Spring Boot Introduction

 

Spring Boot Introduction

Spring Boot is a popular open-source framework for building and deploying web applications based on the Spring Framework. It provides a simplified way to create standalone, production-grade Spring-based applications that can be up and running quickly with minimal configuration.

Spring Boot aims to make it easy to create and run web applications by providing a set of pre-configured components that are commonly used in web applications, such as embedded servers, database connectivity, and security features. These components are pre-configured with sensible defaults, reducing the need for developers to spend time configuring and integrating them manually.

 

Some key features of Spring Boot include:

Standalone executable JAR files: Spring Boot applications can be packaged as a single executable JAR file that includes all the necessary dependencies, making it easy to deploy and run the application.

Auto-configuration: Spring Boot provides a set of default configurations that are automatically applied to your application based on the dependencies you include, reducing the amount of boilerplate code you need to write.

Embedded servers: Spring Boot includes several embedded servers such as Tomcat, Jetty, and Undertow, making it easy to deploy your application without the need for an external server.

Spring Actuator: A set of production-ready features that allow you to monitor and manage your application.

Easy integration with other Spring projects: Spring Boot can be easily integrated with other Spring projects such as Spring Security, Spring Data, and Spring Cloud, making it easy to build complex applications.

Overall, Spring Boot is a powerful and flexible framework that simplifies the process of building and deploying web applications, making it an ideal choice for developers who want to focus on writing code and building applications rather than spending time on configuration and integration.

Spring Boot History

Spring Boot was first released in 2014 by the Spring team at Pivotal. The framework was created to simplify the process of building and deploying web applications based on the Spring Framework. Prior to the release of Spring Boot, developers had to manually configure various components such as embedded servers, database connectivity, and security features, which could be time-consuming and error-prone.

The first version of Spring Boot, version 1.0, was released in April 2014. It introduced several key features such as auto-configuration, which allowed developers to automatically configure their applications based on the dependencies they included. It also introduced the concept of starters, which are a collection of pre-built dependencies that can be used to quickly add common functionality to an application.

In May 2015, Spring Boot 1.2 was released, which added several new features, such as support for Groovy templates, improved error handling, and an improved actuator API for monitoring and managing applications.

Spring Boot 1.3 was released in December 2015, and it introduced several new features, such as support for Spring Security OAuth2 and the ability to run Spring Boot applications as Windows services.

Spring Boot 1.4, which was released in August 2016, added several new features, such as support for Kotlin, improved testing support, and the ability to run the application as a Docker container.

Spring Boot 2.0 was released in March 2018 and introduced several major changes, including support for reactive programming with Spring WebFlux and improved support for Kotlin. It also introduced support for Spring Framework 5 and Java 9.

Since then, Spring Boot has continued to evolve and add new features, such as support for GraalVM, improved support for cloud platforms, and improved performance. Today, Spring Boot is widely used in the industry and has become a popular framework for building and deploying web applications based on the Spring Framework.