Index: lams_build/conf/whiteboard/scripts/server.js
===================================================================
diff -u
--- lams_build/conf/whiteboard/scripts/server.js	(revision 0)
+++ lams_build/conf/whiteboard/scripts/server.js	(revision c2823eab17ca19196f00f2a26c0bad65823d7f2f)
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+const { getArgs } = require("./utils");
+const startFrontendDevServer = require("./server-frontend-dev");
+const startBackendServer = require("./server-backend");
+
+const SERVER_MODES = {
+    PRODUCTION: 1,
+    DEVELOPMENT: 2,
+};
+
+const args = getArgs();
+
+if (typeof args.mode === "undefined") {
+    // default to production mode
+    args.mode = "production";
+}
+
+if (args.mode !== "production" && args.mode !== "development") {
+    throw new Error("--mode can only be 'development' or 'production'");
+}
+
+const server_mode = args.mode === "production" ? SERVER_MODES.PRODUCTION : SERVER_MODES.DEVELOPMENT;
+
+if (server_mode === SERVER_MODES.DEVELOPMENT) {
+    console.info("Starting server in development mode.");
+    startFrontendDevServer(9003);
+    // this time, it's the frontend server that is on port 9003
+    // requests for the backend will be proxied to prevent cross origins errors
+    startBackendServer(3000);
+} else {
+    console.info("Starting server in production mode.");
+    startBackendServer(process.env.PORT || 9003);
+}