Developing Your First Spring Boot Application

Leo Migdal

-Nov 6, 2025, 7:22 PM

developing your first spring boot application

This section describes how to develop a small “Hello World!” web application that highlights some of Spring Boot’s key features. You can choose between Maven or Gradle as the build system. The spring.io website contains many “Getting Started” guides that use Spring Boot. If you need to solve a specific problem, check there first. You can shortcut the steps below by going to start.spring.io and choosing the "Web" starter from the dependencies searcher. Doing so generates a new project structure so that you can start coding right away.

Check the start.spring.io user guide for more details. Before we begin, open a terminal and run the following commands to ensure that you have a valid version of Java installed: If you want to use Maven, ensure that you have Maven installed: Posted on Jun 17, 2024 • Edited on Jun 24, 2024 Creating a Spring Boot application involves several steps. Below is a guide to help you get started with a simple Spring Boot application:

Prerequisites Java Development Kit (JDK): Ensure you have JDK 8 or later installed. IDE: An Integrated Development Environment like IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, or VSCode. Maven/Gradle: Build tools for managing project dependencies. 1. Set Up Your Project You can set up your project using Spring Initializr or manually. 1.

Project: Maven Project 2. Language: Java 3. Spring Boot: Latest stable version 4. Project Metadata: Fill in Group, Artifact, and other details. 5. Dependencies: Add dependencies like Spring Web, Spring Data JPA, H2 Database, etc.

Java enterprise development has historically required complex configuration files and extensive boilerplate code. Spring Boot revolutionizes this approach by providing a streamlined, convention-over-configuration framework that has fundamentally changed how we build Java applications. In today's fast-paced development environment where rapid deployment cycles are essential, mastering Spring Boot has become indispensable for any Java developer. Spring Boot was born from the frustrations developers encountered with the traditional Spring Framework. While Spring provided robust dependency injection and enterprise-grade features, it demanded extensive XML configuration and significant setup time. Spring Boot eliminates these obstacles through intelligent defaults and seamless automatic configuration.

Imagine Spring Boot as a master chef who has already prepared all ingredients and arranged every tool before you begin cooking. You don't need to specify how to combine basic ingredients because those decisions follow established best practices. However, you maintain complete flexibility to customize any aspect when your specific requirements demand it. Spring Boot's core philosophy centers on its opinionated approach to application development. When you add a database dependency to your project, Spring Boot automatically configures the connection pool, transaction manager, and JPA settings without any manual intervention. This apparent "magic" stems from Spring Boot's auto-configuration system, which analyzes your classpath and configures components based on proven patterns and common use cases.

We'll start by creating our project using Spring Initializer, which you can access at start.spring.io. This web-based tool represents the recommended approach for bootstrapping Spring Boot projects efficiently. Spring Boot is the most popular Java framework that is used for developing RESTful web applications. In this article, we will see how to create a basic Spring Boot application.Spring Initializr is a web-based tool using which we can easily generate the structure of the Spring Boot project. It also provides various different features for the projects expressed in a metadata model. This model allows us to configure the list of dependencies that are supported by JVM.

Here, we will create the structure of an application using Spring Initializr and then use an IDE to create a sample GET route. Therefore, to do this, the following steps are followed: Fill in the details as per the requirements. For this application: NOTE: For creating a simple application in Java Spring Boot we can import our code directly into various IDEs: Here, we have used IntelliJ IDEA for creating a basic Spring Boot application

I still remember my first day at my previous job when my team lead said, "Just spin up a quick Spring Boot project for the API." I stared at my screen for 20 minutes,... That embarrassing moment taught me that everyone assumes Spring Boot setup is obvious—but it's not, especially when you're coming from other frameworks. After creating hundreds of Spring Boot projects and mentoring dozens of developers, I've discovered the exact steps that work every time. More importantly, I'll share the mistakes that cost me hours of debugging, so you can avoid them entirely. By the end of this guide, you'll have a running Spring Boot application and understand exactly what each piece does. Let's dive in.

Three years ago, I was building Java web applications the traditional way—configuring XML files, managing dependencies manually, and spending more time on setup than actual coding. My projects took hours to configure before I could write a single line of business logic. Then I discovered Spring Boot. What used to take me 2-3 hours of configuration now takes 15 minutes. The magic isn't just in the speed—it's in the confidence. Every project starts the same way, follows the same patterns, and just works.

This section describes how to develop a simple “Hello World!” web application that highlights some of Spring Boot’s key features. We use Maven to build this project, since most IDEs support it. The spring.io web site contains many “Getting Started” guides that use Spring Boot. If you need to solve a specific problem, check there first. You can shortcut the steps below by going to start.spring.io and choosing the "Web" starter from the dependencies searcher. Doing so generates a new project structure so that you can start coding right away.

Check the Spring Initializr documentation for more details. Before we begin, open a terminal and run the following commands to ensure that you have valid versions of Java and Maven installed: This sample needs to be created in its own folder. Subsequent instructions assume that you have created a suitable folder and that it is your current directory. Are you curious about Spring Boot and why it's become a go-to framework for backend development? Or maybe you want to start building your first Spring Boot application?

📚✨ In this article, we’ll create our very first Spring Boot application together, step-by-step. I'll walk you through each phase with detailed explanations and screenshots so you can follow along with ease. 🛠️ We’ll cover the following essential topics to help you get started: 📚 What is Spring Boot and Why is it Essential for Backend Development?

🛠️ Step 1: Creating a Spring Boot Project from Scratch. 📦 Step 2: Integrating Dependencies via Maven. 🗄️ Step 3: Connecting to a PostgreSQL Database. 🔄 Step 4: Setting Up Entities, Repositories, Services, and Controllers. 🧪 Step 5: Testing the APIs with Postman. 🔗 Read the full article here: https://msidaoui.medium.com/getting-started-with-your-first-spring-boot-application-c5b3ad3156d2 💻 Project source code on GitHub: https://github.com/sidaouiMohamedamine/employee-management-backend

Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Spring Boot is one of the most popular frameworks for building Java-based web applications. It is used because it simplifies the development process by providing default configurations and also reduces boilerplate code. In this article, we will cover the steps to create a simple Spring Boot application using Spring Initializr, and we will also demonstrate how to set up a basic REST API. Note: In the Import Project for Maven window, make sure you choose the same version of JDK which you selected while creating the project. Add the following code to create a simple REST API:

Note: By default, Spring Boot runs on port 8080. If we want to change the port, open the application.properties and add the following line:

Developing Your First Spring Boot Application

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