This article will serve as your guide to understanding what is Spring Boot and how is it different from Spring MVC!
What is Spring Boot?
Spring Boot is an open source Java-based framework designed to simplify the development of Java applications, particularly web applications. It is built on the top of the Spring Framework and it contains all the features of the Spring framework. Spring Boot provides a streamlined way to create stand-alone, production-ready Spring applications.
It reduces the amount of boilerplate code and configuration required to get a Spring application up and running. It includes an embedded server, such as Tomcat or Jetty, allowing you to run your application as a self-contained unit without needing to deploy it to a separate web server.
Spring Boot is considered to be one of the most preferred frameworks for building RESTful web applications. Here are some ways in which Spring Boot helps in developing RESTful web applications:
- Spring MVC Integration: Spring Boot integrates seamlessly with Spring MVC, which is a powerful web framework for building RESTful APIs. Spring MVC provides annotations and components for handling requests, mapping URLs to controllers, and managing data binding and validation.
- Auto-Configuration: Spring Boot’s auto-configuration feature simplifies the setup and configuration of RESTful web applications. It automatically configures essential components such as message converters, exception handling, and content negotiation based on sensible defaults and the project’s classpath. This eliminates the need for manual configuration, reducing boilerplate code.
- Embedded Server: Spring Boot includes an embedded server, such as Tomcat or Jetty, which allows you to run RESTful web applications as standalone units. This eliminates the need for deploying the application to a separate application server, making it easier to package and distribute the application.
- Dependency Management: Spring Boot simplifies dependency management by providing a built-in dependency resolver. It ensures that the required dependencies for building RESTful web applications, such as Spring MVC and JSON serialization libraries, are included in the project. It also manages their versions and compatibility, reducing the complexity of managing dependencies manually.
- Actuator Endpoints: Spring Boot Actuator provides built-in endpoints for monitoring and managing your RESTful web application. These endpoints provide useful information about application health, metrics, and diagnostics, which can be exposed over HTTP and accessed programmatically. This makes it easier to monitor and manage your RESTful APIs in a production environment.
Spring Boot also provides several features and capabilities that make it well-suited for building Microservices. It allows you to create self-contained microservices that can be independently deployed and scaled. Spring Boot integrates seamlessly with Spring Cloud, a set of tools and frameworks that facilitate building and deploying cloud-native microservices. Spring Cloud provides additional features such as service discovery, load balancing, circuit breakers, and distributed configuration management.
Spring MVC
On the other hand, Spring MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a web framework or module that is part of the larger Spring Framework. It follows the MVC pattern to develop powerful web applications.
Spring MVC separates an application into three major layers or components: the model (data), the view (presentation layer), and the controller (handles requests and manages the flow of data between the model and the view). Spring MVC provides various features such as request mapping, data binding, validation, and view resolution. It requires the developer to spend some time on the configuration side to set an application up and running.
Here is a table that summarizes the key differences between Spring Boot and Spring MVC:
Spring Boot vs Spring MVC
| Feature | Spring Boot | Spring MVC |
| Purpose | Simplify the development of Spring applications. | Provide a web application framework for building MVC-based web applications. |
| Configuration | Convention over configuration approach. | More explicit and manual configuration required. |
| Auto-Configuration | Automatic configuration based on sensible defaults and classpath. | Manual configuration of components and dependencies. |
| Embedded Server | Includes an embedded server for running applications as a standalone unit. | Requires deployment to a separate web server. |
| Dependency Management | Simplified dependency management with Spring Boot’s built-in dependency resolution. | Dependency management is part of the larger Spring Framework. |
| Ease of Setup | Quick and easy setup with minimal boilerplate code. | Requires more explicit configuration and setup. |
| Opinionated | Provides opinions and defaults for common scenarios. | Offers flexibility and allows for customization. |
| Community Adoption | Rapidly gaining popularity with a large community. | Well-established and widely used within the Spring ecosystem. |
| Compatibility | Compatible with Spring MVC and other Spring modules. | Specifically focused on providing the MVC web framework. |
More articles you might find interesting:
Difference between @Controller and @RestController Annotations in Spring Framework.
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