From a Simple Spring Boot Blog to a GitHub Trending HR System

1. Origin

In November 2017 the author's company’s Shenzhen branch shut down while the Beijing headquarters kept operating. Because the parent company was listed in Hong Kong, he was not overly worried about unpaid wages, and he also wanted to avoid a rushed job search during the year‑end hiring freeze.

He stayed on until the end of January 2018, using the downtime to think about his next steps.

2. First Attempt – V Blog

He chose the then‑popular Spring Boot + Vue stack to quickly build a simple blog backend called “V Blog”. The project featured markdown editing, article publishing, and category display, and he completed it in less than a week.

After publishing, he wrote a brief README with screenshots and deployment instructions, but it attracted little attention. Early users reported many basic issues, revealing that many developers were unfamiliar with front‑back separation and Vue tooling.

3. The “Micro HR” Project

Learning from V Blog, he started a more feature‑rich HR management system ("Micro HR") using the same Spring Boot + Vue stack. Unlike the previous project, he documented each new feature as he implemented it, tagging releases on GitHub so newcomers could follow the development step by step.

He posted frequent commits (often every one or two days) until the company officially closed on January 31, 2018. During the holiday break he added a WebSocket‑based online chat feature.

4. All In

Motivated by pure interest, he worked late nights, often cycling to the office, brainstorming implementations during rides, and coding immediately upon arrival. This intense focus led to rapid progress despite the company’s dwindling staff.

He also shared anecdotes of working late on Christmas Eve, riding his bike home, and eating a simple meal while observing a quiet street scene.

5. Trending Success

Months later a colleague informed him that the Micro HR repository had appeared on GitHub Trending. He reflected on his earlier lack of proper documentation and realized that a well‑written README and consistent updates are crucial for gaining visibility.

The project, built with Spring Boot and Vue, now includes comprehensive documentation and a live demo link.

6. Advice for Beginners

He recommends newcomers start with the simpler V Blog project to grasp basic front‑back separation concepts before tackling the more complex Micro HR system.

For those just learning Java, he also points to another open‑source project, “CoolMeeting”, which offers a more complete feature set albeit with less detailed documentation.

Overall, the author emphasizes that treating your own project with care—through clear documentation and regular updates—greatly increases its impact and usefulness to the community.