

That command updates your .npmrc so npm install pulls from your private Artifactory, not just the public registry.

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5. The Complete Picture

Think of it like this:

• Code layer: TypeScript + lint/test + hot reload

• Dependency layer: npm/yarn + Artifactory/CodeArtifact

• Packaging layer: Dockerfile + Compose (or Tilt/Skaffold)

• Infra layer: AWS CLI/SSO + aws-vault for creds

• Distribution layer: ECR/Artifactory for images and packages

• Team productivity: Prettier, ESLint, Jest, GitHub Actions/Jenkins

• Security layer: npm audit, Snyk, and yes… Zscaler

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6. Final Words

Switching from Spring Boot to Node.js isn’t about the language—it’s about the tooling. Spring Boot was opinionated and wrapped a lot of this for you. Node.js is… less so. The ecosystem is powerful, but it spreads the work across more tools.

The trick is to automate as much as you can. Write a bootstrap.sh or make dev script that wraps nvm use, aws sso login, npm install, and docker-compose up. Hand that to your team. Once it’s muscle memory, it feels a lot like mvn clean install && java -jar.

Until then? Welcome to the land of npm, where nothing is certain except dependency hell and the occasional VPN fight.