What is Spring in Java?

Java Spring Framework is one of the most popular application frameworks available today. It enables developers to create robust, high-performance applications in Java. Spring also makes it easy to develop applications that are portable and scalable. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the features that make Spring such a popular framework.

In this blog post, you will learn the basics of the Spring Framework, and how to use it to develop Java applications. You will also learn about the different components of the Spring Framework, and how to use them to develop Java applications.

Spring: Core Training course by VMware Learning offers hands-on experience with the major features of Spring and Spring Boot, which includes configuration, data access, REST, AOP, auto-configuration, actuator, security, and Spring testing framework to build enterprise and microservices applications. On completion, participants will have a foundation for creating enterprise and cloud-ready applications.

Objectives:

By the end of the course by VMware Learning, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

  • Spring configuration using Java Configuration and Annotations
  • Aspect oriented programming with Spring
  • Testing Spring applications using JUnit 5
  • Spring Data Access – JDBC, JPA and Spring Data
  • Spring Transaction Management
  • Simplifying application development with Spring Boot
  • Spring Boot auto-configuration, starters and properties
  • Build a simple REST application using Spring Boot, embedded Web Server and fat JARs or classic WARs
  • Implementing REST client applications using RestTemplate
  • Utilize Spring Boot enhancements to testing
  • Spring Security
  • Enable and extend metrics and monitoring capabilities using Spring Boot actuator

1. Spring Overview


• What is the Spring Framework?
• The DI Container
• The Spring Framework History and EcoSystem

2. Java Configuration


• Java configuration and the Spring application context
• @Configuration and @Bean annotations
• @Import: working with multiple configuration files
• Defining bean scopes
• Launching a Spring Application and obtaining Beans

3. More Java Configuration


• External properties & Property sources
• Environment abstraction
• Using bean profiles
• Spring Expression Language (SpEL)

4. Annotation and Component Scanning


• Component scanning
• Autowiring using @Autowired
• Java configuration versus annotations, mixing.
• Lifecycle annotations: @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy
• Stereotypes and meta-annotations

5. Inside the Spring Container


• The Spring Bean Lifecycle
• The BeanFactoryPostProcessor interception point
• The BeanPostProcessor interception point
• Spring Bean Proxies
• @Bean method return types

6. Introducing Aspect-oriented programming


• What problems does AOP solve?
• Defining pointcut expressions
• Implementing various types of advice

7. Testing a Spring-based Application


• Spring and Test-Driven Development
• Spring 5 integration testing with JUnit 5
• Application context caching and the @DirtiesContext annotation
• Profile selection with @ActiveProfiles
• Easy test data setup with @Sql

8. JDBC Simplification with JdbcTemplate


• How Spring integrates with existing data access technologies
• Spring‘s JdbcTemplate
• DataAccessException hierarchy

9. Transaction Management with Spring

• Transaction overview
• Transaction management with Spring
• Transaction propagation and rollback rules
• Transactions and integration testing

10. Spring Boot Feature Introduction


• Introduction to Spring Boot Features
• Value Proposition of Spring Boot
• Creating a simple Boot application using Spring Initializer website

11. Spring Boot – A closer look


• Dependency management using Spring Boot starters
• How auto-configuration works
• Configuration properties
• Overriding auto-configuration
• Using CommandLineRunner

12. Spring Boot – Spring Data JPA


• Quick introduction to ORM with JPA
• Benefits of using Spring with JPA
• JPA configuration in Spring
• Configuring Spring JPA using Spring Boot
• Spring Data JPA dynamic repositories

13. Web Applications with Spring Boot


• Introduction to Spring MVC and request processing
• Controller method signatures
• Using @Controller, @RestController and @GetMapping annotations
• Configuring Spring MVC with Spring Boot
• Spring Boot packaging options, JAR or WAR

14. RESful Application with Spring Boot


• An introduction to the REST architectural style
• Controlling HTTP response codes with @ResponseStatus
• Implementing REST with Spring MVC, @RequestMapping, @RequestBody and @ResponseBody
• Spring MVC’s HttpMessageConverters and automatic content negotiation

15. Spring Boot Testing


• Spring Boot testing overview
• Integration testing using @SpringBootTest
• Web slice testing with MockMvc framework
• Slices to test different layers of the application

16. Securing REST Application with Spring Security


• What problems does Spring Security solve?
• Configuring authentication
• Implementing authorization by intercepting URLs
• Authorization at the Java method level
• Understanding the Spring Security filter chain
• Spring security testing

17. Actuators, Metrics and Health Indicators


• Exposing Spring Boot Actuator endpoints
• Custom Metrics
• Health Indicators
• Creating custom Health Indicators
• External monitoring systems