10 Spring Boot Features That Make Java Development Easier

Spring boot, which is developed by the renowned Spring team, has made Java Programming much easier. Think of it as a toolbox full of handy tools that save a lot of time and effort for Java developers and make the user experience much better. With the Spring Boot, developers don’t have to write the same code over and over, saving them time. Basically, Spring Boot has tools that make hard tasks easy.

Spring Boot is a great start for beginners as it is easy to used as the spring boot provides create the spring boot starter project there is no need to set up things and go through the tricky setups, it just needs to add some basic required dependencies like Web Spring, Database (MYSQL or any other), Spring Data JPA, Spring Security, Eureka server, Eureka Discovery Client, and it goes with your specifications for the application and the requirements.

Spring Boot Features For Java Development

Spring Boot helps Java web application development through its various features to build stable and reliable applications with minimal setup. These features not only make the process more simple but also increase the efficiency of developers. Now, Let’s dive into 10 key features that make Spring Boot a go-to choice for Java developers.

To learn more about Spring Boot, refer to his article: Introduction to Spring Boot

1. Auto Configuration

The spring boots use the annotation ‘@SpringBootApplication’ that triggers auto-configuration, which automatically sets up your application based on the libraries present in the classpath. It auto-configures your application based on what it sees, thus eliminating the need for specifying beans in the configuration file manually.

2. Standalone Nature

Spring Boot applications are self-contained, meaning they can run independently without relying on any external server. This facilitates microservices architecture, as developers can run the application independently without the need for an external server (like Tomcat). The embedded server (like Tomcat) is part of the deployable unit, and simplifies deployments.

3. Production Ready

It has built-in tools for checking the health and performance of apps. Spring boot provides tools and features that are really out-of-box. Through the Actuator module, the Spring Boot provides out-of-the-box endpoints which are much more efficient for monitoring and managing production applications. These include metrics, health checks, environment info, and more.

4. No Code Generation

This keeps things clean with no unnecessary code. Here the developer is only needed to solely focus on the business logic, rest spring boot tool can handle as spring boot doesn’t generate code and there’s zero requirement for XML configuration which reduces the boilerplate code.

5. Opinionated Defaults

Spring Boot offers ‘opinionated’ starter POMs (Project Object Model), that is a ‘pom.xml’ file which simplifies your build configuration. These defaults cover everything from the external server that is embedding the Tomcat, Jetty, or Undertow servers to configuring Spring’s JPA. It offers ready-to-use settings for faster setup, you can also manually add dependencies in the ‘pom.xml’ file as per your requirement.

6. Supports Microservices

Modern apps have moved from one big piece to many smaller parts that work together. This new style is called “microservices”. Spring Boot is a top tool for creating these small parts easily. The microservices provides the seamless integration with the spring cloud robust frameworks, it has an ability to embed the external servers like Tomcat, Jetty, or Undertow directly into your application that allows each microservice to run as its own standalone unit, and this encapsulation ensures that the services are lightweight and independent.

With spring boot, each microservice has its own distinct database, it has easy scalable and flexible deployment, that centralised configuration. Spring Cloud, in conjunction with tools like Eureka, offers dynamic service discovery. This ensures that microservices can find and communicate with each other with ease as well as spring boot allows for efficient API gateway integrations, ensuring secure and optimised requests and responses between client and services.

7. Embedded Servers

Spring Boot supports the popular embedded servers like Tomcat, Jetty, and Undertow. This means that your applications can run as standalone Java applications with an embedded web server and there’s no need to deploy WAR files, as you can run the application directly from the main method.

8. Extensive Plugin Support

Spring Boot has many tools to help build and handle apps. One tool, the Spring Boot Maven plugin, makes it easy to package and start the app. Another web tool lets developers set up a new Spring Boot app quickly by choosing features they want. It simplifies the usual complexities, ensuring a smooth start for any project.

9. Customizable

You can change the settings any time whenever it’s needed, even though spring boot has its own set ways of doing things, as it’s very flexible. Where the developers can change their various parts of the applications like settings, components, or setups and other which means they can adjust the program just how they like. So, while Spring Boot offers a clear path to get started and has the customizable feature.

10. Extensions

It easily connects with other tools and libraries, provides a multitude of extensions for various tasks like connecting with databases, messaging, caching, etc. This means you can readily integrate a vast array of third-party libraries and tools, through its starters. These starters are pre-configured templates with a set of default plugins and are designed for quick setup and integration of technologies like JPA, Thymeleaf, Security, etc.

Conclusion

Spring Boot has changed the way we do Java programming. It makes the whole setup of the application much easier, it has reduced the repetitive code and makes the application faster, and is great for both beginners and pros to working on the spring boot applications. As more people want quick and small services, the spring boot is there to give the quick response within less time, although it has become a top choice for many Java programmers nowadays. If you haven’t tried Spring Boot yet, give it a go. It could make your coding work much easier and it seems more interesting when the harder task gets easy.

FAQs on Spring Boot Features For Java Development

1. What is Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is a framework that is build on the top of Spring framework to simplifies creation of Java application. It offers ready-to-use templates and reduce the need for configuration which is very helpful in making a stable and reliable application.

2. What are the top Spring Boot features?

Here are the top Spring Boot features that is very helpful in Java Development process:

1. Auto Configuration
2. Production Ready
3. Supports Microservices
4. No Code Generation
5. Extensive Plugin Support

3. How Spring Boot helps in web development?

Spring Boot simplifies the web development process by providing build-in templates and features such as embedded servers and auto-configuration. These things will help the developers to create a reliable and stable web application.