Spring Boot Reference Documentation

Phillip Webb, Dave Syer, Josh Long, Stéphane Nicoll, Rob Winch, Andy
Wilkinson, Marcel Overdijk, Christian Dupuis, Sébastien Deleuze, Michael
Simons, Vedran Pavić, Jay Bryant, Madhura Bhave, Eddú Meléndez, Scott
Frederick

Version 2.7.0
Table of Contents
1. Legal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 

2. Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3  

3. Documentation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4  

3.1. First Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4  

3.2. Upgrading From an Earlier Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4  

3.3. Developing with Spring Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4  

3.4. Learning About Spring Boot Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4  

3.5. Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5  

3.6. Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5  

3.7. Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5  

3.8. IO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 

3.9. Container Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6  

3.10. Advanced Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6  

4. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7  

4.1. Introducing Spring Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7  

4.2. System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7  

4.2.1. Servlet Containers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7  

4.3. Installing Spring Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8  

4.3.1. Installation Instructions for the Java Developer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8  

Maven Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8  

Gradle Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  

4.3.2. Installing the Spring Boot CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  

Manual Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  

Installation with SDKMAN!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  

OSX Homebrew Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10  

MacPorts Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  

Command-line Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  

Windows Scoop Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  

Quick-start Spring CLI Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11  

4.4. Developing Your First Spring Boot Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12  

4.4.1. Creating the POM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13  

4.4.2. Adding Classpath Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13  

4.4.3. Writing the Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14  

The @RestController and @RequestMapping Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15  

The @EnableAutoConfiguration Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16  

The “main” Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16  

4.4.4. Running the Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16  

4.4.5. Creating an Executable Jar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17  

 4.5. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19  

5. Upgrading Spring Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  

5.1. Upgrading from 1.x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  

5.2. Upgrading to a new feature release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  

5.3. Upgrading the Spring Boot CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  

5.4. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20  

6. Developing with Spring Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22  

6.1. Build Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22  

6.1.1. Dependency Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22  

6.1.2. Maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
 

6.1.3. Gradle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
 

6.1.4. Ant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
 

6.1.5. Starters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
 

6.2. Structuring Your Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28  

6.2.1. Using the “default” Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28  

6.2.2. Locating the Main Application Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28  

6.3. Configuration Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30  

6.3.1. Importing Additional Configuration Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30  

6.3.2. Importing XML Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30  

6.4. Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30  

6.4.1. Gradually Replacing Auto-configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31  

6.4.2. Disabling Specific Auto-configuration Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31  

6.5. Spring Beans and Dependency Injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32  

6.6. Using the @SpringBootApplication Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34  

6.7. Running Your Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37  

6.7.1. Running from an IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37  

6.7.2. Running as a Packaged Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37  

6.7.3. Using the Maven Plugin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37  

6.7.4. Using the Gradle Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38  

6.7.5. Hot Swapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38  

6.8. Developer Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38  

6.8.1. Diagnosing Classloading Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39  

6.8.2. Property Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39  

6.8.3. Automatic Restart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40  

Logging changes in condition evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42  

Excluding Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42  

Watching Additional Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43  

Disabling Restart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43  

Using a Trigger File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44  

Customizing the Restart Classloader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45  

Known Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46  
 6.8.4. LiveReload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
 

6.8.5. Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

 

Configuring File System Watcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47  

6.8.6. Remote Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48  

Running the Remote Client Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48  

Remote Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

6.9. Packaging Your Application for Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50  

6.10. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50  

7. Core Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
 

7.1. SpringApplication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51  

7.1.1. Startup Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

 

7.1.2. Lazy Initialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53  

7.1.3. Customizing the Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54  

7.1.4. Customizing SpringApplication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55  

7.1.5. Fluent Builder API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56  

7.1.6. Application Availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57  

Liveness State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
 

Readiness State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
 

Managing the Application Availability State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58  

7.1.7. Application Events and Listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61  

7.1.8. Web Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62  

7.1.9. Accessing Application Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62  

7.1.10. Using the ApplicationRunner or CommandLineRunner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63  

7.1.11. Application Exit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64  

7.1.12. Admin Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66  

7.1.13. Application Startup tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66  

7.2. Externalized Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67  

7.2.1. Accessing Command Line Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69  

7.2.2. JSON Application Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70  

7.2.3. External Application Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70  

Optional Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 

Wildcard Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73  

Profile Specific Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

 

Importing Additional Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74  

Importing Extensionless Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76  

Using Configuration Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76  

Property Placeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79  

Working with Multi-Document Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79  

Activation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80  

7.2.4. Encrypting Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81  

7.2.5. Working with YAML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81  

 Mapping YAML to Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81  

Directly Loading YAML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82  

7.2.6. Configuring Random Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83  

7.2.7. Configuring System Environment Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83  

7.2.8. Type-safe Configuration Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83  

JavaBean properties binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84  

Constructor binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87  

Enabling @ConfigurationProperties-annotated types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90  

Using @ConfigurationProperties-annotated types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91  

Third-party Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93  

Relaxed Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94  

Merging Complex Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97  

Properties Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101  

@ConfigurationProperties Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109  

@ConfigurationProperties vs. @Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112  

7.3. Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

 

7.3.1. Adding Active Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115  

7.3.2. Profile Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116  

7.3.3. Programmatically Setting Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117  

7.3.4. Profile-specific Configuration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117  

7.4. Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

 

7.4.1. Log Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117  

7.4.2. Console Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118  

Color-coded Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119  

7.4.3. File Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 

7.4.4. File Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 

7.4.5. Log Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

 

7.4.6. Log Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121  

7.4.7. Using a Log Shutdown Hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122  

7.4.8. Custom Log Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122  

7.4.9. Logback Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125  

Profile-specific Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125  

Environment Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126  

7.5. Internationalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126  

7.6. JSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

 

7.6.1. Jackson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

 

Custom Serializers and Deserializers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127  

Mixins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
 

7.6.2. Gson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

 

7.6.3. JSON-B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

 

7.7. Task Execution and Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132  

7.8. Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 

7.8.1. Test Scope Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134  

7.8.2. Testing Spring Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134  

7.8.3. Testing Spring Boot Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135  

Detecting Web Application Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136  

Detecting Test Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136  

Excluding Test Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137  

Using Application Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138  

Testing with a mock environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139  

Testing with a running server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143  

Customizing WebTestClient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145  

Using JMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

 

Using Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

 

Mocking and Spying Beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147  

Auto-configured Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151  

Auto-configured JSON Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151  

Auto-configured Spring MVC Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154  

Auto-configured Spring WebFlux Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158  

Auto-configured Spring GraphQL Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161  

Auto-configured Data Cassandra Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166  

Auto-configured Data Couchbase Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167  

Auto-configured Data Elasticsearch Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168  

Auto-configured Data JPA Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169  

Auto-configured JDBC Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172  

Auto-configured Data JDBC Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173  

Auto-configured jOOQ Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173  

Auto-configured Data MongoDB Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174  

Auto-configured Data Neo4j Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176  

Auto-configured Data Redis Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178  

Auto-configured Data LDAP Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179  

Auto-configured REST Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180  

Auto-configured Spring REST Docs Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182  

Auto-configured Spring Web Services Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193  

Additional Auto-configuration and Slicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197  

User Configuration and Slicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198  

Using Spock to Test Spring Boot Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202  

7.8.4. Test Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

 

ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202  

TestPropertyValues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203  

OutputCapture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 

TestRestTemplate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205  
 7.9. Creating Your Own Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209  

7.9.1. Understanding Auto-configured Beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210  

7.9.2. Locating Auto-configuration Candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210  

7.9.3. Condition Annotations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211  

Class Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211  

Bean Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213  

Property Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215  

Resource Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215  

Web Application Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215  

SpEL Expression Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215  

7.9.4. Testing your Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215  

Simulating a Web Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218  

Overriding the Classpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219  

7.9.5. Creating Your Own Starter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219  

Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
 

Configuration keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220  

The “autoconfigure” Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222  

Starter Module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224  

7.10. Kotlin support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224  

7.10.1. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224  

7.10.2. Null-safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225  

7.10.3. Kotlin API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225  

runApplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225  

Extensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
 

7.10.4. Dependency management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226  

7.10.5. @ConfigurationProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226  

7.10.6. Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

 

7.10.7. Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227  

Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227  

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
 

7.11. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227  

8. Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
 

8.1. Servlet Web Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229  

8.1.1. The “Spring Web MVC Framework” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229  

Spring MVC Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235  

HttpMessageConverters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235  

MessageCodesResolver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237  

Static Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

 

Welcome Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239  

Path Matching and Content Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239  

ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242  
 Template Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242  

Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242  

CORS Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251  

8.1.2. JAX-RS and Jersey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252  

8.1.3. Embedded Servlet Container Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254  

Servlets, Filters, and listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254  

Servlet Context Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255  

The ServletWebServerApplicationContext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256  

Customizing Embedded Servlet Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256  

JSP Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261  

8.2. Reactive Web Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261  

8.2.1. The “Spring WebFlux Framework” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261  

Spring WebFlux Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270  

HTTP Codecs with HttpMessageReaders and HttpMessageWriters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270  

Static Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

 

Welcome Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272  

Template Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272  

Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273  

Web Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

 

8.2.2. Embedded Reactive Server Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278  

8.2.3. Reactive Server Resources Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278  

8.3. Graceful Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279  

8.4. Spring Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280  

8.4.1. MVC Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280  

8.4.2. WebFlux Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281  

8.4.3. OAuth2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

 

Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
 

Resource Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288  

Authorization Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289  

8.4.4. SAML 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 

Relying Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 

8.5. Spring Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293  

8.6. Spring for GraphQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294  

8.6.1. GraphQL Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295  

8.6.2. GraphQL RuntimeWiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296  

8.6.3. Querydsl and QueryByExample Repositories support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297  

8.6.4. Transports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297  

HTTP and WebSocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297  

RSocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
 

8.6.5. Exceptions Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299  

8.6.6. GraphiQL and Schema printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299  

 8.7. Spring HATEOAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300  

8.8. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300  

9. Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
 

9.1. SQL Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301  

9.1.1. Configure a DataSource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301  

Embedded Database Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301  

Connection to a Production Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302  

DataSource Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302  

Supported Connection Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303  

Connection to a JNDI DataSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304  

9.1.2. Using JdbcTemplate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304  

9.1.3. JPA and Spring Data JPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306  

Entity Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 

Spring Data JPA Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308  

Spring Data Envers Repositories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310  

Creating and Dropping JPA Databases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310  

Open EntityManager in View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311  

9.1.4. Spring Data JDBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311  

9.1.5. Using H2’s Web Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312  

Changing the H2 Console’s Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312  

Accessing the H2 Console in a Secured Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312  

9.1.6. Using jOOQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314  

Code Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314  

Using DSLContext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315  

jOOQ SQL Dialect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317  

Customizing jOOQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317  

9.1.7. Using R2DBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317  

Embedded Database Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320  

Using DatabaseClient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321  

Spring Data R2DBC Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321  

9.2. Working with NoSQL Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322  

9.2.1. Redis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

 

Connecting to Redis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323  

9.2.2. MongoDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324  

Connecting to a MongoDB Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324  

MongoTemplate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327  

Spring Data MongoDB Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328  

Embedded Mongo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329  

9.2.3. Neo4j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

 

Connecting to a Neo4j Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330  

Spring Data Neo4j Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331  

 9.2.4. Solr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
 

Connecting to Solr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334  

9.2.5. Elasticsearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335  

Connecting to Elasticsearch using REST clients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335  

Connecting to Elasticsearch by Using Spring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337  

Spring Data Elasticsearch Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337  

9.2.6. Cassandra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 

Connecting to Cassandra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338  

Spring Data Cassandra Repositories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340  

9.2.7. Couchbase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341  

Connecting to Couchbase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341  

Spring Data Couchbase Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342  

9.2.8. LDAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

 

Connecting to an LDAP Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344  

Spring Data LDAP Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345  

Embedded In-memory LDAP Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346  

9.2.9. InfluxDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

 

Connecting to InfluxDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347  

9.3. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347  

10. Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

 

10.1. JMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

 

10.1.1. ActiveMQ Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348  

10.1.2. ActiveMQ Artemis Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350  

10.1.3. Using a JNDI ConnectionFactory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352  

10.1.4. Sending a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352  

10.1.5. Receiving a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353  

10.2. AMQP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

 

10.2.1. RabbitMQ support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357  

10.2.2. Sending a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358  

10.2.3. Sending a Message To A Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360  

10.2.4. Receiving a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361  

10.3. Apache Kafka Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364  

10.3.1. Sending a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365  

10.3.2. Receiving a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366  

10.3.3. Kafka Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367  

10.3.4. Additional Kafka Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368  

10.3.5. Testing with Embedded Kafka. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370  

10.4. RSocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

 

10.4.1. RSocket Strategies Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372  

10.4.2. RSocket server Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372  

10.4.3. Spring Messaging RSocket support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373  

 10.4.4. Calling RSocket Services with RSocketRequester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373  

10.5. Spring Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375  

10.6. WebSockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377  

10.7. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377  

11. IO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
 

11.1. Caching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 

11.1.1. Supported Cache Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379  

Generic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
 

JCache (JSR-107). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381  

EhCache 2.x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382  

Hazelcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
 

Infinispan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
 

Couchbase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383  

Redis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
 

Caffeine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
 

Cache2k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
 

Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
 

None . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
 

11.2. Hazelcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390  

11.3. Quartz Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391  

11.4. Sending Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394  

11.5. Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395  

11.6. Calling REST Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396  

11.6.1. RestTemplate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396  

RestTemplate Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398  

11.6.2. WebClient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402  

WebClient Runtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403  

WebClient Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403  

11.7. Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404  

11.7.1. Calling Web Services with WebServiceTemplate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404  

11.8. Distributed Transactions with JTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407  

11.8.1. Using an Atomikos Transaction Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407  

11.8.2. Using a Java EE Managed Transaction Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407  

11.8.3. Mixing XA and Non-XA JMS Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407  

11.8.4. Supporting an Alternative Embedded Transaction Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408  

11.9. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409  

12. Container Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410  

12.1. Efficient container images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410  

12.1.1. Unpacking the fat jar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410  

12.1.2. Layering Docker Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410  

12.2. Dockerfiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411  

 12.3. Cloud Native Buildpacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412  

12.4. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413  

13. Production-ready Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414  

13.1. Enabling Production-ready Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414  

13.2. Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

 

13.2.1. Enabling Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416  

13.2.2. Exposing Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417  

13.2.3. Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

 

Cross Site Request Forgery Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422  

13.2.4. Configuring Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422  

13.2.5. Hypermedia for Actuator Web Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423  

13.2.6. CORS Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 

13.2.7. Implementing Custom Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424  

Receiving Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

 

Custom Web Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426  

Servlet Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

 

Controller Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427  

13.2.8. Health Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428  

Auto-configured HealthIndicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428  

Writing Custom HealthIndicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429  

Reactive Health Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432  

Auto-configured ReactiveHealthIndicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434  

Health Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

 

DataSource Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 

13.2.9. Kubernetes Probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436  

Checking External State with Kubernetes Probes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437  

Application Lifecycle and Probe States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438  

13.2.10. Application Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439  

Auto-configured InfoContributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439  

Custom Application Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440  

Git Commit Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441  

Build Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

 

Java Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

 

OS Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
 

Writing Custom InfoContributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442  

13.3. Monitoring and Management over HTTP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443  

13.3.1. Customizing the Management Endpoint Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444  

13.3.2. Customizing the Management Server Port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445  

13.3.3. Configuring Management-specific SSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445  

13.3.4. Customizing the Management Server Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447  

13.3.5. Disabling HTTP Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447  

13.4. Monitoring and Management over JMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448  

13.4.1. Customizing MBean Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448  

13.4.2. Disabling JMX Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449  

13.4.3. Using Jolokia for JMX over HTTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449  

Customizing Jolokia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450  

Disabling Jolokia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450  

13.5. Loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

 

13.5.1. Configure a Logger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451  

13.6. Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

 

13.6.1. Getting started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452  

13.6.2. Supported Monitoring Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455  

AppOptics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
 

Atlas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
 

Datadog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
 

Dynatrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
 

Elastic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
 

Ganglia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
 

Graphite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
 

Humio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
 

Influx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
 

JMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
 

KairosDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
 

New Relic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

 

Prometheus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468  

SignalFx. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
 

Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
 

Stackdriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
 

StatsD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
 

Wavefront. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 

13.6.3. Supported Metrics and Meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472  

JVM Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472  

System Metrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472  

Application Startup Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473  

Logger Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473  

Task Execution and Scheduling Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473  

Spring MVC Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473  

Spring WebFlux Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474  

Jersey Server Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475  

HTTP Client Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475  

Tomcat Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476  

Cache Metrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476  

 Spring GraphQL Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477  

DataSource Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477  

Hibernate Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

 

Spring Data Repository Metrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478  

RabbitMQ Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 

Spring Integration Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479  

Kafka Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

 

MongoDB Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479  

Jetty Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

 

@Timed Annotation Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482  

Redis Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

 

13.6.4. Registering Custom Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486  

13.6.5. Customizing Individual Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488  

Common Tags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

 

Per-meter Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490  

13.6.6. Metrics Endpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490  

13.7. Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

 

13.7.1. Custom Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491  

13.8. HTTP Tracing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

 

13.8.1. Custom HTTP tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492  

13.9. Process Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492  

13.9.1. Extending Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492  

13.9.2. Programmatically Enabling Process Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492  

13.10. Cloud Foundry Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493  

13.10.1. Disabling Extended Cloud Foundry Actuator Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493  

13.10.2. Cloud Foundry Self-signed Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493  

13.10.3. Custom Context Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494  

13.11. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496  

14. Deploying Spring Boot Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497  

14.1. Deploying to the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497  

14.1.1. Cloud Foundry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497  

Binding to Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

 

14.1.2. Kubernetes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

 

Kubernetes Container Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500  

14.1.3. Heroku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

 

14.1.4. OpenShift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

 

14.1.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503  

AWS Elastic Beanstalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503  

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
 

14.1.6. CloudCaptain and Amazon Web Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504  

14.1.7. Azure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

 
 14.1.8. Google Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 

14.2. Installing Spring Boot Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506  

14.2.1. Supported Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507  

14.2.2. Unix/Linux Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507  

Installation as an init.d Service (System V). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507  

Installation as a systemd Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509  

Customizing the Startup Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510  

14.2.3. Microsoft Windows Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513  

14.3. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513  

15. Spring Boot CLI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

 

15.1. Installing the CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 

15.2. Using the CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

 

15.2.1. Running Applications with the CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515  

Deduced “grab” Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516  

Deduced “grab” Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517  

Default Import Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517  

Automatic Main Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517  

Custom Dependency Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517  

15.2.2. Applications with Multiple Source Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518  

15.2.3. Packaging Your Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518  

15.2.4. Initialize a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518  

15.2.5. Using the Embedded Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519  

15.2.6. Adding Extensions to the CLI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520  

15.3. Developing Applications with the Groovy Beans DSL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520  

15.4. Configuring the CLI with settings.xml. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521  

15.5. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521  

16. Build Tool Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

 

16.1. Spring Boot Maven Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523  

16.2. Spring Boot Gradle Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523  

16.3. Spring Boot AntLib Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523  

16.3.1. Spring Boot Ant Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524  

Using the “exejar” Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524  

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
 

16.3.2. Using the “findmainclass” Task. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525  

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
 

16.4. Supporting Other Build Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525  

16.4.1. Repackaging Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526  

16.4.2. Nested Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526  

16.4.3. Finding a Main Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526  

16.4.4. Example Repackage Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526  

16.5. What to Read Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528  

17. “How-to” Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
 

17.1. Spring Boot Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529  

17.1.1. Create Your Own FailureAnalyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529  

17.1.2. Troubleshoot Auto-configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529  

17.1.3. Customize the Environment or ApplicationContext Before It Starts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530  

17.1.4. Build an ApplicationContext Hierarchy (Adding a Parent or Root Context) . . . . . . . . . . 533  

17.1.5. Create a Non-web Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533  

17.2. Properties and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533  

17.2.1. Automatically Expand Properties at Build Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533  

Automatic Property Expansion Using Maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533  

Automatic Property Expansion Using Gradle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534  

17.2.2. Externalize the Configuration of SpringApplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535  

17.2.3. Change the Location of External Properties of an Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538  

17.2.4. Use ‘Short’ Command Line Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538  

17.2.5. Use YAML for External Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539  

17.2.6. Set the Active Spring Profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539  

17.2.7. Set the Default Profile Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540  

17.2.8. Change Configuration Depending on the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540  

17.2.9. Discover Built-in Options for External Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541  

17.3. Embedded Web Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542  

17.3.1. Use Another Web Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542  

17.3.2. Disabling the Web Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544  

17.3.3. Change the HTTP Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544  

17.3.4. Use a Random Unassigned HTTP Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544  

17.3.5. Discover the HTTP Port at Runtime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544  

17.3.6. Enable HTTP Response Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545  

17.3.7. Configure SSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

 

17.3.8. Configure HTTP/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

 

HTTP/2 with Tomcat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

 

HTTP/2 with Jetty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

 

HTTP/2 with Reactor Netty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548  

HTTP/2 with Undertow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548  

17.3.9. Configure the Web Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548  

17.3.10. Add a Servlet, Filter, or Listener to an Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550  

Add a Servlet, Filter, or Listener by Using a Spring Bean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550  

Add Servlets, Filters, and Listeners by Using Classpath Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551  

17.3.11. Configure Access Logging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551  

17.3.12. Running Behind a Front-end Proxy Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553  

Customize Tomcat’s Proxy Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553  

17.3.13. Enable Multiple Connectors with Tomcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554  

17.3.14. Use Tomcat’s LegacyCookieProcessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556  

 17.3.15. Enable Tomcat’s MBean Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558  

17.3.16. Enable Multiple Listeners with Undertow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558  

17.3.17. Create WebSocket Endpoints Using @ServerEndpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560  

17.4. Spring MVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 

17.4.1. Write a JSON REST Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561  

17.4.2. Write an XML REST Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562  

17.4.3. Customize the Jackson ObjectMapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563  

17.4.4. Customize the @ResponseBody Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565  

17.4.5. Handling Multipart File Uploads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565  

17.4.6. Switch Off the Spring MVC DispatcherServlet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566  

17.4.7. Switch off the Default MVC Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566  

17.4.8. Customize ViewResolvers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566  

17.5. Jersey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

 

17.5.1. Secure Jersey endpoints with Spring Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568  

17.5.2. Use Jersey Alongside Another Web Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569  

17.6. HTTP Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 

17.6.1. Configure RestTemplate to Use a Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570  

17.6.2. Configure the TcpClient used by a Reactor Netty-based WebClient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570  

17.7. Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

 

17.7.1. Configure Logback for Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572  

Configure Logback for File-only Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573  

17.7.2. Configure Log4j for Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574  

Use YAML or JSON to Configure Log4j 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575  

Use Composite Configuration to Configure Log4j 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576  

17.8. Data Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

 

17.8.1. Configure a Custom DataSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576  

17.8.2. Configure Two DataSources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583  

17.8.3. Use Spring Data Repositories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589  

17.8.4. Separate @Entity Definitions from Spring Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589  

17.8.5. Configure JPA Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590  

17.8.6. Configure Hibernate Naming Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591  

17.8.7. Configure Hibernate Second-Level Caching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593  

17.8.8. Use Dependency Injection in Hibernate Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594  

17.8.9. Use a Custom EntityManagerFactory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595  

17.8.10. Using Multiple EntityManagerFactories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595  

17.8.11. Use a Traditional persistence.xml File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599  

17.8.12. Use Spring Data JPA and Mongo Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599  

17.8.13. Customize Spring Data’s Web Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600  

17.8.14. Expose Spring Data Repositories as REST Endpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600  

17.8.15. Configure a Component that is Used by JPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600  

17.8.16. Configure jOOQ with Two DataSources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601  

17.9. Database Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601  

17.9.1. Initialize a Database Using JPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602  

17.9.2. Initialize a Database Using Hibernate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602  

17.9.3. Initialize a Database Using Basic SQL Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602  

17.9.4. Initialize a Spring Batch Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603  

17.9.5. Use a Higher-level Database Migration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603  

Execute Flyway Database Migrations on Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603  

Execute Liquibase Database Migrations on Startup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605  

17.9.6. Depend Upon an Initialized Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606  

Detect a Database Initializer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606  

Detect a Bean That Depends On Database Initialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606  

17.10. Messaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

 

17.10.1. Disable Transacted JMS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607  

17.11. Batch Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608  

17.11.1. Specifying a Batch Data Source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608  

17.11.2. Running Spring Batch Jobs on Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608  

17.11.3. Running from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609  

17.11.4. Storing the Job Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609  

17.12. Actuator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

 

17.12.1. Change the HTTP Port or Address of the Actuator Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609  

17.12.2. Customize the ‘whitelabel’ Error Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609  

17.12.3. Sanitize Sensitive Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610  

Customizing Sanitization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610  

17.12.4. Map Health Indicators to Micrometer Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611  

17.13. Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

 

17.13.1. Switch off the Spring Boot Security Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613  

17.13.2. Change the UserDetailsService and Add User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614  

17.13.3. Enable HTTPS When Running behind a Proxy Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614  

17.14. Hot Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615  

17.14.1. Reload Static Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615  

17.14.2. Reload Templates without Restarting the Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

Thymeleaf Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

FreeMarker Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

Groovy Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

17.14.3. Fast Application Restarts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

17.14.4. Reload Java Classes without Restarting the Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616  

17.15. Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

 

17.15.1. Testing With Spring Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617  

17.15.2. Use Testcontainers for Integration Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618  

17.15.3. Structure @Configuration classes for inclusion in slice tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621  

17.16. Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

 
 17.16.1. Generate Build Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623  

17.16.2. Generate Git Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624  

17.16.3. Customize Dependency Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625  

17.16.4. Create an Executable JAR with Maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625  

17.16.5. Use a Spring Boot Application as a Dependency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626  

17.16.6. Extract Specific Libraries When an Executable Jar Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627  

17.16.7. Create a Non-executable JAR with Exclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628  

17.16.8. Remote Debug a Spring Boot Application Started with Maven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628  

17.16.9. Build an Executable Archive from Ant without Using spring-boot-antlib . . . . . . . . . . . 628  

17.17. Traditional Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629  

17.17.1. Create a Deployable War File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630  

17.17.2. Convert an Existing Application to Spring Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632  

17.17.3. Deploying a WAR to WebLogic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637  

Appendices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
 

Appendix A: Common Application Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639  

.A.1. Core Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 

.A.2. Cache Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647  

.A.3. Mail Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648 

.A.4. JSON Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649  

.A.5. Data Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651 

.A.6. Transaction Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674  

.A.7. Data Migration Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678  

.A.8. Integration Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684  

.A.9. Web Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707  

.A.10. Templating Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716  

.A.11. Server Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723  

.A.12. Security Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735  

.A.13. RSocket Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736  

.A.14. Actuator Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737  

.A.15. Devtools Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764  

.A.16. Testing Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765  

Appendix B: Configuration Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766  

.B.1. Metadata Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766  

Group Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

 

Property Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769  

Hint Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

 

Repeated Metadata Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772  

.B.2. Providing Manual Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773  

Value Hint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

 

Value Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

 

.B.3. Generating Your Own Metadata by Using the Annotation Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780  
 Configuring the Annotation Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780  

Automatic Metadata Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781  

Adding Additional Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787  

Appendix C: Auto-configuration Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787  

.C.1. spring-boot-autoconfigure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787  

.C.2. spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792  

Appendix D: Test Auto-configuration Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795  

.D.1. Test Slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795

 

Appendix E: The Executable Jar Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804  

.E.1. Nested JARs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

 

The Executable Jar File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804  

The Executable War File Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805  

Index Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

 

Classpath Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

 

Layer Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

 

.E.2. Spring Boot’s “JarFile” Class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807  

Compatibility with the Standard Java “JarFile”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807  

.E.3. Launching Executable Jars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807  

Launcher Manifest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808  

.E.4. PropertiesLauncher Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808  

.E.5. Executable Jar Restrictions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810  

.E.6. Alternative Single Jar Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810  

Appendix F: Dependency Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810  

.F.1. Managed Dependency Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810  

.F.2. Version Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844  

This document is also available as multiple HTML pages and as a single HTML
page.

1
Chapter 1. Legal
Copyright © 2012-2022

Copies of this document may be made for your own use and for distribution to others, provided
that you do not charge any fee for such copies and further provided that each copy contains this
Copyright Notice, whether distributed in print or electronically.

2
Chapter 2. Getting Help
If you have trouble with Spring Boot, we would like to help.

• Try the How-to documents. They provide solutions to the most common questions.

• Learn the Spring basics. Spring Boot builds on many other Spring projects. Check the spring.io
web-site for a wealth of reference documentation. If you are starting out with Spring, try one of
the guides.

• Ask a question. We monitor stackoverflow.com for questions tagged with spring-boot.

• Report bugs with Spring Boot at github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues.

All of Spring Boot is open source, including the documentation. If you find problems
NOTE
with the docs or if you want to improve them, please get involved.

3
Chapter 3. Documentation Overview
This section provides a brief overview of Spring Boot reference documentation. It serves as a map
for the rest of the document.

The latest copy of this document is available at docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/.

3.1. First Steps

If you are getting started with Spring Boot or 'Spring' in general, start with the following topics:

• From scratch: Overview | Requirements | Installation

• Tutorial: Part 1 | Part 2

• Running your example: Part 1 | Part 2

3.2. Upgrading From an Earlier Version

You should always ensure that you are running a supported version of Spring Boot.

Depending on the version that you are upgrading to, you can find some additional tips here:

• From 1.x: Upgrading from 1.x

• To a new feature release: Upgrading to New Feature Release

• Spring Boot CLI: Upgrading the Spring Boot CLI

3.3. Developing with Spring Boot

Ready to actually start using Spring Boot? We have you covered:

• Build systems: Maven | Gradle | Ant | Starters

• Best practices: Code Structure | @Configuration | @EnableAutoConfiguration | Beans and

Dependency Injection

• Running your code: IDE | Packaged | Maven | Gradle

• Packaging your app: Production jars

• Spring Boot CLI: Using the CLI

3.4. Learning About Spring Boot Features

Need more details about Spring Boot’s core features? The following content is for you:

• Spring Application: SpringApplication

• External Configuration: External Configuration

• Profiles: Profiles

4
 • Logging: Logging

3.5. Web
If you develop Spring Boot web applications, take a look at the following content:

• Servlet Web Applications: Spring MVC, Jersey, Embedded Servlet Containers

• Reactive Web Applications: Spring Webflux, Embedded Servlet Containers

• Graceful Shutdown: Graceful Shutdown

• Spring Security: Default Security Configuration, Auto-configuration for OAuth2, SAML

• Spring Session: Auto-configuration for Spring Session

• Spring HATEOAS: Auto-configuration for Spring HATEOAS

3.6. Data
If your application deals with a datastore, you can see how to configure that here:

• SQL: Configuring a SQL Datastore, Embedded Database support, Connection pools, and more.

• NOSQL: Auto-configuration for NOSQL stores such as Redis, MongoDB, Neo4j, and others.

3.7. Messaging
If your application uses any messaging protocol, see one or more of the following sections:

• JMS: Auto-configuration for ActiveMQ and Artemis, Sending and Receiving messages through
JMS

• AMQP: Auto-configuration for RabbitMQ

• Kafka: Auto-configuration for Spring Kafka

• RSocket: Auto-configuration for Spring Framework’s RSocket Support

• Spring Integration: Auto-configuration for Spring Integration

3.8. IO
If your application needs IO capabilities, see one or more of the following sections:

• Caching: Caching support EhCache, Hazelcast, Infinispan and more

• Quartz: Quartz Scheduling

• Mail: Sending Email

• Validation: JSR-303 Validation

• REST Clients: Calling REST Services with RestTemplate and WebClient

• Webservices: Auto-configuration for Spring Web Services

5
 • JTA: Distributed Transactions with JTA

3.9. Container Images

Spring Boot provides first-class support for building efficient container images. You can read more
about it here:

• Efficient Container Images: Tips to optimize container images such as Docker images

• Dockerfiles: Building container images using dockerfiles

• Cloud Native Buildpacks: Support for Cloud Native Buildpacks with Maven and Gradle

3.10. Advanced Topics

Finally, we have a few topics for more advanced users:

• Spring Boot Applications Deployment: Cloud Deployment | OS Service

• Build tool plugins: Maven | Gradle

• Appendix: Application Properties | Configuration Metadata | Auto-configuration Classes | Test

Auto-configuration Annotations | Executable Jars | Dependency Versions

6
Chapter 4. Getting Started
If you are getting started with Spring Boot, or “Spring” in general, start by reading this section. It
answers the basic “what?”, “how?” and “why?” questions. It includes an introduction to Spring
Boot, along with installation instructions. We then walk you through building your first Spring Boot
application, discussing some core principles as we go.

4.1. Introducing Spring Boot

Spring Boot helps you to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring-based applications that you
can run. We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries, so that you
can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring
configuration.

You can use Spring Boot to create Java applications that can be started by using java -jar or more
traditional war deployments. We also provide a command line tool that runs “spring scripts”.

Our primary goals are:

• Provide a radically faster and widely accessible getting-started experience for all Spring
development.

• Be opinionated out of the box but get out of the way quickly as requirements start to diverge
from the defaults.

• Provide a range of non-functional features that are common to large classes of projects (such as
embedded servers, security, metrics, health checks, and externalized configuration).

• Absolutely no code generation and no requirement for XML configuration.

4.2. System Requirements

Spring Boot 2.7.0 requires Java 8 and is compatible up to and including Java 18. Spring Framework
5.3.20 or above is also required.

Explicit build support is provided for the following build tools:

Build Tool Version

Maven 3.5+

Gradle 6.8.x, 6.9.x, and 7.x

4.2.1. Servlet Containers

Spring Boot supports the following embedded servlet containers:

Name Servlet Version

Tomcat 9.0 4.0

7
Name Servlet Version

Jetty 9.4 3.1

Jetty 10.0 4.0

Undertow 2.0 4.0

You can also deploy Spring Boot applications to any servlet 3.1+ compatible container.

4.3. Installing Spring Boot

Spring Boot can be used with “classic” Java development tools or installed as a command line tool.
Either way, you need Java SDK v1.8 or higher. Before you begin, you should check your current Java
installation by using the following command:

$ java -version

If you are new to Java development or if you want to experiment with Spring Boot, you might want
to try the Spring Boot CLI (Command Line Interface) first. Otherwise, read on for “classic”
installation instructions.

4.3.1. Installation Instructions for the Java Developer

You can use Spring Boot in the same way as any standard Java library. To do so, include the
appropriate spring-boot-*.jar files on your classpath. Spring Boot does not require any special
tools integration, so you can use any IDE or text editor. Also, there is nothing special about a Spring
Boot application, so you can run and debug a Spring Boot application as you would any other Java
program.

Although you could copy Spring Boot jars, we generally recommend that you use a build tool that
supports dependency management (such as Maven or Gradle).

Maven Installation

Spring Boot is compatible with Apache Maven 3.3 or above. If you do not already have Maven
installed, you can follow the instructions at maven.apache.org.

On many operating systems, Maven can be installed with a package manager. If you
use OSX Homebrew, try brew install maven. Ubuntu users can run sudo apt-get
TIP
install maven. Windows users with Chocolatey can run choco install maven from an
elevated (administrator) prompt.

Spring Boot dependencies use the org.springframework.boot groupId. Typically, your Maven POM file
inherits from the spring-boot-starter-parent project and declares dependencies to one or more
“Starters”. Spring Boot also provides an optional Maven plugin to create executable jars.

More details on getting started with Spring Boot and Maven can be found in the Getting Started
section of the Maven plugin’s reference guide.

8
Gradle Installation

Spring Boot is compatible with Gradle 6.8, 6.9, and 7.x. If you do not already have Gradle installed,
you can follow the instructions at gradle.org.

Spring Boot dependencies can be declared by using the org.springframework.boot group. Typically,
your project declares dependencies to one or more “Starters”. Spring Boot provides a useful Gradle
plugin that can be used to simplify dependency declarations and to create executable jars.

Gradle Wrapper

The Gradle Wrapper provides a nice way of “obtaining” Gradle when you need to build a
project. It is a small script and library that you commit alongside your code to bootstrap the
build process. See docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html for details.

More details on getting started with Spring Boot and Gradle can be found in the Getting Started
section of the Gradle plugin’s reference guide.

4.3.2. Installing the Spring Boot CLI

The Spring Boot CLI (Command Line Interface) is a command line tool that you can use to quickly
prototype with Spring. It lets you run Groovy scripts, which means that you have a familiar Java-
like syntax without so much boilerplate code.

You do not need to use the CLI to work with Spring Boot, but it is a quick way to get a Spring
application off the ground without an IDE.

Manual Installation

You can download the Spring CLI distribution from the Spring software repository:

• spring-boot-cli-2.7.0-bin.zip

• spring-boot-cli-2.7.0-bin.tar.gz

Cutting edge snapshot distributions are also available.

Once downloaded, follow the INSTALL.txt instructions from the unpacked archive. In summary,
there is a spring script (spring.bat for Windows) in a bin/ directory in the .zip file. Alternatively,
you can use java -jar with the .jar file (the script helps you to be sure that the classpath is set
correctly).

Installation with SDKMAN!

SDKMAN! (The Software Development Kit Manager) can be used for managing multiple versions of
various binary SDKs, including Groovy and the Spring Boot CLI. Get SDKMAN! from sdkman.io and
install Spring Boot by using the following commands:

9
 $ sdk install springboot
$ spring --version
Spring CLI v2.7.0

If you develop features for the CLI and want access to the version you built, use the following
commands:

$ sdk install springboot dev /path/to/spring-boot/spring-boot-cli/target/spring-boot-

cli-2.7.0-bin/spring-2.7.0/
$ sdk default springboot dev
$ spring --version
Spring CLI v2.7.0

The preceding instructions install a local instance of spring called the dev instance. It points at your
target build location, so every time you rebuild Spring Boot, spring is up-to-date.

You can see it by running the following command:

$ sdk ls springboot

================================================================================
Available Springboot Versions
================================================================================
> + dev
* 2.7.0

================================================================================
+ - local version
* - installed
> - currently in use
================================================================================

OSX Homebrew Installation

If you are on a Mac and use Homebrew, you can install the Spring Boot CLI by using the following
commands:

$ brew tap spring-io/tap

$ brew install spring-boot

Homebrew installs spring to /usr/local/bin.

If you do not see the formula, your installation of brew might be out-of-date. In that
NOTE
case, run brew update and try again.

10
MacPorts Installation

If you are on a Mac and use MacPorts, you can install the Spring Boot CLI by using the following
command:

$ sudo port install spring-boot-cli

Command-line Completion

The Spring Boot CLI includes scripts that provide command completion for the BASH and zsh shells.
You can source the script (also named spring) in any shell or put it in your personal or system-wide
bash completion initialization. On a Debian system, the system-wide scripts are in /shell-
completion/bash and all scripts in that directory are executed when a new shell starts. For example,
to run the script manually if you have installed by using SDKMAN!, use the following commands:

$ . ~/.sdkman/candidates/springboot/current/shell-completion/bash/spring
$ spring <HIT TAB HERE>
  grab help jar run test version

If you install the Spring Boot CLI by using Homebrew or MacPorts, the command-
NOTE
line completion scripts are automatically registered with your shell.

Windows Scoop Installation

If you are on a Windows and use Scoop, you can install the Spring Boot CLI by using the following
commands:

> scoop bucket add extras

> scoop install springboot

Scoop installs spring to ~/scoop/apps/springboot/current/bin.

If you do not see the app manifest, your installation of scoop might be out-of-date.
NOTE
In that case, run scoop update and try again.

Quick-start Spring CLI Example

You can use the following web application to test your installation. To start, create a file called
app.groovy, as follows:

11
 @RestController
class ThisWillActuallyRun {

  @RequestMapping("/")
  String home() {
  "Hello World!"
  }

Then run it from a shell, as follows:

$ spring run app.groovy

The first run of your application is slow, as dependencies are downloaded.

NOTE
Subsequent runs are much quicker.

Open localhost:8080 in your favorite web browser. You should see the following output:

Hello World!

4.4. 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. 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.

TIP 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 valid
versions of Java and Maven installed:

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_102"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_102-b14)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.102-b14, mixed mode)

12
 $ mvn -v
Apache Maven 3.5.4 (1edded0938998edf8bf061f1ceb3cfdeccf443fe; 2018-06-17T14:33:14-
04:00)
Maven home: /usr/local/Cellar/maven/3.3.9/libexec
Java version: 1.8.0_102, vendor: Oracle Corporation

This sample needs to be created in its own directory. Subsequent instructions

NOTE assume that you have created a suitable directory and that it is your current
directory.

4.4.1. Creating the POM

We need to start by creating a Maven pom.xml file. The pom.xml is the recipe that is used to build your
project. Open your favorite text editor and add the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>myproject</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <parent>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
  <version>2.7.0</version>
  </parent>

  <!-- Additional lines to be added here... -->

</project>

The preceding listing should give you a working build. You can test it by running mvn package (for
now, you can ignore the “jar will be empty - no content was marked for inclusion!” warning).

At this point, you could import the project into an IDE (most modern Java IDEs
NOTE include built-in support for Maven). For simplicity, we continue to use a plain text
editor for this example.

4.4.2. Adding Classpath Dependencies

Spring Boot provides a number of “Starters” that let you add jars to your classpath. Our
applications for smoke tests use the spring-boot-starter-parent in the parent section of the POM.

13
The spring-boot-starter-parent is a special starter that provides useful Maven defaults. It also
provides a dependency-management section so that you can omit version tags for “blessed”
dependencies.

Other “Starters” provide dependencies that you are likely to need when developing a specific type
of application. Since we are developing a web application, we add a spring-boot-starter-web
dependency. Before that, we can look at what we currently have by running the following
command:

$ mvn dependency:tree

[INFO] com.example:myproject:jar:0.0.1-SNAPSHOT

The mvn dependency:tree command prints a tree representation of your project dependencies. You
can see that spring-boot-starter-parent provides no dependencies by itself. To add the necessary
dependencies, edit your pom.xml and add the spring-boot-starter-web dependency immediately
below the parent section:

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

If you run mvn dependency:tree again, you see that there are now a number of additional
dependencies, including the Tomcat web server and Spring Boot itself.

4.4.3. Writing the Code

To finish our application, we need to create a single Java file. By default, Maven compiles sources
from src/main/java, so you need to create that directory structure and then add a file named
src/main/java/MyApplication.java to contain the following code:

14
Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
@EnableAutoConfiguration
public class MyApplication {

  @RequestMapping("/")
  String home() {
  return "Hello World!";
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController

@RestController
@EnableAutoConfiguration
class MyApplication {

  @RequestMapping("/")
  fun home() = "Hello World!"

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
}

Although there is not much code here, quite a lot is going on. We step through the important parts
in the next few sections.

The @RestController and @RequestMapping Annotations

The first annotation on our MyApplication class is @RestController. This is known as a stereotype
annotation. It provides hints for people reading the code and for Spring that the class plays a
specific role. In this case, our class is a web @Controller, so Spring considers it when handling

15
incoming web requests.

The @RequestMapping annotation provides “routing” information. It tells Spring that any HTTP
request with the / path should be mapped to the home method. The @RestController annotation tells
Spring to render the resulting string directly back to the caller.

The @RestController and @RequestMapping annotations are Spring MVC annotations

TIP (they are not specific to Spring Boot). See the MVC section in the Spring Reference
Documentation for more details.

The @EnableAutoConfiguration Annotation

The second class-level annotation is @EnableAutoConfiguration. This annotation tells Spring Boot to
“guess” how you want to configure Spring, based on the jar dependencies that you have added.
Since spring-boot-starter-web added Tomcat and Spring MVC, the auto-configuration assumes that
you are developing a web application and sets up Spring accordingly.

Starters and Auto-configuration

Auto-configuration is designed to work well with “Starters”, but the two concepts are not
directly tied. You are free to pick and choose jar dependencies outside of the starters. Spring
Boot still does its best to auto-configure your application.

The “main” Method

The final part of our application is the main method. This is a standard method that follows the Java
convention for an application entry point. Our main method delegates to Spring Boot’s
SpringApplication class by calling run. SpringApplication bootstraps our application, starting Spring,
which, in turn, starts the auto-configured Tomcat web server. We need to pass MyApplication.class
as an argument to the run method to tell SpringApplication which is the primary Spring component.
The args array is also passed through to expose any command-line arguments.

4.4.4. Running the Example

At this point, your application should work. Since you used the spring-boot-starter-parent POM,
you have a useful run goal that you can use to start the application. Type mvn spring-boot:run from
the root project directory to start the application. You should see output similar to the following:

16
 $ mvn spring-boot:run

  . ____ _ __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) )
  ' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot :: (v2.7.0)
....... . . .
....... . . . (log output here)
....... . . .
........ Started MyApplication in 2.222 seconds (JVM running for 6.514)

If you open a web browser to localhost:8080, you should see the following output:

Hello World!

To gracefully exit the application, press ctrl-c.

4.4.5. Creating an Executable Jar

We finish our example by creating a completely self-contained executable jar file that we could run
in production. Executable jars (sometimes called “fat jars”) are archives containing your compiled
classes along with all of the jar dependencies that your code needs to run.

Executable jars and Java

Java does not provide a standard way to load nested jar files (jar files that are themselves
contained within a jar). This can be problematic if you are looking to distribute a self-
contained application.

To solve this problem, many developers use “uber” jars. An uber jar packages all the classes
from all the application’s dependencies into a single archive. The problem with this approach
is that it becomes hard to see which libraries are in your application. It can also be
problematic if the same filename is used (but with different content) in multiple jars.

Spring Boot takes a different approach and lets you actually nest jars directly.

To create an executable jar, we need to add the spring-boot-maven-plugin to our pom.xml. To do so,
insert the following lines just below the dependencies section:

17
 <build>
  <plugins>
  <plugin>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

The spring-boot-starter-parent POM includes <executions> configuration to bind

NOTE the repackage goal. If you do not use the parent POM, you need to declare this
configuration yourself. See the plugin documentation for details.

Save your pom.xml and run mvn package from the command line, as follows:

$ mvn package

[INFO] Scanning for projects...

[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building myproject 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] .... ..
[INFO] --- maven-jar-plugin:2.4:jar (default-jar) @ myproject ---
[INFO] Building jar: /Users/developer/example/spring-boot-example/target/myproject-
0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
[INFO]
[INFO] --- spring-boot-maven-plugin:2.7.0:repackage (default) @ myproject ---
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look in the target directory, you should see myproject-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar. The file should be
around 10 MB in size. If you want to peek inside, you can use jar tvf, as follows:

$ jar tvf target/myproject-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

You should also see a much smaller file named myproject-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar.original in the target
directory. This is the original jar file that Maven created before it was repackaged by Spring Boot.

To run that application, use the java -jar command, as follows:

18
 $ java -jar target/myproject-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

  . ____ _ __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) )
  ' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot :: (v2.7.0)
....... . . .
....... . . . (log output here)
....... . . .
........ Started MyApplication in 2.536 seconds (JVM running for 2.864)

As before, to exit the application, press ctrl-c.

4.5. What to Read Next

Hopefully, this section provided some of the Spring Boot basics and got you on your way to writing
your own applications. If you are a task-oriented type of developer, you might want to jump over to
spring.io and follow some of the getting started guides that solve specific “How do I do that with
Spring?” problems. We also have Spring Boot-specific “How-to” reference documentation.

Otherwise, the next logical step is to read Developing with Spring Boot. If you are really impatient,
you could also jump ahead and read about Spring Boot features.

19
Chapter 5. Upgrading Spring Boot
Instructions for how to upgrade from earlier versions of Spring Boot are provided on the project
wiki. Follow the links in the release notes section to find the version that you want to upgrade to.

Upgrading instructions are always the first item in the release notes. If you are more than one
release behind, please make sure that you also review the release notes of the versions that you
jumped.

5.1. Upgrading from 1.x

If you are upgrading from the 1.x release of Spring Boot, check the “migration guide” on the project
wiki that provides detailed upgrade instructions. Check also the “release notes” for a list of “new
and noteworthy” features for each release.

5.2. Upgrading to a new feature release

When upgrading to a new feature release, some properties may have been renamed or removed.
Spring Boot provides a way to analyze your application’s environment and print diagnostics at
startup, but also temporarily migrate properties at runtime for you. To enable that feature, add the
following dependency to your project:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-properties-migrator</artifactId>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Properties that are added late to the environment, such as when using
WARNING
@PropertySource, will not be taken into account.

Once you finish the migration, please make sure to remove this module from your
NOTE
project’s dependencies.

5.3. Upgrading the Spring Boot CLI

To upgrade an existing CLI installation, use the appropriate package manager command (for
example, brew upgrade). If you manually installed the CLI, follow the standard instructions,
remembering to update your PATH environment variable to remove any older references.

5.4. What to Read Next

Once you’ve decided to upgrade your application, you can find detailed information regarding
specific features in the rest of the document.

20
Spring Boot’s documentation is specific to that version, so any information that you find in here
will contain the most up-to-date changes that are in that version.

21
Chapter 6. Developing with Spring Boot
This section goes into more detail about how you should use Spring Boot. It covers topics such as
build systems, auto-configuration, and how to run your applications. We also cover some Spring
Boot best practices. Although there is nothing particularly special about Spring Boot (it is just
another library that you can consume), there are a few recommendations that, when followed,
make your development process a little easier.

If you are starting out with Spring Boot, you should probably read the Getting Started guide before
diving into this section.

6.1. Build Systems

It is strongly recommended that you choose a build system that supports dependency management
and that can consume artifacts published to the “Maven Central” repository. We would recommend
that you choose Maven or Gradle. It is possible to get Spring Boot to work with other build systems
(Ant, for example), but they are not particularly well supported.

6.1.1. Dependency Management

Each release of Spring Boot provides a curated list of dependencies that it supports. In practice, you
do not need to provide a version for any of these dependencies in your build configuration, as
Spring Boot manages that for you. When you upgrade Spring Boot itself, these dependencies are
upgraded as well in a consistent way.

You can still specify a version and override Spring Boot’s recommendations if you
NOTE
need to do so.

The curated list contains all the Spring modules that you can use with Spring Boot as well as a
refined list of third party libraries. The list is available as a standard Bills of Materials (spring-boot-
dependencies) that can be used with both Maven and Gradle.

Each release of Spring Boot is associated with a base version of the Spring
WARNING
Framework. We highly recommend that you not specify its version.

6.1.2. Maven

To learn about using Spring Boot with Maven, see the documentation for Spring Boot’s Maven
plugin:

• Reference (HTML and PDF)

• API

6.1.3. Gradle

To learn about using Spring Boot with Gradle, see the documentation for Spring Boot’s Gradle
plugin:

22
 • Reference (HTML and PDF)

• API

6.1.4. Ant

It is possible to build a Spring Boot project using Apache Ant+Ivy. The spring-boot-antlib “AntLib”
module is also available to help Ant create executable jars.

To declare dependencies, a typical ivy.xml file looks something like the following example:

<ivy-module version="2.0">
  <info organisation="org.springframework.boot" module="spring-boot-sample-ant" />
  <configurations>
  <conf name="compile" description="everything needed to compile this module" />
  <conf name="runtime" extends="compile" description="everything needed to run
this module" />
  </configurations>
  <dependencies>
  <dependency org="org.springframework.boot" name="spring-boot-starter"
  rev="${spring-boot.version}" conf="compile" />
  </dependencies>
</ivy-module>

A typical build.xml looks like the following example:

23
 <project
  xmlns:ivy="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant"
  xmlns:spring-boot="antlib:org.springframework.boot.ant"
  name="myapp" default="build">

  <property name="spring-boot.version" value="2.7.0" />

  <target name="resolve" description="--> retrieve dependencies with ivy">

  <ivy:retrieve pattern="lib/[conf]/[artifact]-[type]-[revision].[ext]" />
  </target>

  <target name="classpaths" depends="resolve">

  <path id="compile.classpath">
  <fileset dir="lib/compile" includes="*.jar" />
  </path>
  </target>

  <target name="init" depends="classpaths">

  <mkdir dir="build/classes" />
  </target>

  <target name="compile" depends="init" description="compile">

  <javac srcdir="src/main/java" destdir="build/classes"
classpathref="compile.classpath" />
  </target>

  <target name="build" depends="compile">

  <spring-boot:exejar destfile="build/myapp.jar" classes="build/classes">
  <spring-boot:lib>
  <fileset dir="lib/runtime" />
  </spring-boot:lib>
  </spring-boot:exejar>
  </target>
</project>

If you do not want to use the spring-boot-antlib module, see the Build an Executable
TIP
Archive from Ant without Using spring-boot-antlib “How-to” .

6.1.5. Starters

Starters are a set of convenient dependency descriptors that you can include in your application.
You get a one-stop shop for all the Spring and related technologies that you need without having to
hunt through sample code and copy-paste loads of dependency descriptors. For example, if you
want to get started using Spring and JPA for database access, include the spring-boot-starter-data-
jpa dependency in your project.

The starters contain a lot of the dependencies that you need to get a project up and running quickly
and with a consistent, supported set of managed transitive dependencies.

24
 What is in a name

All official starters follow a similar naming pattern; spring-boot-starter-*, where * is a

particular type of application. This naming structure is intended to help when you need to
find a starter. The Maven integration in many IDEs lets you search dependencies by name.
For example, with the appropriate Eclipse or Spring Tools plugin installed, you can press
ctrl-space in the POM editor and type “spring-boot-starter” for a complete list.

As explained in the “Creating Your Own Starter” section, third party starters should not start
with spring-boot, as it is reserved for official Spring Boot artifacts. Rather, a third-party
starter typically starts with the name of the project. For example, a third-party starter project
called thirdpartyproject would typically be named thirdpartyproject-spring-boot-starter.

The following application starters are provided by Spring Boot under the org.springframework.boot
group:

Table 1. Spring Boot application starters

Name Description

spring-boot-starter Core starter, including auto-configuration

support, logging and YAML

spring-boot-starter-activemq Starter for JMS messaging using Apache

ActiveMQ

spring-boot-starter-amqp Starter for using Spring AMQP and Rabbit MQ

spring-boot-starter-aop Starter for aspect-oriented programming with

Spring AOP and AspectJ

spring-boot-starter-artemis Starter for JMS messaging using Apache Artemis

spring-boot-starter-batch Starter for using Spring Batch

spring-boot-starter-cache Starter for using Spring Framework’s caching

support

spring-boot-starter-data-cassandra Starter for using Cassandra distributed database

and Spring Data Cassandra

spring-boot-starter-data-cassandra-reactive Starter for using Cassandra distributed database

and Spring Data Cassandra Reactive

spring-boot-starter-data-couchbase Starter for using Couchbase document-oriented

database and Spring Data Couchbase

spring-boot-starter-data-couchbase-reactive Starter for using Couchbase document-oriented

database and Spring Data Couchbase Reactive

spring-boot-starter-data-elasticsearch Starter for using Elasticsearch search and

analytics engine and Spring Data Elasticsearch

spring-boot-starter-data-jdbc Starter for using Spring Data JDBC

spring-boot-starter-data-jpa Starter for using Spring Data JPA with Hibernate

25
Name Description

spring-boot-starter-data-ldap Starter for using Spring Data LDAP

spring-boot-starter-data-mongodb Starter for using MongoDB document-oriented

database and Spring Data MongoDB

spring-boot-starter-data-mongodb-reactive Starter for using MongoDB document-oriented

database and Spring Data MongoDB Reactive

spring-boot-starter-data-neo4j Starter for using Neo4j graph database and

Spring Data Neo4j

spring-boot-starter-data-r2dbc Starter for using Spring Data R2DBC

spring-boot-starter-data-redis Starter for using Redis key-value data store with

Spring Data Redis and the Lettuce client

spring-boot-starter-data-redis-reactive Starter for using Redis key-value data store with

Spring Data Redis reactive and the Lettuce client

spring-boot-starter-data-rest Starter for exposing Spring Data repositories

over REST using Spring Data REST

spring-boot-starter-freemarker Starter for building MVC web applications using

FreeMarker views

spring-boot-starter-graphql Starter for building GraphQL applications with

Spring GraphQL

spring-boot-starter-groovy-templates Starter for building MVC web applications using

Groovy Templates views

spring-boot-starter-hateoas Starter for building hypermedia-based RESTful

web application with Spring MVC and Spring
HATEOAS

spring-boot-starter-integration Starter for using Spring Integration

spring-boot-starter-jdbc Starter for using JDBC with the HikariCP

connection pool

spring-boot-starter-jersey Starter for building RESTful web applications

using JAX-RS and Jersey. An alternative to
spring-boot-starter-web

spring-boot-starter-jooq Starter for using jOOQ to access SQL databases

with JDBC. An alternative to spring-boot-
starter-data-jpa or spring-boot-starter-jdbc

spring-boot-starter-json Starter for reading and writing json

spring-boot-starter-jta-atomikos Starter for JTA transactions using Atomikos

spring-boot-starter-mail Starter for using Java Mail and Spring

Framework’s email sending support

spring-boot-starter-mustache Starter for building web applications using

Mustache views

26
Name Description

spring-boot-starter-oauth2-client Starter for using Spring Security’s

OAuth2/OpenID Connect client features

spring-boot-starter-oauth2-resource-server Starter for using Spring Security’s OAuth2

resource server features

spring-boot-starter-quartz Starter for using the Quartz scheduler

spring-boot-starter-rsocket Starter for building RSocket clients and servers

spring-boot-starter-security Starter for using Spring Security

spring-boot-starter-test Starter for testing Spring Boot applications with

libraries including JUnit Jupiter, Hamcrest and
Mockito

spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf Starter for building MVC web applications using

Thymeleaf views

spring-boot-starter-validation Starter for using Java Bean Validation with

Hibernate Validator

spring-boot-starter-web Starter for building web, including RESTful,

applications using Spring MVC. Uses Tomcat as
the default embedded container

spring-boot-starter-web-services Starter for using Spring Web Services

spring-boot-starter-webflux Starter for building WebFlux applications using

Spring Framework’s Reactive Web support

spring-boot-starter-websocket Starter for building WebSocket applications

using Spring Framework’s WebSocket support

In addition to the application starters, the following starters can be used to add production ready
features:

Table 2. Spring Boot production starters

Name Description

spring-boot-starter-actuator Starter for using Spring Boot’s Actuator which

provides production ready features to help you
monitor and manage your application

Finally, Spring Boot also includes the following starters that can be used if you want to exclude or
swap specific technical facets:

Table 3. Spring Boot technical starters

Name Description

spring-boot-starter-jetty Starter for using Jetty as the embedded servlet

container. An alternative to spring-boot-
starter-tomcat

27
Name Description

spring-boot-starter-log4j2 Starter for using Log4j2 for logging. An

alternative to spring-boot-starter-logging

spring-boot-starter-logging Starter for logging using Logback. Default

logging starter

spring-boot-starter-reactor-netty Starter for using Reactor Netty as the embedded

reactive HTTP server.

spring-boot-starter-tomcat Starter for using Tomcat as the embedded

servlet container. Default servlet container
starter used by spring-boot-starter-web

spring-boot-starter-undertow Starter for using Undertow as the embedded

servlet container. An alternative to spring-boot-
starter-tomcat

To learn how to swap technical facets, please see the how-to documentation for swapping web
server and logging system.

For a list of additional community contributed starters, see the README file in the
TIP
spring-boot-starters module on GitHub.

6.2. Structuring Your Code

Spring Boot does not require any specific code layout to work. However, there are some best
practices that help.

6.2.1. Using the “default” Package

When a class does not include a package declaration, it is considered to be in the “default package”.
The use of the “default package” is generally discouraged and should be avoided. It can cause
particular problems for Spring Boot applications that use the @ComponentScan,
@ConfigurationPropertiesScan, @EntityScan, or @SpringBootApplication annotations, since every class
from every jar is read.

We recommend that you follow Java’s recommended package naming conventions

TIP
and use a reversed domain name (for example, com.example.project).

6.2.2. Locating the Main Application Class

We generally recommend that you locate your main application class in a root package above other
classes. The @SpringBootApplication annotation is often placed on your main class, and it implicitly
defines a base “search package” for certain items. For example, if you are writing a JPA application,
the package of the @SpringBootApplication annotated class is used to search for @Entity items. Using
a root package also allows component scan to apply only on your project.

28
 If you do not want to use @SpringBootApplication, the @EnableAutoConfiguration and
TIP @ComponentScan annotations that it imports defines that behavior so you can also use
those instead.

The following listing shows a typical layout:

com
 +- example
  +- myapplication
  +- MyApplication.java
  |
  +- customer
  | +- Customer.java
  | +- CustomerController.java
  | +- CustomerService.java
  | +- CustomerRepository.java
  |
  +- order
  +- Order.java
  +- OrderController.java
  +- OrderService.java
  +- OrderRepository.java

The MyApplication.java file would declare the main method, along with the basic
@SpringBootApplication, as follows:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

29
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
}

6.3. Configuration Classes

Spring Boot favors Java-based configuration. Although it is possible to use SpringApplication with
XML sources, we generally recommend that your primary source be a single @Configuration class.
Usually the class that defines the main method is a good candidate as the primary @Configuration.

Many Spring configuration examples have been published on the Internet that use
TIP XML configuration. If possible, always try to use the equivalent Java-based
configuration. Searching for Enable* annotations can be a good starting point.

6.3.1. Importing Additional Configuration Classes

You need not put all your @Configuration into a single class. The @Import annotation can be used to
import additional configuration classes. Alternatively, you can use @ComponentScan to automatically
pick up all Spring components, including @Configuration classes.

6.3.2. Importing XML Configuration

If you absolutely must use XML based configuration, we recommend that you still start with a
@Configuration class. You can then use an @ImportResource annotation to load XML configuration
files.

6.4. Auto-configuration
Spring Boot auto-configuration attempts to automatically configure your Spring application based
on the jar dependencies that you have added. For example, if HSQLDB is on your classpath, and you
have not manually configured any database connection beans, then Spring Boot auto-configures an
in-memory database.

You need to opt-in to auto-configuration by adding the @EnableAutoConfiguration or

@SpringBootApplication annotations to one of your @Configuration classes.

You should only ever add one @SpringBootApplication or @EnableAutoConfiguration

TIP annotation. We generally recommend that you add one or the other to your primary
@Configuration class only.

30
6.4.1. Gradually Replacing Auto-configuration

Auto-configuration is non-invasive. At any point, you can start to define your own configuration to
replace specific parts of the auto-configuration. For example, if you add your own DataSource bean,
the default embedded database support backs away.

If you need to find out what auto-configuration is currently being applied, and why, start your
application with the --debug switch. Doing so enables debug logs for a selection of core loggers and
logs a conditions report to the console.

6.4.2. Disabling Specific Auto-configuration Classes

If you find that specific auto-configuration classes that you do not want are being applied, you can
use the exclude attribute of @SpringBootApplication to disable them, as shown in the following
example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceAutoConfiguration;

@SpringBootApplication(exclude = { DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class })
public class MyApplication {

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceAutoConfiguration

@SpringBootApplication(exclude = [DataSourceAutoConfiguration::class])
class MyApplication

If the class is not on the classpath, you can use the excludeName attribute of the annotation and
specify the fully qualified name instead. If you prefer to use @EnableAutoConfiguration rather than
@SpringBootApplication, exclude and excludeName are also available. Finally, you can also control the
list of auto-configuration classes to exclude by using the spring.autoconfigure.exclude property.

TIP You can define exclusions both at the annotation level and by using the property.

Even though auto-configuration classes are public, the only aspect of the class that
is considered public API is the name of the class which can be used for disabling the
NOTE auto-configuration. The actual contents of those classes, such as nested
configuration classes or bean methods are for internal use only and we do not
recommend using those directly.

31
6.5. Spring Beans and Dependency Injection
You are free to use any of the standard Spring Framework techniques to define your beans and
their injected dependencies. We generally recommend using constructor injection to wire up
dependencies and @ComponentScan to find beans.

If you structure your code as suggested above (locating your application class in a top package), you
can add @ComponentScan without any arguments or use the @SpringBootApplication annotation which
implicitly includes it. All of your application components (@Component, @Service, @Repository,
@Controller, and others) are automatically registered as Spring Beans.

The following example shows a @Service Bean that uses constructor injection to obtain a required
RiskAssessor bean:

Java

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class MyAccountService implements AccountService {

  private final RiskAssessor riskAssessor;

  public MyAccountService(RiskAssessor riskAssessor) {

  this.riskAssessor = riskAssessor;
  }

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service

@Service
class MyAccountService(private val riskAssessor: RiskAssessor) : AccountService

If a bean has more than one constructor, you will need to mark the one you want Spring to use with
@Autowired:

32
Java

import java.io.PrintStream;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class MyAccountService implements AccountService {

  private final RiskAssessor riskAssessor;

  private final PrintStream out;

  @Autowired
  public MyAccountService(RiskAssessor riskAssessor) {
  this.riskAssessor = riskAssessor;
  this.out = System.out;
  }

  public MyAccountService(RiskAssessor riskAssessor, PrintStream out) {

  this.riskAssessor = riskAssessor;
  this.out = out;
  }

  // ...

33
Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service
import java.io.PrintStream

@Service
class MyAccountService : AccountService {

  private val riskAssessor: RiskAssessor

  private val out: PrintStream

  @Autowired
  constructor(riskAssessor: RiskAssessor) {
  this.riskAssessor = riskAssessor
  out = System.out
  }

  constructor(riskAssessor: RiskAssessor, out: PrintStream) {

  this.riskAssessor = riskAssessor
  this.out = out
  }

  // ...

Notice how using constructor injection lets the riskAssessor field be marked as final,
TIP
indicating that it cannot be subsequently changed.

6.6. Using the @SpringBootApplication Annotation

Many Spring Boot developers like their apps to use auto-configuration, component scan and be able
to define extra configuration on their "application class". A single @SpringBootApplication
annotation can be used to enable those three features, that is:

• @EnableAutoConfiguration: enable Spring Boot’s auto-configuration mechanism

• @ComponentScan: enable @Component scan on the package where the application is located (see the
best practices)

• @SpringBootConfiguration: enable registration of extra beans in the context or the import of

additional configuration classes. An alternative to Spring’s standard @Configuration that aids
configuration detection in your integration tests.

34
Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

// Same as @SpringBootConfiguration @EnableAutoConfiguration @ComponentScan

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication

// same as @SpringBootConfiguration @EnableAutoConfiguration @ComponentScan

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
}

@SpringBootApplication also provides aliases to customize the attributes of

NOTE
@EnableAutoConfiguration and @ComponentScan.

35
 None of these features are mandatory and you may choose to replace this single
annotation by any of the features that it enables. For instance, you may not want to
use component scan or configuration properties scan in your application:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringBootConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import;

@SpringBootConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@Import({ SomeConfiguration.class, AnotherConfiguration.class })
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

NOTE Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.SpringBootConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration
import
org.springframework.boot.docs.using.structuringyourcode.locatingthemainc
lass.MyApplication
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import

@SpringBootConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@Import(SomeConfiguration::class, AnotherConfiguration::class)
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
}

In this example, MyApplication is just like any other Spring Boot application except
that @Component-annotated classes and @ConfigurationProperties-annotated classes
are not detected automatically and the user-defined beans are imported explicitly
(see @Import).

36
6.7. Running Your Application
One of the biggest advantages of packaging your application as a jar and using an embedded HTTP
server is that you can run your application as you would any other. The sample applies to
debugging Spring Boot applications. You do not need any special IDE plugins or extensions.

This section only covers jar-based packaging. If you choose to package your
NOTE
application as a war file, see your server and IDE documentation.

6.7.1. Running from an IDE

You can run a Spring Boot application from your IDE as a Java application. However, you first need
to import your project. Import steps vary depending on your IDE and build system. Most IDEs can
import Maven projects directly. For example, Eclipse users can select Import… → Existing Maven
Projects from the File menu.

If you cannot directly import your project into your IDE, you may be able to generate IDE metadata
by using a build plugin. Maven includes plugins for Eclipse and IDEA. Gradle offers plugins for
various IDEs.

If you accidentally run a web application twice, you see a “Port already in use” error.
TIP Spring Tools users can use the Relaunch button rather than the Run button to ensure
that any existing instance is closed.

6.7.2. Running as a Packaged Application

If you use the Spring Boot Maven or Gradle plugins to create an executable jar, you can run your
application using java -jar, as shown in the following example:

$ java -jar target/myapplication-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

It is also possible to run a packaged application with remote debugging support enabled. Doing so
lets you attach a debugger to your packaged application, as shown in the following example:

$ java -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:server=y,transport=dt_socket,address=8000,suspend=n \

  -jar target/myapplication-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

6.7.3. Using the Maven Plugin

The Spring Boot Maven plugin includes a run goal that can be used to quickly compile and run your
application. Applications run in an exploded form, as they do in your IDE. The following example
shows a typical Maven command to run a Spring Boot application:

$ mvn spring-boot:run

37
You might also want to use the MAVEN_OPTS operating system environment variable, as shown in the
following example:

$ export MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx1024m

6.7.4. Using the Gradle Plugin

The Spring Boot Gradle plugin also includes a bootRun task that can be used to run your application
in an exploded form. The bootRun task is added whenever you apply the org.springframework.boot
and java plugins and is shown in the following example:

$ gradle bootRun

You might also want to use the JAVA_OPTS operating system environment variable, as shown in the
following example:

$ export JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx1024m

6.7.5. Hot Swapping

Since Spring Boot applications are plain Java applications, JVM hot-swapping should work out of
the box. JVM hot swapping is somewhat limited with the bytecode that it can replace. For a more
complete solution, JRebel can be used.

The spring-boot-devtools module also includes support for quick application restarts. See the Hot
swapping “How-to” for details.

6.8. Developer Tools

Spring Boot includes an additional set of tools that can make the application development
experience a little more pleasant. The spring-boot-devtools module can be included in any project
to provide additional development-time features. To include devtools support, add the module
dependency to your build, as shown in the following listings for Maven and Gradle:

Maven

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
  <optional>true</optional>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

38
Gradle

dependencies {
  developmentOnly("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-devtools")
}

Devtools might cause classloading issues, in particular in multi-module projects.

CAUTION
Diagnosing Classloading Issues explains how to diagnose and solve them.

Developer tools are automatically disabled when running a fully packaged

application. If your application is launched from java -jar or if it is started from a
special classloader, then it is considered a “production application”. You can control
this behavior by using the spring.devtools.restart.enabled system property. To
NOTE enable devtools, irrespective of the classloader used to launch your application, set
the -Dspring.devtools.restart.enabled=true system property. This must not be done
in a production environment where running devtools is a security risk. To disable
devtools, exclude the dependency or set the
-Dspring.devtools.restart.enabled=false system property.

Flagging the dependency as optional in Maven or using the developmentOnly

TIP configuration in Gradle (as shown above) prevents devtools from being transitively
applied to other modules that use your project.

Repackaged archives do not contain devtools by default. If you want to use a certain
remote devtools feature, you need to include it. When using the Maven plugin, set the
TIP
excludeDevtools property to false. When using the Gradle plugin, configure the task’s
classpath to include the developmentOnly configuration.

6.8.1. Diagnosing Classloading Issues

As described in the Restart vs Reload section, restart functionality is implemented by using two
classloaders. For most applications, this approach works well. However, it can sometimes cause
classloading issues, in particular in multi-module projects.

To diagnose whether the classloading issues are indeed caused by devtools and its two classloaders,
try disabling restart. If this solves your problems, customize the restart classloader to include your
entire project.

6.8.2. Property Defaults

Several of the libraries supported by Spring Boot use caches to improve performance. For example,
template engines cache compiled templates to avoid repeatedly parsing template files. Also, Spring
MVC can add HTTP caching headers to responses when serving static resources.

While caching is very beneficial in production, it can be counter-productive during development,

preventing you from seeing the changes you just made in your application. For this reason, spring-
boot-devtools disables the caching options by default.

39
Cache options are usually configured by settings in your application.properties file. For example,
Thymeleaf offers the spring.thymeleaf.cache property. Rather than needing to set these properties
manually, the spring-boot-devtools module automatically applies sensible development-time
configuration.

The following table lists all the properties that are applied:

Name Default Value

server.error.include-binding-errors always
server.error.include-message always
server.error.include-stacktrace always
server.servlet.jsp.init-parameters.development true
server.servlet.session.persistent true
spring.freemarker.cache false
spring.graphql.graphiql.enabled true
spring.groovy.template.cache false
spring.h2.console.enabled true
spring.mustache.servlet.cache false
spring.mvc.log-resolved-exception true
spring.reactor.debug true
spring.template.provider.cache false
spring.thymeleaf.cache false
spring.web.resources.cache.period 0
spring.web.resources.chain.cache false

If you do not want property defaults to be applied you can set spring.devtools.add-
NOTE
properties to false in your application.properties.

Because you need more information about web requests while developing Spring MVC and Spring
WebFlux applications, developer tools suggests you to enable DEBUG logging for the web logging
group. This will give you information about the incoming request, which handler is processing it,
the response outcome, and other details. If you wish to log all request details (including potentially
sensitive information), you can turn on the spring.mvc.log-request-details or spring.codec.log-
request-details configuration properties.

6.8.3. Automatic Restart

Applications that use spring-boot-devtools automatically restart whenever files on the classpath
change. This can be a useful feature when working in an IDE, as it gives a very fast feedback loop
for code changes. By default, any entry on the classpath that points to a directory is monitored for
changes. Note that certain resources, such as static assets and view templates, do not need to restart
the application.

40
 Triggering a restart

As DevTools monitors classpath resources, the only way to trigger a restart is to update the
classpath. Whether you’re using an IDE or one of the build plugins, the modified files have to
be recompiled to trigger a restart. The way in which you cause the classpath to be updated
depends on the tool that you are using:

• In Eclipse, saving a modified file causes the classpath to be updated and triggers a restart.

• In IntelliJ IDEA, building the project (Build +→+ Build Project) has the same effect.

• If using a build plugin, running mvn compile for Maven or gradle build for Gradle will
trigger a restart.

If you are restarting with Maven or Gradle using the build plugin you must leave
NOTE the forking set to enabled. If you disable forking, the isolated application classloader
used by devtools will not be created and restarts will not operate properly.

Automatic restart works very well when used with LiveReload. See the LiveReload
section for details. If you use JRebel, automatic restarts are disabled in favor of
TIP
dynamic class reloading. Other devtools features (such as LiveReload and property
overrides) can still be used.

DevTools relies on the application context’s shutdown hook to close it during a

NOTE restart. It does not work correctly if you have disabled the shutdown hook
(SpringApplication.setRegisterShutdownHook(false)).

DevTools needs to customize the ResourceLoader used by the ApplicationContext. If

NOTE your application provides one already, it is going to be wrapped. Direct override of
the getResource method on the ApplicationContext is not supported.

CAUTION Automatic restart is not supported when using AspectJ weaving.

41
 Restart vs Reload

The restart technology provided by Spring Boot works by using two classloaders. Classes that
do not change (for example, those from third-party jars) are loaded into a base classloader.
Classes that you are actively developing are loaded into a restart classloader. When the
application is restarted, the restart classloader is thrown away and a new one is created. This
approach means that application restarts are typically much faster than “cold starts”, since
the base classloader is already available and populated.

If you find that restarts are not quick enough for your applications or you encounter
classloading issues, you could consider reloading technologies such as JRebel from
ZeroTurnaround. These work by rewriting classes as they are loaded to make them more
amenable to reloading.

Logging changes in condition evaluation

By default, each time your application restarts, a report showing the condition evaluation delta is
logged. The report shows the changes to your application’s auto-configuration as you make changes
such as adding or removing beans and setting configuration properties.

To disable the logging of the report, set the following property:

Properties

spring.devtools.restart.log-condition-evaluation-delta=false

Yaml

spring:
  devtools:
  restart:
  log-condition-evaluation-delta: false

Excluding Resources

Certain resources do not necessarily need to trigger a restart when they are changed. For example,
Thymeleaf templates can be edited in-place. By default, changing resources in /META-INF/maven,
/META-INF/resources, /resources, /static, /public, or /templates does not trigger a restart but does
trigger a live reload. If you want to customize these exclusions, you can use the
spring.devtools.restart.exclude property. For example, to exclude only /static and /public you
would set the following property:

Properties

spring.devtools.restart.exclude=static/**,public/**

42
Yaml

spring:
  devtools:
  restart:
  exclude: "static/**,public/**"

If you want to keep those defaults and add additional exclusions, use the
TIP
spring.devtools.restart.additional-exclude property instead.

Watching Additional Paths

You may want your application to be restarted or reloaded when you make changes to files that are
not on the classpath. To do so, use the spring.devtools.restart.additional-paths property to
configure additional paths to watch for changes. You can use the spring.devtools.restart.exclude
property described earlier to control whether changes beneath the additional paths trigger a full
restart or a live reload.

Disabling Restart

If you do not want to use the restart feature, you can disable it by using the
spring.devtools.restart.enabled property. In most cases, you can set this property in your
application.properties (doing so still initializes the restart classloader, but it does not watch for file
changes).

If you need to completely disable restart support (for example, because it does not work with a
specific library), you need to set the spring.devtools.restart.enabled System property to false
before calling SpringApplication.run(…), as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  System.setProperty("spring.devtools.restart.enabled", "false");
  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

43
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication

@SpringBootApplication
object MyApplication {

  @JvmStatic
  fun main(args: Array<String>) {
  System.setProperty("spring.devtools.restart.enabled", "false")
  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication::class.java, *args)
  }

Using a Trigger File

If you work with an IDE that continuously compiles changed files, you might prefer to trigger
restarts only at specific times. To do so, you can use a “trigger file”, which is a special file that must
be modified when you want to actually trigger a restart check.

Any update to the file will trigger a check, but restart only actually occurs if
NOTE
Devtools has detected it has something to do.

To use a trigger file, set the spring.devtools.restart.trigger-file property to the name (excluding
any path) of your trigger file. The trigger file must appear somewhere on your classpath.

For example, if you have a project with the following structure:

src
+- main
  +- resources
  +- .reloadtrigger

Then your trigger-file property would be:

Properties

spring.devtools.restart.trigger-file=.reloadtrigger

Yaml

spring:
  devtools:
  restart:
  trigger-file: ".reloadtrigger"

44
Restarts will now only happen when the src/main/resources/.reloadtrigger is updated.

You might want to set spring.devtools.restart.trigger-file as a global setting, so that

TIP
all your projects behave in the same way.

Some IDEs have features that save you from needing to update your trigger file manually. Spring
Tools for Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA (Ultimate Edition) both have such support. With Spring Tools, you
can use the “reload” button from the console view (as long as your trigger-file is named
.reloadtrigger). For IntelliJ IDEA, you can follow the instructions in their documentation.

Customizing the Restart Classloader

As described earlier in the Restart vs Reload section, restart functionality is implemented by using
two classloaders. If this causes issues, you might need to customize what gets loaded by which
classloader.

By default, any open project in your IDE is loaded with the “restart” classloader, and any regular
.jar file is loaded with the “base” classloader. The same is true if you use mvn spring-boot:run or
gradle bootRun: the project containing your @SpringBootApplication is loaded with the “restart”
classloader, and everything else with the “base” classloader.

You can instruct Spring Boot to load parts of your project with a different classloader by creating a
META-INF/spring-devtools.properties file. The spring-devtools.properties file can contain
properties prefixed with restart.exclude and restart.include. The include elements are items that
should be pulled up into the “restart” classloader, and the exclude elements are items that should be
pushed down into the “base” classloader. The value of the property is a regex pattern that is applied
to the classpath, as shown in the following example:

Properties

restart.exclude.companycommonlibs=/mycorp-common-[\\w\\d-\\.]+\\.jar
restart.include.projectcommon=/mycorp-myproj-[\\w\\d-\\.]+\\.jar

Yaml

restart:
  exclude:
  companycommonlibs: "/mycorp-common-[\\w\\d-\\.]+\\.jar"
  include:
  projectcommon: "/mycorp-myproj-[\\w\\d-\\.]+\\.jar"

All property keys must be unique. As long as a property starts with restart.include.
NOTE
or restart.exclude. it is considered.

All META-INF/spring-devtools.properties from the classpath are loaded. You can

TIP
package files inside your project, or in the libraries that the project consumes.

45
Known Limitations

Restart functionality does not work well with objects that are deserialized by using a standard
ObjectInputStream. If you need to deserialize data, you may need to use Spring’s
ConfigurableObjectInputStream in combination with
Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().

Unfortunately, several third-party libraries deserialize without considering the context classloader.
If you find such a problem, you need to request a fix with the original authors.

6.8.4. LiveReload

The spring-boot-devtools module includes an embedded LiveReload server that can be used to
trigger a browser refresh when a resource is changed. LiveReload browser extensions are freely
available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari from livereload.com.

If you do not want to start the LiveReload server when your application runs, you can set the
spring.devtools.livereload.enabled property to false.

You can only run one LiveReload server at a time. Before starting your application,
NOTE ensure that no other LiveReload servers are running. If you start multiple
applications from your IDE, only the first has LiveReload support.

WARNING To trigger LiveReload when a file changes, Automatic Restart must be enabled.

6.8.5. Global Settings

You can configure global devtools settings by adding any of the following files to the
$HOME/.config/spring-boot directory:

1. spring-boot-devtools.properties

2. spring-boot-devtools.yaml

3. spring-boot-devtools.yml

Any properties added to these files apply to all Spring Boot applications on your machine that use
devtools. For example, to configure restart to always use a trigger file, you would add the following
property to your spring-boot-devtools file:

Properties

spring.devtools.restart.trigger-file=.reloadtrigger

46
Yaml

spring:
  devtools:
  restart:
  trigger-file: ".reloadtrigger"

By default, $HOME is the user’s home directory. To customize this location, set the
SPRING_DEVTOOLS_HOME environment variable or the spring.devtools.home system property.

If devtools configuration files are not found in $HOME/.config/spring-boot, the root

of the $HOME directory is searched for the presence of a .spring-boot-
NOTE devtools.properties file. This allows you to share the devtools global configuration
with applications that are on an older version of Spring Boot that does not support
the $HOME/.config/spring-boot location.

Profiles are not supported in devtools properties/yaml files.

Any profiles activated in .spring-boot-devtools.properties will not affect the

NOTE
loading of profile-specific configuration files. Profile specific filenames (of the form
spring-boot-devtools-<profile>.properties) and spring.config.activate.on-profile
documents in both YAML and Properties files are not supported.

Configuring File System Watcher

FileSystemWatcher works by polling the class changes with a certain time interval, and then
waiting for a predefined quiet period to make sure there are no more changes. Since Spring Boot
relies entirely on the IDE to compile and copy files into the location from where Spring Boot can
read them, you might find that there are times when certain changes are not reflected when
devtools restarts the application. If you observe such problems constantly, try increasing the
spring.devtools.restart.poll-interval and spring.devtools.restart.quiet-period parameters to
the values that fit your development environment:

Properties

spring.devtools.restart.poll-interval=2s
spring.devtools.restart.quiet-period=1s

Yaml

spring:
  devtools:
  restart:
  poll-interval: "2s"
  quiet-period: "1s"

The monitored classpath directories are now polled every 2 seconds for changes, and a 1 second
quiet period is maintained to make sure there are no additional class changes.

47
6.8.6. Remote Applications

The Spring Boot developer tools are not limited to local development. You can also use several
features when running applications remotely. Remote support is opt-in as enabling it can be a
security risk. It should only be enabled when running on a trusted network or when secured with
SSL. If neither of these options is available to you, you should not use DevTools' remote support.
You should never enable support on a production deployment.

To enable it, you need to make sure that devtools is included in the repackaged archive, as shown in
the following listing:

<build>
  <plugins>
  <plugin>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
  <excludeDevtools>false</excludeDevtools>
  </configuration>
  </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Then you need to set the spring.devtools.remote.secret property. Like any important password or
secret, the value should be unique and strong such that it cannot be guessed or brute-forced.

Remote devtools support is provided in two parts: a server-side endpoint that accepts connections
and a client application that you run in your IDE. The server component is automatically enabled
when the spring.devtools.remote.secret property is set. The client component must be launched
manually.

NOTE Remote devtools is not supported for Spring WebFlux applications.

Running the Remote Client Application

The remote client application is designed to be run from within your IDE. You need to run
org.springframework.boot.devtools.RemoteSpringApplication with the same classpath as the remote
project that you connect to. The application’s single required argument is the remote URL to which
it connects.

For example, if you are using Eclipse or Spring Tools and you have a project named my-app that you
have deployed to Cloud Foundry, you would do the following:

• Select Run Configurations… from the Run menu.

• Create a new Java Application “launch configuration”.

• Browse for the my-app project.

• Use org.springframework.boot.devtools.RemoteSpringApplication as the main class.

48
 • Add https://myapp.cfapps.io to the Program arguments (or whatever your remote URL is).

A running remote client might resemble the following listing:

  . ____ _ __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ ___ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | | _ \___ _ __ ___| |_ ___ \ \ \ \
 \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| []::::::[] / -_) ' \/ _ \ _/ -_) ) ) ) )
  ' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | |_|_\___|_|_|_\___/\__\___|/ / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/===================================/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot Remote :: 2.7.0

2015-06-10 18:25:06.632 INFO 14938 --- [ main]

o.s.b.devtools.RemoteSpringApplication : Starting RemoteSpringApplication on pwmbp
with PID 14938 (/Users/pwebb/projects/spring-boot/code/spring-boot-project/spring-
boot-devtools/target/classes started by pwebb in /Users/pwebb/projects/spring-
boot/code)
2015-06-10 18:25:06.671 INFO 14938 --- [ main]
s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Refreshing
org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@2a17b7b6:
startup date [Wed Jun 10 18:25:06 PDT 2015]; root of context hierarchy
2015-06-10 18:25:07.043 WARN 14938 --- [ main]
o.s.b.d.r.c.RemoteClientConfiguration : The connection to http://localhost:8080 is
insecure. You should use a URL starting with 'https://'.
2015-06-10 18:25:07.074 INFO 14938 --- [ main]
o.s.b.d.a.OptionalLiveReloadServer : LiveReload server is running on port 35729
2015-06-10 18:25:07.130 INFO 14938 --- [ main]
o.s.b.devtools.RemoteSpringApplication : Started RemoteSpringApplication in 0.74
seconds (JVM running for 1.105)

Because the remote client is using the same classpath as the real application it can
NOTE directly read application properties. This is how the spring.devtools.remote.secret
property is read and passed to the server for authentication.

It is always advisable to use https:// as the connection protocol, so that traffic is

TIP
encrypted and passwords cannot be intercepted.

If you need to use a proxy to access the remote application, configure the
TIP
spring.devtools.remote.proxy.host and spring.devtools.remote.proxy.port properties.

Remote Update

The remote client monitors your application classpath for changes in the same way as the local
restart. Any updated resource is pushed to the remote application and (if required) triggers a
restart. This can be helpful if you iterate on a feature that uses a cloud service that you do not have
locally. Generally, remote updates and restarts are much quicker than a full rebuild and deploy
cycle.

49
On a slower development environment, it may happen that the quiet period is not enough, and the
changes in the classes may be split into batches. The server is restarted after the first batch of class
changes is uploaded. The next batch can’t be sent to the application, since the server is restarting.

This is typically manifested by a warning in the RemoteSpringApplication logs about failing to upload
some of the classes, and a consequent retry. But it may also lead to application code inconsistency
and failure to restart after the first batch of changes is uploaded. If you observe such problems
constantly, try increasing the spring.devtools.restart.poll-interval and
spring.devtools.restart.quiet-period parameters to the values that fit your development
environment. See the Configuring File System Watcher section for configuring these properties.

Files are only monitored when the remote client is running. If you change a file
NOTE
before starting the remote client, it is not pushed to the remote server.

6.9. Packaging Your Application for Production

Executable jars can be used for production deployment. As they are self-contained, they are also
ideally suited for cloud-based deployment.

For additional “production ready” features, such as health, auditing, and metric REST or JMX end-
points, consider adding spring-boot-actuator. See Production-ready Features for details.

6.10. What to Read Next

You should now understand how you can use Spring Boot and some best practices that you should
follow. You can now go on to learn about specific Spring Boot features in depth, or you could skip
ahead and read about the “production ready” aspects of Spring Boot.

50
Chapter 7. Core Features
This section dives into the details of Spring Boot. Here you can learn about the key features that you
may want to use and customize. If you have not already done so, you might want to read the
"Getting Started" and "Developing with Spring Boot" sections, so that you have a good grounding of
the basics.

7.1. SpringApplication
The SpringApplication class provides a convenient way to bootstrap a Spring application that is
started from a main() method. In many situations, you can delegate to the static
SpringApplication.run method, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication::class.java, *args)
}

When your application starts, you should see something similar to the following output:

51
   . ____ _ __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) )
  ' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot :: v2.7.0

2021-02-03 10:33:25.224 INFO 17321 --- [ main]

o.s.b.d.s.s.SpringApplicationExample : Starting SpringApplicationExample using Java
1.8.0_232 on mycomputer with PID 17321 (/apps/myjar.jar started by pwebb)
2021-02-03 10:33:25.226 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
o.s.b.d.s.s.SpringApplicationExample : No active profile set, falling back to
default profiles: default
2021-02-03 10:33:26.046 INFO 17321 --- [ main]
o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat initialized with port(s): 8080
(http)
2021-02-03 10:33:26.054 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService : Starting service [Tomcat]
2021-02-03 10:33:26.055 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine : Starting Servlet engine: [Apache
Tomcat/9.0.41]
2021-02-03 10:33:26.097 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/] : Initializing Spring embedded
WebApplicationContext
2021-02-03 10:33:26.097 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
w.s.c.ServletWebServerApplicationContext : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization
completed in 821 ms
2021-02-03 10:33:26.144 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
s.tomcat.SampleTomcatApplication : ServletContext initialized
2021-02-03 10:33:26.376 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http) with
context path ''
2021-02-03 10:33:26.384 INFO 17900 --- [ main]
o.s.b.d.s.s.SpringApplicationExample : Started SampleTomcatApplication in 1.514
seconds (JVM running for 1.823)

By default, INFO logging messages are shown, including some relevant startup details, such as the
user that launched the application. If you need a log level other than INFO, you can set it, as
described in Log Levels. The application version is determined using the implementation version
from the main application class’s package. Startup information logging can be turned off by setting
spring.main.log-startup-info to false. This will also turn off logging of the application’s active
profiles.

To add additional logging during startup, you can override logStartupInfo(boolean) in

TIP
a subclass of SpringApplication.

52
7.1.1. Startup Failure

If your application fails to start, registered FailureAnalyzers get a chance to provide a dedicated
error message and a concrete action to fix the problem. For instance, if you start a web application
on port 8080 and that port is already in use, you should see something similar to the following
message:

***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Description:

Embedded servlet container failed to start. Port 8080 was already in use.

Action:

Identify and stop the process that is listening on port 8080 or configure this
application to listen on another port.

Spring Boot provides numerous FailureAnalyzer implementations, and you can add
NOTE
your own.

If no failure analyzers are able to handle the exception, you can still display the full conditions
report to better understand what went wrong. To do so, you need to enable the debug property or
enable DEBUG logging for
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.logging.ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener.

For instance, if you are running your application by using java -jar, you can enable the debug
property as follows:

$ java -jar myproject-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar --debug

7.1.2. Lazy Initialization

SpringApplication allows an application to be initialized lazily. When lazy initialization is enabled,

beans are created as they are needed rather than during application startup. As a result, enabling
lazy initialization can reduce the time that it takes your application to start. In a web application,
enabling lazy initialization will result in many web-related beans not being initialized until an
HTTP request is received.

A downside of lazy initialization is that it can delay the discovery of a problem with the application.
If a misconfigured bean is initialized lazily, a failure will no longer occur during startup and the
problem will only become apparent when the bean is initialized. Care must also be taken to ensure
that the JVM has sufficient memory to accommodate all of the application’s beans and not just those
that are initialized during startup. For these reasons, lazy initialization is not enabled by default
and it is recommended that fine-tuning of the JVM’s heap size is done before enabling lazy

53
initialization.

Lazy initialization can be enabled programmatically using the lazyInitialization method on

SpringApplicationBuilder or the setLazyInitialization method on SpringApplication. Alternatively,
it can be enabled using the spring.main.lazy-initialization property as shown in the following
example:

Properties

spring.main.lazy-initialization=true

Yaml

spring:
  main:
  lazy-initialization: true

If you want to disable lazy initialization for certain beans while using lazy
TIP initialization for the rest of the application, you can explicitly set their lazy attribute to
false using the @Lazy(false) annotation.

7.1.3. Customizing the Banner

The banner that is printed on start up can be changed by adding a banner.txt file to your classpath
or by setting the spring.banner.location property to the location of such a file. If the file has an
encoding other than UTF-8, you can set spring.banner.charset. In addition to a text file, you can also
add a banner.gif, banner.jpg, or banner.png image file to your classpath or set the
spring.banner.image.location property. Images are converted into an ASCII art representation and
printed above any text banner.

Inside your banner.txt file, you can use any key available in the Environment as well as any of the
following placeholders:

Table 4. Banner variables

Variable Description
${application.version} The version number of your application, as
declared in MANIFEST.MF. For example,
Implementation-Version: 1.0 is printed as 1.0.
${application.formatted-version} The version number of your application, as
declared in MANIFEST.MF and formatted for
display (surrounded with brackets and prefixed
with v). For example (v1.0).
${spring-boot.version} The Spring Boot version that you are using. For
example 2.7.0.

54
Variable Description
${spring-boot.formatted-version} The Spring Boot version that you are using,
formatted for display (surrounded with brackets
and prefixed with v). For example (v2.7.0).

${Ansi.NAME} (or ${AnsiColor.NAME}, Where NAME is the name of an ANSI escape code.
${AnsiBackground.NAME}, ${AnsiStyle.NAME}) See AnsiPropertySource for details.
${application.title} The title of your application, as declared in
MANIFEST.MF. For example Implementation-Title:
MyApp is printed as MyApp.

The SpringApplication.setBanner(…) method can be used if you want to generate a

TIP banner programmatically. Use the org.springframework.boot.Banner interface and
implement your own printBanner() method.

You can also use the spring.main.banner-mode property to determine if the banner has to be printed
on System.out (console), sent to the configured logger (log), or not produced at all (off).

The printed banner is registered as a singleton bean under the following name: springBootBanner.

The ${application.version} and ${application.formatted-version} properties are

only available if you are using Spring Boot launchers. The values will not be
resolved if you are running an unpacked jar and starting it with java -cp
<classpath> <mainclass>.
NOTE

This is why we recommend that you always launch unpacked jars using java
org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher. This will initialize the application.*
banner variables before building the classpath and launching your app.

7.1.4. Customizing SpringApplication

If the SpringApplication defaults are not to your taste, you can instead create a local instance and
customize it. For example, to turn off the banner, you could write:

55
Java

import org.springframework.boot.Banner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication application = new SpringApplication(MyApplication.class);
  application.setBannerMode(Banner.Mode.OFF);
  application.run(args);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.Banner
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  val application = SpringApplication(MyApplication::class.java)
  application.setBannerMode(Banner.Mode.OFF)
  application.run(*args)
}

The constructor arguments passed to SpringApplication are configuration sources

NOTE for Spring beans. In most cases, these are references to @Configuration classes, but
they could also be direct references @Component classes.

It is also possible to configure the SpringApplication by using an application.properties file. See

Externalized Configuration for details.

For a complete list of the configuration options, see the SpringApplication Javadoc.

7.1.5. Fluent Builder API

If you need to build an ApplicationContext hierarchy (multiple contexts with a parent/child

relationship) or if you prefer using a “fluent” builder API, you can use the SpringApplicationBuilder.

The SpringApplicationBuilder lets you chain together multiple method calls and includes parent and
child methods that let you create a hierarchy, as shown in the following example:

56
Java

new SpringApplicationBuilder()
  .sources(Parent.class)
  .child(Application.class)
  .bannerMode(Banner.Mode.OFF)
  .run(args);

Kotlin

SpringApplicationBuilder()
  .sources(Parent::class.java)
  .child(Application::class.java)
  .bannerMode(Banner.Mode.OFF)
  .run(*args)

There are some restrictions when creating an ApplicationContext hierarchy. For

example, Web components must be contained within the child context, and the
NOTE
same Environment is used for both parent and child contexts. See the
SpringApplicationBuilder Javadoc for full details.

7.1.6. Application Availability

When deployed on platforms, applications can provide information about their availability to the
platform using infrastructure such as Kubernetes Probes. Spring Boot includes out-of-the box
support for the commonly used “liveness” and “readiness” availability states. If you are using
Spring Boot’s “actuator” support then these states are exposed as health endpoint groups.

In addition, you can also obtain availability states by injecting the ApplicationAvailability interface
into your own beans.

Liveness State

The “Liveness” state of an application tells whether its internal state allows it to work correctly, or
recover by itself if it is currently failing. A broken “Liveness” state means that the application is in a
state that it cannot recover from, and the infrastructure should restart the application.

In general, the "Liveness" state should not be based on external checks, such as
NOTE Health checks. If it did, a failing external system (a database, a Web API, an external
cache) would trigger massive restarts and cascading failures across the platform.

The internal state of Spring Boot applications is mostly represented by the Spring
ApplicationContext. If the application context has started successfully, Spring Boot assumes that the
application is in a valid state. An application is considered live as soon as the context has been
refreshed, see Spring Boot application lifecycle and related Application Events.

57
Readiness State

The “Readiness” state of an application tells whether the application is ready to handle traffic. A
failing “Readiness” state tells the platform that it should not route traffic to the application for now.
This typically happens during startup, while CommandLineRunner and ApplicationRunner components
are being processed, or at any time if the application decides that it is too busy for additional traffic.

An application is considered ready as soon as application and command-line runners have been
called, see Spring Boot application lifecycle and related Application Events.

Tasks expected to run during startup should be executed by CommandLineRunner and

TIP ApplicationRunner components instead of using Spring component lifecycle callbacks
such as @PostConstruct.

Managing the Application Availability State

Application components can retrieve the current availability state at any time, by injecting the
ApplicationAvailability interface and calling methods on it. More often, applications will want to
listen to state updates or update the state of the application.

For example, we can export the "Readiness" state of the application to a file so that a Kubernetes
"exec Probe" can look at this file:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.availability.AvailabilityChangeEvent;
import org.springframework.boot.availability.ReadinessState;
import org.springframework.context.event.EventListener;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyReadinessStateExporter {

  @EventListener
  public void onStateChange(AvailabilityChangeEvent<ReadinessState> event) {
  switch (event.getState()) {
  case ACCEPTING_TRAFFIC:
  // create file /tmp/healthy
  break;
  case REFUSING_TRAFFIC:
  // remove file /tmp/healthy
  break;
  }
  }

58
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.availability.AvailabilityChangeEvent
import org.springframework.boot.availability.ReadinessState
import org.springframework.context.event.EventListener
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyReadinessStateExporter {

  @EventListener
  fun onStateChange(event: AvailabilityChangeEvent<ReadinessState?>) {
  when (event.state) {
  ReadinessState.ACCEPTING_TRAFFIC -> {
  // create file /tmp/healthy
  }
  ReadinessState.REFUSING_TRAFFIC -> {
  // remove file /tmp/healthy
  }
  else -> {
  // ...
  }
  }
  }

We can also update the state of the application, when the application breaks and cannot recover:

59
Java

import org.springframework.boot.availability.AvailabilityChangeEvent;
import org.springframework.boot.availability.LivenessState;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationEventPublisher;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyLocalCacheVerifier {

  private final ApplicationEventPublisher eventPublisher;

  public MyLocalCacheVerifier(ApplicationEventPublisher eventPublisher) {

  this.eventPublisher = eventPublisher;
  }

  public void checkLocalCache() {

  try {
  // ...
  }
  catch (CacheCompletelyBrokenException ex) {
  AvailabilityChangeEvent.publish(this.eventPublisher, ex,
LivenessState.BROKEN);
  }
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.availability.AvailabilityChangeEvent
import org.springframework.boot.availability.LivenessState
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationEventPublisher
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyLocalCacheVerifier(private val eventPublisher: ApplicationEventPublisher) {

  fun checkLocalCache() {
  try {
  // ...
  } catch (ex: CacheCompletelyBrokenException) {
  AvailabilityChangeEvent.publish(eventPublisher, ex, LivenessState.BROKEN)
  }
  }

Spring Boot provides Kubernetes HTTP probes for "Liveness" and "Readiness" with Actuator Health
Endpoints. You can get more guidance about deploying Spring Boot applications on Kubernetes in

60
the dedicated section.

7.1.7. Application Events and Listeners

In addition to the usual Spring Framework events, such as ContextRefreshedEvent, a

SpringApplication sends some additional application events.

Some events are actually triggered before the ApplicationContext is created, so you
cannot register a listener on those as a @Bean. You can register them with the
SpringApplication.addListeners(…) method or the
SpringApplicationBuilder.listeners(…) method.

If you want those listeners to be registered automatically, regardless of the way the
application is created, you can add a META-INF/spring.factories file to your project
NOTE
and reference your listener(s) by using the
org.springframework.context.ApplicationListener key, as shown in the following
example:

org.springframework.context.ApplicationListener=com.example.project.MyLi
stener

Application events are sent in the following order, as your application runs:

1. An ApplicationStartingEvent is sent at the start of a run but before any processing, except for
the registration of listeners and initializers.

2. An ApplicationEnvironmentPreparedEvent is sent when the Environment to be used in the context is

known but before the context is created.

3. An ApplicationContextInitializedEvent is sent when the ApplicationContext is prepared and

ApplicationContextInitializers have been called but before any bean definitions are loaded.

4. An ApplicationPreparedEvent is sent just before the refresh is started but after bean definitions
have been loaded.

5. An ApplicationStartedEvent is sent after the context has been refreshed but before any
application and command-line runners have been called.

6. An AvailabilityChangeEvent is sent right after with LivenessState.CORRECT to indicate that the

application is considered as live.

7. An ApplicationReadyEvent is sent after any application and command-line runners have been
called.

8. An AvailabilityChangeEvent is sent right after with ReadinessState.ACCEPTING_TRAFFIC to indicate

that the application is ready to service requests.

9. An ApplicationFailedEvent is sent if there is an exception on startup.

The above list only includes SpringApplicationEvents that are tied to a SpringApplication. In
addition to these, the following events are also published after ApplicationPreparedEvent and before
ApplicationStartedEvent:

61
 • A WebServerInitializedEvent is sent after the WebServer is ready.
ServletWebServerInitializedEvent and ReactiveWebServerInitializedEvent are the servlet and
reactive variants respectively.

• A ContextRefreshedEvent is sent when an ApplicationContext is refreshed.

You often need not use application events, but it can be handy to know that they exist.
TIP
Internally, Spring Boot uses events to handle a variety of tasks.

Event listeners should not run potentially lengthy tasks as they execute in the same
NOTE
thread by default. Consider using application and command-line runners instead.

Application events are sent by using Spring Framework’s event publishing mechanism. Part of this
mechanism ensures that an event published to the listeners in a child context is also published to
the listeners in any ancestor contexts. As a result of this, if your application uses a hierarchy of
SpringApplication instances, a listener may receive multiple instances of the same type of
application event.

To allow your listener to distinguish between an event for its context and an event for a descendant
context, it should request that its application context is injected and then compare the injected
context with the context of the event. The context can be injected by implementing
ApplicationContextAware or, if the listener is a bean, by using @Autowired.

7.1.8. Web Environment

A SpringApplication attempts to create the right type of ApplicationContext on your behalf. The
algorithm used to determine a WebApplicationType is the following:

• If Spring MVC is present, an AnnotationConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext is used

• If Spring MVC is not present and Spring WebFlux is present, an

AnnotationConfigReactiveWebServerApplicationContext is used

• Otherwise, AnnotationConfigApplicationContext is used

This means that if you are using Spring MVC and the new WebClient from Spring WebFlux in the
same application, Spring MVC will be used by default. You can override that easily by calling
setWebApplicationType(WebApplicationType).

It is also possible to take complete control of the ApplicationContext type that is used by calling
setApplicationContextClass(…).

It is often desirable to call setWebApplicationType(WebApplicationType.NONE) when

TIP
using SpringApplication within a JUnit test.

7.1.9. Accessing Application Arguments

If you need to access the application arguments that were passed to SpringApplication.run(…), you
can inject a org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments bean. The ApplicationArguments
interface provides access to both the raw String[] arguments as well as parsed option and non-

62
option arguments, as shown in the following example:

Java

import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyBean {

  public MyBean(ApplicationArguments args) {

  boolean debug = args.containsOption("debug");
  List<String> files = args.getNonOptionArgs();
  if (debug) {
  System.out.println(files);
  }
  // if run with "--debug logfile.txt" prints ["logfile.txt"]
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyBean(args: ApplicationArguments) {

  init {
  val debug = args.containsOption("debug")
  val files = args.nonOptionArgs
  if (debug) {
  println(files)
  }
  // if run with "--debug logfile.txt" prints ["logfile.txt"]
  }

Spring Boot also registers a CommandLinePropertySource with the Spring Environment.

TIP
This lets you also inject single application arguments by using the @Value annotation.

7.1.10. Using the ApplicationRunner or CommandLineRunner

If you need to run some specific code once the SpringApplication has started, you can implement
the ApplicationRunner or CommandLineRunner interfaces. Both interfaces work in the same way and

63
offer a single run method, which is called just before SpringApplication.run(…) completes.

This contract is well suited for tasks that should run after application startup but
NOTE
before it starts accepting traffic.

The CommandLineRunner interfaces provides access to application arguments as a string array,

whereas the ApplicationRunner uses the ApplicationArguments interface discussed earlier. The
following example shows a CommandLineRunner with a run method:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyCommandLineRunner implements CommandLineRunner {

  @Override
  public void run(String... args) {
  // Do something...
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyCommandLineRunner : CommandLineRunner {

  override fun run(vararg args: String) {

  // Do something...
  }

If several CommandLineRunner or ApplicationRunner beans are defined that must be called in a specific
order, you can additionally implement the org.springframework.core.Ordered interface or use the
org.springframework.core.annotation.Order annotation.

7.1.11. Application Exit

Each SpringApplication registers a shutdown hook with the JVM to ensure that the
ApplicationContext closes gracefully on exit. All the standard Spring lifecycle callbacks (such as the
DisposableBean interface or the @PreDestroy annotation) can be used.

In addition, beans may implement the org.springframework.boot.ExitCodeGenerator interface if they

64
wish to return a specific exit code when SpringApplication.exit() is called. This exit code can then
be passed to System.exit() to return it as a status code, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.ExitCodeGenerator;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  @Bean
  public ExitCodeGenerator exitCodeGenerator() {
  return () -> 42;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  System.exit(SpringApplication.exit(SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class,
args)));
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.ExitCodeGenerator
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication {

  @Bean
  fun exitCodeGenerator(): ExitCodeGenerator? {
  return ExitCodeGenerator { 42 }
  }

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  SpringApplication.run(MyApplication::class.java, *args)
}

Also, the ExitCodeGenerator interface may be implemented by exceptions. When such an exception
is encountered, Spring Boot returns the exit code provided by the implemented getExitCode()
method.

65
If there is more than ExitCodeGenerator, the first non-zero exit code that is generated is used. To
control the order in which the generators are called, additionally implement the
org.springframework.core.Ordered interface or use the org.springframework.core.annotation.Order
annotation.

7.1.12. Admin Features

It is possible to enable admin-related features for the application by specifying the

spring.application.admin.enabled property. This exposes the SpringApplicationAdminMXBean on the
platform MBeanServer. You could use this feature to administer your Spring Boot application
remotely. This feature could also be useful for any service wrapper implementation.

If you want to know on which HTTP port the application is running, get the property
TIP
with a key of local.server.port.

7.1.13. Application Startup tracking

During the application startup, the SpringApplication and the ApplicationContext perform many
tasks related to the application lifecycle, the beans lifecycle or even processing application events.
With ApplicationStartup, Spring Framework allows you to track the application startup sequence
with StartupStep objects. This data can be collected for profiling purposes, or just to have a better
understanding of an application startup process.

You can choose an ApplicationStartup implementation when setting up the SpringApplication

instance. For example, to use the BufferingApplicationStartup, you could write:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.context.metrics.buffering.BufferingApplicationStartup;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

  SpringApplication application = new SpringApplication(MyApplication.class);
  application.setApplicationStartup(new BufferingApplicationStartup(2048));
  application.run(args);
  }

66
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.context.metrics.buffering.BufferingApplicationStartup

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  val application = SpringApplication(MyApplication::class.java)
  application.applicationStartup = BufferingApplicationStartup(2048)
  application.run(*args)
}

The first available implementation, FlightRecorderApplicationStartup is provided by Spring

Framework. It adds Spring-specific startup events to a Java Flight Recorder session and is meant for
profiling applications and correlating their Spring context lifecycle with JVM events (such as
allocations, GCs, class loading…). Once configured, you can record data by running the application
with the Flight Recorder enabled:

$ java -XX:StartFlightRecording:filename=recording.jfr,duration=10s -jar demo.jar

Spring Boot ships with the BufferingApplicationStartup variant; this implementation is meant for
buffering the startup steps and draining them into an external metrics system. Applications can ask
for the bean of type BufferingApplicationStartup in any component.

Spring Boot can also be configured to expose a startup endpoint that provides this information as a
JSON document.

7.2. Externalized Configuration

Spring Boot lets you externalize your configuration so that you can work with the same application
code in different environments. You can use a variety of external configuration sources, include
Java properties files, YAML files, environment variables, and command-line arguments.

Property values can be injected directly into your beans by using the @Value annotation, accessed
through Spring’s Environment abstraction, or be bound to structured objects through
@ConfigurationProperties.

Spring Boot uses a very particular PropertySource order that is designed to allow sensible
overriding of values. Properties are considered in the following order (with values from lower
items overriding earlier ones):

1. Default properties (specified by setting SpringApplication.setDefaultProperties).

2. @PropertySource annotations on your @Configuration classes. Please note that such property
sources are not added to the Environment until the application context is being refreshed. This is

67
 too late to configure certain properties such as logging.* and spring.main.* which are read
before refresh begins.

3. Config data (such as application.properties files).

4. A RandomValuePropertySource that has properties only in random.*.

5. OS environment variables.

6. Java System properties (System.getProperties()).

7. JNDI attributes from java:comp/env.

8. ServletContext init parameters.

9. ServletConfig init parameters.

10. Properties from SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON (inline JSON embedded in an environment variable or

system property).

11. Command line arguments.

12. properties attribute on your tests. Available on @SpringBootTest and the test annotations for
testing a particular slice of your application.

13. @TestPropertySource annotations on your tests.

14. Devtools global settings properties in the $HOME/.config/spring-boot directory when devtools is
active.

Config data files are considered in the following order:

1. Application properties packaged inside your jar (application.properties and YAML variants).

2. Profile-specific application properties packaged inside your jar (application-

{profile}.properties and YAML variants).

3. Application properties outside of your packaged jar (application.properties and YAML

variants).

4. Profile-specific application properties outside of your packaged jar (application-

{profile}.properties and YAML variants).

It is recommended to stick with one format for your entire application. If you have
NOTE configuration files with both .properties and .yml format in the same location,
.properties takes precedence.

To provide a concrete example, suppose you develop a @Component that uses a name property, as
shown in the following example:

68
Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyBean {

  @Value("${name}")
  private String name;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyBean {

  @Value("\${name}")
  private val name: String? = null

  // ...

On your application classpath (for example, inside your jar) you can have an
application.properties file that provides a sensible default property value for name. When running
in a new environment, an application.properties file can be provided outside of your jar that
overrides the name. For one-off testing, you can launch with a specific command line switch (for
example, java -jar app.jar --name="Spring").

The env and configprops endpoints can be useful in determining why a property has a
TIP particular value. You can use these two endpoints to diagnose unexpected property
values. See the "Production ready features" section for details.

7.2.1. Accessing Command Line Properties

By default, SpringApplication converts any command line option arguments (that is, arguments
starting with --, such as --server.port=9000) to a property and adds them to the Spring Environment.
As mentioned previously, command line properties always take precedence over file-based
property sources.

If you do not want command line properties to be added to the Environment, you can disable them
by using SpringApplication.setAddCommandLineProperties(false).

69
7.2.2. JSON Application Properties

Environment variables and system properties often have restrictions that mean some property
names cannot be used. To help with this, Spring Boot allows you to encode a block of properties into
a single JSON structure.

When your application starts, any spring.application.json or SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON properties

will be parsed and added to the Environment.

For example, the SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON property can be supplied on the command line in a UN*X
shell as an environment variable:

$ SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON='{"my":{"name":"test"}}' java -jar myapp.jar

In the preceding example, you end up with my.name=test in the Spring Environment.

The same JSON can also be provided as a system property:

$ java -Dspring.application.json='{"my":{"name":"test"}}' -jar myapp.jar

Or you could supply the JSON by using a command line argument:

$ java -jar myapp.jar --spring.application.json='{"my":{"name":"test"}}'

If you are deploying to a classic Application Server, you could also use a JNDI variable named
java:comp/env/spring.application.json.

Although null values from the JSON will be added to the resulting property source,
the PropertySourcesPropertyResolver treats null properties as missing values. This
NOTE
means that the JSON cannot override properties from lower order property sources
with a null value.

7.2.3. External Application Properties

Spring Boot will automatically find and load application.properties and application.yaml files from
the following locations when your application starts:

1. From the classpath

a. The classpath root

b. The classpath /config package

2. From the current directory

a. The current directory

b. The /config subdirectory in the current directory

c. Immediate child directories of the /config subdirectory

70
The list is ordered by precedence (with values from lower items overriding earlier ones).
Documents from the loaded files are added as PropertySources to the Spring Environment.

If you do not like application as the configuration file name, you can switch to another file name by
specifying a spring.config.name environment property. For example, to look for
myproject.properties and myproject.yaml files you can run your application as follows:

$ java -jar myproject.jar --spring.config.name=myproject

You can also refer to an explicit location by using the spring.config.location environment property.
This property accepts a comma-separated list of one or more locations to check.

The following example shows how to specify two distinct files:

$ java -jar myproject.jar --spring.config.location=\

  optional:classpath:/default.properties,\
  optional:classpath:/override.properties

Use the prefix optional: if the locations are optional and you do not mind if they do
TIP
not exist.

spring.config.name, spring.config.location, and spring.config.additional-

location are used very early to determine which files have to be loaded. They
WARNING
must be defined as an environment property (typically an OS environment
variable, a system property, or a command-line argument).

If spring.config.location contains directories (as opposed to files), they should end in /. At runtime
they will be appended with the names generated from spring.config.name before being loaded. Files
specified in spring.config.location are imported directly.

Both directory and file location values are also expanded to check for profile-
specific files. For example, if you have a spring.config.location of
NOTE
classpath:myconfig.properties, you will also find appropriate classpath:myconfig-
<profile>.properties files are loaded.

In most situations, each spring.config.location item you add will reference a single file or
directory. Locations are processed in the order that they are defined and later ones can override
the values of earlier ones.

If you have a complex location setup, and you use profile-specific configuration files, you may need
to provide further hints so that Spring Boot knows how they should be grouped. A location group is
a collection of locations that are all considered at the same level. For example, you might want to
group all classpath locations, then all external locations. Items within a location group should be
separated with ;. See the example in the “Profile Specific Files” section for more details.

Locations configured by using spring.config.location replace the default locations. For example, if

71
spring.config.location is configured with the value optional:classpath:/custom-
config/,optional:file:./custom-config/, the complete set of locations considered is:

1. optional:classpath:custom-config/

2. optional:file:./custom-config/

If you prefer to add additional locations, rather than replacing them, you can use
spring.config.additional-location. Properties loaded from additional locations can override those
in the default locations. For example, if spring.config.additional-location is configured with the
value optional:classpath:/custom-config/,optional:file:./custom-config/, the complete set of
locations considered is:

1. optional:classpath:/;optional:classpath:/config/

2. optional:file:./;optional:file:./config/;optional:file:./config/*/

3. optional:classpath:custom-config/

4. optional:file:./custom-config/

This search ordering lets you specify default values in one configuration file and then selectively
override those values in another. You can provide default values for your application in
application.properties (or whatever other basename you choose with spring.config.name) in one of
the default locations. These default values can then be overridden at runtime with a different file
located in one of the custom locations.

If you use environment variables rather than system properties, most operating
systems disallow period-separated key names, but you can use underscores instead
NOTE
(for example, SPRING_CONFIG_NAME instead of spring.config.name). See Binding from
Environment Variables for details.

If your application runs in a servlet container or application server, then JNDI

NOTE properties (in java:comp/env) or servlet context initialization parameters can be
used instead of, or as well as, environment variables or system properties.

Optional Locations

By default, when a specified config data location does not exist, Spring Boot will throw a
ConfigDataLocationNotFoundException and your application will not start.

If you want to specify a location, but you do not mind if it does not always exist, you can use the
optional: prefix. You can use this prefix with the spring.config.location and
spring.config.additional-location properties, as well as with spring.config.import declarations.

For example, a spring.config.import value of optional:file:./myconfig.properties allows your

application to start, even if the myconfig.properties file is missing.

If you want to ignore all ConfigDataLocationNotFoundExceptions and always continue to start your
application, you can use the spring.config.on-not-found property. Set the value to ignore using
SpringApplication.setDefaultProperties(…) or with a system/environment variable.

72
Wildcard Locations

If a config file location includes the * character for the last path segment, it is considered a wildcard
location. Wildcards are expanded when the config is loaded so that immediate subdirectories are
also checked. Wildcard locations are particularly useful in an environment such as Kubernetes
when there are multiple sources of config properties.

For example, if you have some Redis configuration and some MySQL configuration, you might want
to keep those two pieces of configuration separate, while requiring that both those are present in
an application.properties file. This might result in two separate application.properties files
mounted at different locations such as /config/redis/application.properties and
/config/mysql/application.properties. In such a case, having a wildcard location of config/*/, will
result in both files being processed.

By default, Spring Boot includes config/*/ in the default search locations. It means that all
subdirectories of the /config directory outside of your jar will be searched.

You can use wildcard locations yourself with the spring.config.location and
spring.config.additional-location properties.

A wildcard location must contain only one * and end with */ for search locations
NOTE that are directories or */<filename> for search locations that are files. Locations with
wildcards are sorted alphabetically based on the absolute path of the file names.

Wildcard locations only work with external directories. You cannot use a wildcard in a
TIP
classpath: location.

Profile Specific Files

As well as application property files, Spring Boot will also attempt to load profile-specific files using
the naming convention application-{profile}. For example, if your application activates a profile
named prod and uses YAML files, then both application.yml and application-prod.yml will be
considered.

Profile-specific properties are loaded from the same locations as standard application.properties,
with profile-specific files always overriding the non-specific ones. If several profiles are specified, a
last-wins strategy applies. For example, if profiles prod,live are specified by the
spring.profiles.active property, values in application-prod.properties can be overridden by those
in application-live.properties.

73
 The last-wins strategy applies at the location group level. A spring.config.location
of classpath:/cfg/,classpath:/ext/ will not have the same override rules as
classpath:/cfg/;classpath:/ext/.

For example, continuing our prod,live example above, we might have the following
files:

/cfg
  application-live.properties
/ext
  application-live.properties
  application-prod.properties

NOTE When we have a spring.config.location of classpath:/cfg/,classpath:/ext/ we

process all /cfg files before all /ext files:

1. /cfg/application-live.properties

2. /ext/application-prod.properties

3. /ext/application-live.properties

When we have classpath:/cfg/;classpath:/ext/ instead (with a ; delimiter) we

process /cfg and /ext at the same level:

1. /ext/application-prod.properties

2. /cfg/application-live.properties

3. /ext/application-live.properties

The Environment has a set of default profiles (by default, [default]) that are used if no active profiles
are set. In other words, if no profiles are explicitly activated, then properties from application-
default are considered.

Properties files are only ever loaded once. If you have already directly imported a
NOTE
profile specific property files then it will not be imported a second time.

Importing Additional Data

Application properties may import further config data from other locations using the
spring.config.import property. Imports are processed as they are discovered, and are treated as
additional documents inserted immediately below the one that declares the import.

For example, you might have the following in your classpath application.properties file:

Properties

spring.application.name=myapp
spring.config.import=optional:file:./dev.properties

74
Yaml

spring:
  application:
  name: "myapp"
  config:
  import: "optional:file:./dev.properties"

This will trigger the import of a dev.properties file in current directory (if such a file exists). Values
from the imported dev.properties will take precedence over the file that triggered the import. In
the above example, the dev.properties could redefine spring.application.name to a different value.

An import will only be imported once no matter how many times it is declared. The order an
import is defined inside a single document within the properties/yaml file does not matter. For
instance, the two examples below produce the same result:

Properties

spring.config.import=my.properties
my.property=value

Yaml

spring:
  config:
  import: "my.properties"
my:
  property: "value"

Properties

my.property=value
spring.config.import=my.properties

Yaml

my:
  property: "value"
spring:
  config:
  import: "my.properties"

In both of the above examples, the values from the my.properties file will take precedence over the
file that triggered its import.

Several locations can be specified under a single spring.config.import key. Locations will be
processed in the order that they are defined, with later imports taking precedence.

75
 When appropriate, Profile-specific variants are also considered for import. The
NOTE example above would import both my.properties as well as any my-
<profile>.properties variants.

Spring Boot includes pluggable API that allows various different location addresses to
be supported. By default you can import Java Properties, YAML and “configuration
trees”.

Third-party jars can offer support for additional technologies (there is no requirement
TIP
for files to be local). For example, you can imagine config data being from external
stores such as Consul, Apache ZooKeeper or Netflix Archaius.

If you want to support your own locations, see the ConfigDataLocationResolver and
ConfigDataLoader classes in the org.springframework.boot.context.config package.

Importing Extensionless Files

Some cloud platforms cannot add a file extension to volume mounted files. To import these
extensionless files, you need to give Spring Boot a hint so that it knows how to load them. You can
do this by putting an extension hint in square brackets.

For example, suppose you have a /etc/config/myconfig file that you wish to import as yaml. You can
import it from your application.properties using the following:

Properties

spring.config.import=file:/etc/config/myconfig[.yaml]

Yaml

spring:
  config:
  import: "file:/etc/config/myconfig[.yaml]"

Using Configuration Trees

When running applications on a cloud platform (such as Kubernetes) you often need to read config
values that the platform supplies. It is not uncommon to use environment variables for such
purposes, but this can have drawbacks, especially if the value is supposed to be kept secret.

As an alternative to environment variables, many cloud platforms now allow you to map
configuration into mounted data volumes. For example, Kubernetes can volume mount both
ConfigMaps and Secrets.

There are two common volume mount patterns that can be used:

1. A single file contains a complete set of properties (usually written as YAML).

2. Multiple files are written to a directory tree, with the filename becoming the ‘key’ and the

76
 contents becoming the ‘value’.

For the first case, you can import the YAML or Properties file directly using spring.config.import as
described above. For the second case, you need to use the configtree: prefix so that Spring Boot
knows it needs to expose all the files as properties.

As an example, let’s imagine that Kubernetes has mounted the following volume:

etc/
  config/
  myapp/
  username
  password

The contents of the username file would be a config value, and the contents of password would be a
secret.

To import these properties, you can add the following to your application.properties or
application.yaml file:

Properties

spring.config.import=optional:configtree:/etc/config/

Yaml

spring:
  config:
  import: "optional:configtree:/etc/config/"

You can then access or inject myapp.username and myapp.password properties from the Environment in
the usual way.

The folders under the config tree form the property name. In the above example, to
TIP access the properties as username and password, you can set spring.config.import to
optional:configtree:/etc/config/myapp.

Filenames with dot notation are also correctly mapped. For example, in the above
NOTE example, a file named myapp.username in /etc/config would result in a
myapp.username property in the Environment.

Configuration tree values can be bound to both string String and byte[] types
TIP
depending on the contents expected.

If you have multiple config trees to import from the same parent folder you can use a wildcard
shortcut. Any configtree: location that ends with /*/ will import all immediate children as config
trees.

77
For example, given the following volume:

etc/
  config/
  dbconfig/
  db/
  username
  password
  mqconfig/
  mq/
  username
  password

You can use configtree:/etc/config/*/ as the import location:

Properties

spring.config.import=optional:configtree:/etc/config/*/

Yaml

spring:
  config:
  import: "optional:configtree:/etc/config/*/"

This will add db.username, db.password, mq.username and mq.password properties.

Directories loaded using a wildcard are sorted alphabetically. If you need a different
NOTE
order, then you should list each location as a separate import

Configuration trees can also be used for Docker secrets. When a Docker swarm service is granted
access to a secret, the secret gets mounted into the container. For example, if a secret named
db.password is mounted at location /run/secrets/, you can make db.password available to the Spring
environment using the following:

Properties

spring.config.import=optional:configtree:/run/secrets/

Yaml

spring:
  config:
  import: "optional:configtree:/run/secrets/"

78
Property Placeholders

The values in application.properties and application.yml are filtered through the existing
Environment when they are used, so you can refer back to previously defined values (for example,
from System properties or environment variables). The standard ${name} property-placeholder
syntax can be used anywhere within a value. Property placeholders can also specify a default value
using a : to separate the default value from the property name, for example ${name:default}.

The use of placeholders with and without defaults is shown in the following example:

Properties

app.name=MyApp
app.description=${app.name} is a Spring Boot application written by
${username:Unknown}

Yaml

app:
  name: "MyApp"
  description: "${app.name} is a Spring Boot application written by
${username:Unknown}"

Assuming that the username property has not been set elsewhere, app.description will have the
value MyApp is a Spring Boot application written by Unknown.

You can also use this technique to create “short” variants of existing Spring Boot
TIP
properties. See the Use ‘Short’ Command Line Arguments how-to for details.

Working with Multi-Document Files

Spring Boot allows you to split a single physical file into multiple logical documents which are each
added independently. Documents are processed in order, from top to bottom. Later documents can
override the properties defined in earlier ones.

For application.yml files, the standard YAML multi-document syntax is used. Three consecutive
hyphens represent the end of one document, and the start of the next.

For example, the following file has two logical documents:

79
 spring:
  application:
  name: "MyApp"
---
spring:
  application:
  name: "MyCloudApp"
  config:
  activate:
  on-cloud-platform: "kubernetes"

For application.properties files a special #--- comment is used to mark the document splits:

spring.application.name=MyApp
#---
spring.application.name=MyCloudApp
spring.config.activate.on-cloud-platform=kubernetes

Property file separators must not have any leading whitespace and must have
NOTE exactly three hyphen characters. The lines immediately before and after the
separator must not be comments.

Multi-document property files are often used in conjunction with activation properties
TIP
such as spring.config.activate.on-profile. See the next section for details.

Multi-document property files cannot be loaded by using the @PropertySource

WARNING
or @TestPropertySource annotations.

Activation Properties

It is sometimes useful to only activate a given set of properties when certain conditions are met. For
example, you might have properties that are only relevant when a specific profile is active.

You can conditionally activate a properties document using spring.config.activate.*.

The following activation properties are available:

Table 5. activation properties

Property Note
on-profile A profile expression that must match for the document to be active.
on-cloud-platform The CloudPlatform that must be detected for the document to be active.

For example, the following specifies that the second document is only active when running on
Kubernetes, and only when either the “prod” or “staging” profiles are active:

80
Properties

myprop=always-set
#---
spring.config.activate.on-cloud-platform=kubernetes
spring.config.activate.on-profile=prod | staging
myotherprop=sometimes-set

Yaml

myprop:
  "always-set"
---
spring:
  config:
  activate:
  on-cloud-platform: "kubernetes"
  on-profile: "prod | staging"
myotherprop: "sometimes-set"

7.2.4. Encrypting Properties

Spring Boot does not provide any built in support for encrypting property values, however, it does
provide the hook points necessary to modify values contained in the Spring Environment. The
EnvironmentPostProcessor interface allows you to manipulate the Environment before the application
starts. See Customize the Environment or ApplicationContext Before It Starts for details.

If you need a secure way to store credentials and passwords, the Spring Cloud Vault project
provides support for storing externalized configuration in HashiCorp Vault.

7.2.5. Working with YAML

YAML is a superset of JSON and, as such, is a convenient format for specifying hierarchical
configuration data. The SpringApplication class automatically supports YAML as an alternative to
properties whenever you have the SnakeYAML library on your classpath.

NOTE If you use “Starters”, SnakeYAML is automatically provided by spring-boot-starter.

Mapping YAML to Properties

YAML documents need to be converted from their hierarchical format to a flat structure that can be
used with the Spring Environment. For example, consider the following YAML document:

81
 environments:
  dev:
  url: "https://dev.example.com"
  name: "Developer Setup"
  prod:
  url: "https://another.example.com"
  name: "My Cool App"

In order to access these properties from the Environment, they would be flattened as follows:

environments.dev.url=https://dev.example.com
environments.dev.name=Developer Setup
environments.prod.url=https://another.example.com
environments.prod.name=My Cool App

Likewise, YAML lists also need to be flattened. They are represented as property keys with [index]
dereferencers. For example, consider the following YAML:

my:
 servers:
 - "dev.example.com"
 - "another.example.com"

The preceding example would be transformed into these properties:

my.servers[0]=dev.example.com
my.servers[1]=another.example.com

Properties that use the [index] notation can be bound to Java List or Set objects using
TIP Spring Boot’s Binder class. For more details see the “Type-safe Configuration
Properties” section below.

YAML files cannot be loaded by using the @PropertySource or

WARNING @TestPropertySource annotations. So, in the case that you need to load values
that way, you need to use a properties file.

Directly Loading YAML

Spring Framework provides two convenient classes that can be used to load YAML documents. The
YamlPropertiesFactoryBean loads YAML as Properties and the YamlMapFactoryBean loads YAML as a
Map.

You can also use the YamlPropertySourceLoader class if you want to load YAML as a Spring
PropertySource.

82
7.2.6. Configuring Random Values

The RandomValuePropertySource is useful for injecting random values (for example, into secrets or
test cases). It can produce integers, longs, uuids, or strings, as shown in the following example:

Properties

my.secret=${random.value}
my.number=${random.int}
my.bignumber=${random.long}
my.uuid=${random.uuid}
my.number-less-than-ten=${random.int(10)}
my.number-in-range=${random.int[1024,65536]}

Yaml

my:
  secret: "${random.value}"
  number: "${random.int}"
  bignumber: "${random.long}"
  uuid: "${random.uuid}"
  number-less-than-ten: "${random.int(10)}"
  number-in-range: "${random.int[1024,65536]}"

The random.int* syntax is OPEN value (,max) CLOSE where the OPEN,CLOSE are any character and
value,max are integers. If max is provided, then value is the minimum value and max is the maximum
value (exclusive).

7.2.7. Configuring System Environment Properties

Spring Boot supports setting a prefix for environment properties. This is useful if the system
environment is shared by multiple Spring Boot applications with different configuration
requirements. The prefix for system environment properties can be set directly on
SpringApplication.

For example, if you set the prefix to input, a property such as remote.timeout will also be resolved as
input.remote.timeout in the system environment.

7.2.8. Type-safe Configuration Properties

Using the @Value("${property}") annotation to inject configuration properties can sometimes be

cumbersome, especially if you are working with multiple properties or your data is hierarchical in
nature. Spring Boot provides an alternative method of working with properties that lets strongly
typed beans govern and validate the configuration of your application.

TIP See also the differences between @Value and type-safe configuration properties.

83
JavaBean properties binding

It is possible to bind a bean declaring standard JavaBean properties as shown in the following
example:

Java

import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
public class MyProperties {

  private boolean enabled;

  private InetAddress remoteAddress;

  private final Security security = new Security();

  public boolean isEnabled() {

  return this.enabled;
  }

  public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) {

  this.enabled = enabled;
  }

  public InetAddress getRemoteAddress() {

  return this.remoteAddress;
  }

  public void setRemoteAddress(InetAddress remoteAddress) {

  this.remoteAddress = remoteAddress;
  }

  public Security getSecurity() {

  return this.security;
  }

  public static class Security {

  private String username;

  private String password;

  private List<String> roles = new ArrayList<>(Collections.singleton("USER"));

84
  public String getUsername() {
  return this.username;
  }

  public void setUsername(String username) {

  this.username = username;
  }

  public String getPassword() {

  return this.password;
  }

  public void setPassword(String password) {

  this.password = password;
  }

  public List<String> getRoles() {

  return this.roles;
  }

  public void setRoles(List<String> roles) {

  this.roles = roles;
  }

  }

85
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import java.net.InetAddress

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
class MyProperties {

  var isEnabled = false

  var remoteAddress: InetAddress? = null

  val security = Security()

  class Security {

  var username: String? = null

  var password: String? = null

  var roles: List<String> = ArrayList(setOf("USER"))

  }

The preceding POJO defines the following properties:

• my.service.enabled, with a value of false by default.

• my.service.remote-address, with a type that can be coerced from String.

• my.service.security.username, with a nested "security" object whose name is determined by the

name of the property. In particular, the type is not used at all there and could have been
SecurityProperties.

• my.service.security.password.

• my.service.security.roles, with a collection of String that defaults to USER.

The properties that map to @ConfigurationProperties classes available in Spring

Boot, which are configured through properties files, YAML files, environment
NOTE
variables, and other mechanisms, are public API but the accessors (getters/setters)
of the class itself are not meant to be used directly.

86
 Such arrangement relies on a default empty constructor and getters and setters are
usually mandatory, since binding is through standard Java Beans property
descriptors, just like in Spring MVC. A setter may be omitted in the following cases:

• Maps, as long as they are initialized, need a getter but not necessarily a setter,
since they can be mutated by the binder.

• Collections and arrays can be accessed either through an index (typically with
YAML) or by using a single comma-separated value (properties). In the latter
case, a setter is mandatory. We recommend to always add a setter for such types.
If you initialize a collection, make sure it is not immutable (as in the preceding
NOTE example).

• If nested POJO properties are initialized (like the Security field in the preceding
example), a setter is not required. If you want the binder to create the instance
on the fly by using its default constructor, you need a setter.

Some people use Project Lombok to add getters and setters automatically. Make sure
that Lombok does not generate any particular constructor for such a type, as it is
used automatically by the container to instantiate the object.

Finally, only standard Java Bean properties are considered and binding on static
properties is not supported.

Constructor binding

The example in the previous section can be rewritten in an immutable fashion as shown in the
following example:

Java

import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue;

@ConstructorBinding
@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
public class MyProperties {

  private final boolean enabled;

  private final InetAddress remoteAddress;

  private final Security security;

  public MyProperties(boolean enabled, InetAddress remoteAddress, Security security)

{

87
   this.enabled = enabled;
  this.remoteAddress = remoteAddress;
  this.security = security;
  }

  public boolean isEnabled() {

  return this.enabled;
  }

  public InetAddress getRemoteAddress() {

  return this.remoteAddress;
  }

  public Security getSecurity() {

  return this.security;
  }

  public static class Security {

  private final String username;

  private final String password;

  private final List<String> roles;

  public Security(String username, String password, @DefaultValue("USER")

List<String> roles) {
  this.username = username;
  this.password = password;
  this.roles = roles;
  }

  public String getUsername() {

  return this.username;
  }

  public String getPassword() {

  return this.password;
  }

  public List<String> getRoles() {

  return this.roles;
  }

  }

88
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue
import java.net.InetAddress

@ConstructorBinding
@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
class MyProperties(val enabled: Boolean, val remoteAddress: InetAddress,
  val security: Security) {

  class Security(val username: String, val password: String,

  @param:DefaultValue("USER") val roles: List<String>)

In this setup, the @ConstructorBinding annotation is used to indicate that constructor binding should
be used. This means that the binder will expect to find a constructor with the parameters that you
wish to have bound. If you are using Java 16 or later, constructor binding can be used with records.
In this case, unless your record has multiple constructors, there is no need to use
@ConstructorBinding.

Nested members of a @ConstructorBinding class (such as Security in the example above) will also be
bound through their constructor.

Default values can be specified using @DefaultValue on a constructor parameter or, when using Java
16 or later, a record component. The conversion service will be applied to coerce the String value to
the target type of a missing property.

Referring to the previous example, if no properties are bound to Security, the MyProperties instance
will contain a null value for security. If you wish you return a non-null instance of Security even
when no properties are bound to it, you can use an empty @DefaultValue annotation to do so:

Java

public MyProperties(boolean enabled, InetAddress remoteAddress, @DefaultValue Security

security) {
  this.enabled = enabled;
  this.remoteAddress = remoteAddress;
  this.security = security;
}

Kotlin

89
 To use constructor binding the class must be enabled using
@EnableConfigurationProperties or configuration property scanning. You cannot use
NOTE constructor binding with beans that are created by the regular Spring mechanisms
(for example @Component beans, beans created by using @Bean methods or beans
loaded by using @Import)

If you have more than one constructor for your class you can also use
TIP
@ConstructorBinding directly on the constructor that should be bound.

The use of java.util.Optional with @ConfigurationProperties is not recommended

as it is primarily intended for use as a return type. As such, it is not well-suited to
NOTE configuration property injection. For consistency with properties of other types, if
you do declare an Optional property and it has no value, null rather than an empty
Optional will be bound.

Enabling @ConfigurationProperties-annotated types

Spring Boot provides infrastructure to bind @ConfigurationProperties types and register them as
beans. You can either enable configuration properties on a class-by-class basis or enable
configuration property scanning that works in a similar manner to component scanning.

Sometimes, classes annotated with @ConfigurationProperties might not be suitable for scanning, for
example, if you’re developing your own auto-configuration or you want to enable them
conditionally. In these cases, specify the list of types to process using the
@EnableConfigurationProperties annotation. This can be done on any @Configuration class, as shown
in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.EnableConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableConfigurationProperties(SomeProperties.class)
public class MyConfiguration {

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.EnableConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableConfigurationProperties(SomeProperties::class)
class MyConfiguration

To use configuration property scanning, add the @ConfigurationPropertiesScan annotation to your

90
application. Typically, it is added to the main application class that is annotated with
@SpringBootApplication but it can be added to any @Configuration class. By default, scanning will
occur from the package of the class that declares the annotation. If you want to define specific
packages to scan, you can do so as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ConfigurationPropertiesScan({ "com.example.app", "com.example.another" })
public class MyApplication {

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesScan

@SpringBootApplication
@ConfigurationPropertiesScan("com.example.app", "com.example.another")
class MyApplication

When the @ConfigurationProperties bean is registered using configuration property

scanning or through @EnableConfigurationProperties, the bean has a conventional
name: <prefix>-<fqn>, where <prefix> is the environment key prefix specified in the
@ConfigurationProperties annotation and <fqn> is the fully qualified name of the
NOTE bean. If the annotation does not provide any prefix, only the fully qualified name of
the bean is used.

The bean name in the example above is com.example.app-

com.example.app.SomeProperties.

We recommend that @ConfigurationProperties only deal with the environment and, in particular,
does not inject other beans from the context. For corner cases, setter injection can be used or any of
the *Aware interfaces provided by the framework (such as EnvironmentAware if you need access to the
Environment). If you still want to inject other beans using the constructor, the configuration
properties bean must be annotated with @Component and use JavaBean-based property binding.

Using @ConfigurationProperties-annotated types

This style of configuration works particularly well with the SpringApplication external YAML
configuration, as shown in the following example:

91
 my:
  service:
  remote-address: 192.168.1.1
  security:
  username: "admin"
  roles:
  - "USER"
  - "ADMIN"

To work with @ConfigurationProperties beans, you can inject them in the same way as any other
bean, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class MyService {

  private final SomeProperties properties;

  public MyService(SomeProperties properties) {

  this.properties = properties;
  }

  public void openConnection() {

  Server server = new Server(this.properties.getRemoteAddress());
  server.start();
  // ...
  }

  // ...

92
Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service

@Service
class MyService(val properties: SomeProperties) {

  fun openConnection() {
  val server = Server(properties.remoteAddress)
  server.start()
  // ...
  }

  // ...

Using @ConfigurationProperties also lets you generate metadata files that can be used
TIP
by IDEs to offer auto-completion for your own keys. See the appendix for details.

Third-party Configuration

As well as using @ConfigurationProperties to annotate a class, you can also use it on public @Bean
methods. Doing so can be particularly useful when you want to bind properties to third-party
components that are outside of your control.

To configure a bean from the Environment properties, add @ConfigurationProperties to its bean
registration, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class ThirdPartyConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "another")
  public AnotherComponent anotherComponent() {
  return new AnotherComponent();
  }

93
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class ThirdPartyConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "another")
  fun anotherComponent(): AnotherComponent = AnotherComponent()

Any JavaBean property defined with the another prefix is mapped onto that AnotherComponent bean
in manner similar to the preceding SomeProperties example.

Relaxed Binding

Spring Boot uses some relaxed rules for binding Environment properties to @ConfigurationProperties
beans, so there does not need to be an exact match between the Environment property name and the
bean property name. Common examples where this is useful include dash-separated environment
properties (for example, context-path binds to contextPath), and capitalized environment properties
(for example, PORT binds to port).

As an example, consider the following @ConfigurationProperties class:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "my.main-project.person")
public class MyPersonProperties {

  private String firstName;

  public String getFirstName() {

  return this.firstName;
  }

  public void setFirstName(String firstName) {

  this.firstName = firstName;
  }

94
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "my.main-project.person")
class MyPersonProperties {

  var firstName: String? = null

With the preceding code, the following properties names can all be used:

Table 6. relaxed binding

Property Note
my.main- Kebab case, which is recommended for use in .properties and .yml files.
project.person.fir
st-name
my.main- Standard camel case syntax.
project.person.fir
stName
my.main- Underscore notation, which is an alternative format for use in .properties and
project.person.fir .yml files.
st_name
MY_MAINPROJECT_PER Upper case format, which is recommended when using system environment
SON_FIRSTNAME variables.

The prefix value for the annotation must be in kebab case (lowercase and separated
NOTE
by -, such as my.main-project.person).

Table 7. relaxed binding rules per property source

Property Source Simple List

Properties Files Camel case, kebab case, or underscore Standard list syntax using [ ] or
notation comma-separated values

YAML Files Camel case, kebab case, or underscore Standard YAML list syntax or comma-
notation separated values

Environment Upper case format with underscore as Numeric values surrounded by

Variables the delimiter (see Binding from underscores (see Binding from
Environment Variables). Environment Variables)

System properties Camel case, kebab case, or underscore Standard list syntax using [ ] or
notation comma-separated values

We recommend that, when possible, properties are stored in lower-case kebab format,
TIP
such as my.person.first-name=Rod.

95
Binding Maps

When binding to Map properties you may need to use a special bracket notation so that the original
key value is preserved. If the key is not surrounded by [], any characters that are not alpha-
numeric, - or . are removed.

For example, consider binding the following properties to a Map<String,String>:

Properties

my.map.[/key1]=value1
my.map.[/key2]=value2
my.map./key3=value3

Yaml

my:
  map:
  "[/key1]": "value1"
  "[/key2]": "value2"
  "/key3": "value3"

For YAML files, the brackets need to be surrounded by quotes for the keys to be
NOTE
parsed properly.

The properties above will bind to a Map with /key1, /key2 and key3 as the keys in the map. The slash
has been removed from key3 because it was not surrounded by square brackets.

When binding to scalar values, keys with . in them do not need to be surrounded by []. Scalar
values include enums and all types in the java.lang package except for Object. Binding a.b=c to
Map<String, String> will preserve the . in the key and return a Map with the entry {"a.b"="c"}. For
any other types you need to use the bracket notation if your key contains a .. For example, binding
a.b=c to Map<String, Object> will return a Map with the entry {"a"={"b"="c"}} whereas [a.b]=c will
return a Map with the entry {"a.b"="c"}.

Binding from Environment Variables

Most operating systems impose strict rules around the names that can be used for environment
variables. For example, Linux shell variables can contain only letters (a to z or A to Z), numbers (0 to
9) or the underscore character (_). By convention, Unix shell variables will also have their names in
UPPERCASE.

Spring Boot’s relaxed binding rules are, as much as possible, designed to be compatible with these
naming restrictions.

To convert a property name in the canonical-form to an environment variable name you can follow
these rules:

• Replace dots (.) with underscores (_).

96
 • Remove any dashes (-).

• Convert to uppercase.

For example, the configuration property spring.main.log-startup-info would be an environment

variable named SPRING_MAIN_LOGSTARTUPINFO.

Environment variables can also be used when binding to object lists. To bind to a List, the element
number should be surrounded with underscores in the variable name.

For example, the configuration property my.service[0].other would use an environment variable
named MY_SERVICE_0_OTHER.

Merging Complex Types

When lists are configured in more than one place, overriding works by replacing the entire list.

For example, assume a MyPojo object with name and description attributes that are null by default.
The following example exposes a list of MyPojo objects from MyProperties:

Java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
public class MyProperties {

  private final List<MyPojo> list = new ArrayList<>();

  public List<MyPojo> getList() {

  return this.list;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
class MyProperties {

  val list: List<MyPojo> = ArrayList()

Consider the following configuration:

97
Properties

my.list[0].name=my name
my.list[0].description=my description
#---
spring.config.activate.on-profile=dev
my.list[0].name=my another name

Yaml

my:
  list:
  - name: "my name"
  description: "my description"
---
spring:
  config:
  activate:
  on-profile: "dev"
my:
  list:
  - name: "my another name"

If the dev profile is not active, MyProperties.list contains one MyPojo entry, as previously defined. If
the dev profile is enabled, however, the list still contains only one entry (with a name of my another
name and a description of null). This configuration does not add a second MyPojo instance to the list,
and it does not merge the items.

When a List is specified in multiple profiles, the one with the highest priority (and only that one) is
used. Consider the following example:

Properties

my.list[0].name=my name
my.list[0].description=my description
my.list[1].name=another name
my.list[1].description=another description
#---
spring.config.activate.on-profile=dev
my.list[0].name=my another name

98
Yaml

my:
  list:
  - name: "my name"
  description: "my description"
  - name: "another name"
  description: "another description"
---
spring:
  config:
  activate:
  on-profile: "dev"
my:
  list:
  - name: "my another name"

In the preceding example, if the dev profile is active, MyProperties.list contains one MyPojo entry
(with a name of my another name and a description of null). For YAML, both comma-separated lists
and YAML lists can be used for completely overriding the contents of the list.

For Map properties, you can bind with property values drawn from multiple sources. However, for
the same property in multiple sources, the one with the highest priority is used. The following
example exposes a Map<String, MyPojo> from MyProperties:

Java

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
public class MyProperties {

  private final Map<String, MyPojo> map = new LinkedHashMap<>();

  public Map<String, MyPojo> getMap() {

  return this.map;
  }

99
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
class MyProperties {

  val map: Map<String, MyPojo> = LinkedHashMap()

Consider the following configuration:

Properties

my.map.key1.name=my name 1
my.map.key1.description=my description 1
#---
spring.config.activate.on-profile=dev
my.map.key1.name=dev name 1
my.map.key2.name=dev name 2
my.map.key2.description=dev description 2

Yaml

my:
  map:
  key1:
  name: "my name 1"
  description: "my description 1"
---
spring:
  config:
  activate:
  on-profile: "dev"
my:
  map:
  key1:
  name: "dev name 1"
  key2:
  name: "dev name 2"
  description: "dev description 2"

If the dev profile is not active, MyProperties.map contains one entry with key key1 (with a name of my
name 1 and a description of my description 1). If the dev profile is enabled, however, map contains
two entries with keys key1 (with a name of dev name 1 and a description of my description 1) and
key2 (with a name of dev name 2 and a description of dev description 2).

100
 The preceding merging rules apply to properties from all property sources, and not
NOTE
just files.

Properties Conversion

Spring Boot attempts to coerce the external application properties to the right type when it binds to
the @ConfigurationProperties beans. If you need custom type conversion, you can provide a
ConversionService bean (with a bean named conversionService) or custom property editors (through
a CustomEditorConfigurer bean) or custom Converters (with bean definitions annotated as
@ConfigurationPropertiesBinding).

As this bean is requested very early during the application lifecycle, make sure to
limit the dependencies that your ConversionService is using. Typically, any
dependency that you require may not be fully initialized at creation time. You may
NOTE
want to rename your custom ConversionService if it is not required for
configuration keys coercion and only rely on custom converters qualified with
@ConfigurationPropertiesBinding.

Converting Durations

Spring Boot has dedicated support for expressing durations. If you expose a java.time.Duration
property, the following formats in application properties are available:

• A regular long representation (using milliseconds as the default unit unless a @DurationUnit has
been specified)

• The standard ISO-8601 format used by java.time.Duration

• A more readable format where the value and the unit are coupled (10s means 10 seconds)

Consider the following example:

101
Java

import java.time.Duration;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DurationUnit;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
public class MyProperties {

  @DurationUnit(ChronoUnit.SECONDS)
  private Duration sessionTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(30);

  private Duration readTimeout = Duration.ofMillis(1000);

  public Duration getSessionTimeout() {

  return this.sessionTimeout;
  }

  public void setSessionTimeout(Duration sessionTimeout) {

  this.sessionTimeout = sessionTimeout;
  }

  public Duration getReadTimeout() {

  return this.readTimeout;
  }

  public void setReadTimeout(Duration readTimeout) {

  this.readTimeout = readTimeout;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DurationUnit
import java.time.Duration
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
class MyProperties {

  @DurationUnit(ChronoUnit.SECONDS)
  var sessionTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(30)

  var readTimeout = Duration.ofMillis(1000)

102
To specify a session timeout of 30 seconds, 30, PT30S and 30s are all equivalent. A read timeout of
500ms can be specified in any of the following form: 500, PT0.5S and 500ms.

You can also use any of the supported units. These are:

• ns for nanoseconds

• us for microseconds

• ms for milliseconds

• s for seconds

• m for minutes

• h for hours

• d for days

The default unit is milliseconds and can be overridden using @DurationUnit as illustrated in the
sample above.

If you prefer to use constructor binding, the same properties can be exposed, as shown in the
following example:

103
Java

import java.time.Duration;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue;
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DurationUnit;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
@ConstructorBinding
public class MyProperties {

  private final Duration sessionTimeout;

  private final Duration readTimeout;

  public MyProperties(@DurationUnit(ChronoUnit.SECONDS) @DefaultValue("30s")

Duration sessionTimeout,
  @DefaultValue("1000ms") Duration readTimeout) {
  this.sessionTimeout = sessionTimeout;
  this.readTimeout = readTimeout;
  }

  public Duration getSessionTimeout() {

  return this.sessionTimeout;
  }

  public Duration getReadTimeout() {

  return this.readTimeout;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DurationUnit
import java.time.Duration
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
@ConstructorBinding
class MyProperties(@param:DurationUnit(ChronoUnit.SECONDS) @param:DefaultValue("30s")
val sessionTimeout: Duration,
  @param:DefaultValue("1000ms") val readTimeout: Duration)

104
 If you are upgrading a Long property, make sure to define the unit (using
TIP @DurationUnit) if it is not milliseconds. Doing so gives a transparent upgrade path
while supporting a much richer format.

Converting periods

In addition to durations, Spring Boot can also work with java.time.Period type. The following
formats can be used in application properties:

• An regular int representation (using days as the default unit unless a @PeriodUnit has been
specified)

• The standard ISO-8601 format used by java.time.Period

• A simpler format where the value and the unit pairs are coupled (1y3d means 1 year and 3 days)

The following units are supported with the simple format:

• y for years

• m for months

• w for weeks

• d for days

The java.time.Period type never actually stores the number of weeks, it is a

NOTE
shortcut that means “7 days”.

Converting Data Sizes

Spring Framework has a DataSize value type that expresses a size in bytes. If you expose a DataSize
property, the following formats in application properties are available:

• A regular long representation (using bytes as the default unit unless a @DataSizeUnit has been
specified)

• A more readable format where the value and the unit are coupled (10MB means 10 megabytes)

Consider the following example:

105
Java

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DataSizeUnit;
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataSize;
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataUnit;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
public class MyProperties {

  @DataSizeUnit(DataUnit.MEGABYTES)
  private DataSize bufferSize = DataSize.ofMegabytes(2);

  private DataSize sizeThreshold = DataSize.ofBytes(512);

  public DataSize getBufferSize() {

  return this.bufferSize;
  }

  public void setBufferSize(DataSize bufferSize) {

  this.bufferSize = bufferSize;
  }

  public DataSize getSizeThreshold() {

  return this.sizeThreshold;
  }

  public void setSizeThreshold(DataSize sizeThreshold) {

  this.sizeThreshold = sizeThreshold;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DataSizeUnit
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataSize
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataUnit

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
class MyProperties {

  @DataSizeUnit(DataUnit.MEGABYTES)
  var bufferSize = DataSize.ofMegabytes(2)

  var sizeThreshold = DataSize.ofBytes(512)

106
To specify a buffer size of 10 megabytes, 10 and 10MB are equivalent. A size threshold of 256 bytes
can be specified as 256 or 256B.

You can also use any of the supported units. These are:

• B for bytes

• KB for kilobytes

• MB for megabytes

• GB for gigabytes

• TB for terabytes

The default unit is bytes and can be overridden using @DataSizeUnit as illustrated in the sample
above.

If you prefer to use constructor binding, the same properties can be exposed, as shown in the
following example:

107
Java

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue;
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DataSizeUnit;
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataSize;
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataUnit;

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
@ConstructorBinding
public class MyProperties {

  private final DataSize bufferSize;

  private final DataSize sizeThreshold;

  public MyProperties(@DataSizeUnit(DataUnit.MEGABYTES) @DefaultValue("2MB")

DataSize bufferSize,
  @DefaultValue("512B") DataSize sizeThreshold) {
  this.bufferSize = bufferSize;
  this.sizeThreshold = sizeThreshold;
  }

  public DataSize getBufferSize() {

  return this.bufferSize;
  }

  public DataSize getSizeThreshold() {

  return this.sizeThreshold;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConstructorBinding
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.bind.DefaultValue
import org.springframework.boot.convert.DataSizeUnit
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataSize
import org.springframework.util.unit.DataUnit

@ConfigurationProperties("my")
@ConstructorBinding
class MyProperties(@param:DataSizeUnit(DataUnit.MEGABYTES) @param:DefaultValue("2MB")
val bufferSize: DataSize,
  @param:DefaultValue("512B") val sizeThreshold: DataSize)

108
 If you are upgrading a Long property, make sure to define the unit (using
TIP @DataSizeUnit) if it is not bytes. Doing so gives a transparent upgrade path while
supporting a much richer format.

@ConfigurationProperties Validation

Spring Boot attempts to validate @ConfigurationProperties classes whenever they are annotated
with Spring’s @Validated annotation. You can use JSR-303 javax.validation constraint annotations
directly on your configuration class. To do so, ensure that a compliant JSR-303 implementation is on
your classpath and then add constraint annotations to your fields, as shown in the following
example:

Java

import java.net.InetAddress;

import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated;

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
@Validated
public class MyProperties {

  @NotNull
  private InetAddress remoteAddress;

  public InetAddress getRemoteAddress() {

  return this.remoteAddress;
  }

  public void setRemoteAddress(InetAddress remoteAddress) {

  this.remoteAddress = remoteAddress;
  }

109
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated
import java.net.InetAddress
import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
@Validated
class MyProperties {

  var remoteAddress: @NotNull InetAddress? = null

You can also trigger validation by annotating the @Bean method that creates the
TIP
configuration properties with @Validated.

To ensure that validation is always triggered for nested properties, even when no properties are
found, the associated field must be annotated with @Valid. The following example builds on the
preceding MyProperties example:

110
Java

import java.net.InetAddress;

import javax.validation.Valid;
import javax.validation.constraints.NotEmpty;
import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated;

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
@Validated
public class MyProperties {

  @NotNull
  private InetAddress remoteAddress;

  @Valid
  private final Security security = new Security();

  public InetAddress getRemoteAddress() {

  return this.remoteAddress;
  }

  public void setRemoteAddress(InetAddress remoteAddress) {

  this.remoteAddress = remoteAddress;
  }

  public Security getSecurity() {

  return this.security;
  }

  public static class Security {

  @NotEmpty
  private String username;

  public String getUsername() {

  return this.username;
  }

  public void setUsername(String username) {

  this.username = username;
  }

  }

111
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated
import java.net.InetAddress
import javax.validation.Valid
import javax.validation.constraints.NotEmpty
import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull

@ConfigurationProperties("my.service")
@Validated
class MyProperties {

  var remoteAddress: @NotNull InetAddress? = null

  @Valid
  val security = Security()

  class Security {

  @NotEmpty
  var username: String? = null

  }

You can also add a custom Spring Validator by creating a bean definition called
configurationPropertiesValidator. The @Bean method should be declared static. The configuration
properties validator is created very early in the application’s lifecycle, and declaring the @Bean
method as static lets the bean be created without having to instantiate the @Configuration class.
Doing so avoids any problems that may be caused by early instantiation.

The spring-boot-actuator module includes an endpoint that exposes all

@ConfigurationProperties beans. Point your web browser to /actuator/configprops or
TIP
use the equivalent JMX endpoint. See the "Production ready features" section for
details.

@ConfigurationProperties vs. @Value

The @Value annotation is a core container feature, and it does not provide the same features as type-
safe configuration properties. The following table summarizes the features that are supported by
@ConfigurationProperties and @Value:

Feature @ConfigurationProperti @Value

es

Relaxed binding Yes Limited (see note

below)

112
Feature @ConfigurationProperti @Value
es

Meta-data support Yes No

SpEL evaluation No Yes

If you do want to use @Value, we recommend that you refer to property names using
their canonical form (kebab-case using only lowercase letters). This will allow
Spring Boot to use the same logic as it does when relaxed binding
@ConfigurationProperties. For example, @Value("{demo.item-price}") will pick up
NOTE
demo.item-price and demo.itemPrice forms from the application.properties file, as
well as DEMO_ITEMPRICE from the system environment. If you used
@Value("{demo.itemPrice}") instead, demo.item-price and DEMO_ITEMPRICE would not
be considered.

If you define a set of configuration keys for your own components, we recommend you group them
in a POJO annotated with @ConfigurationProperties. Doing so will provide you with structured,
type-safe object that you can inject into your own beans.

SpEL expressions from application property files are not processed at time of parsing these files and
populating the environment. However, it is possible to write a SpEL expression in @Value. If the
value of a property from an application property file is a SpEL expression, it will be evaluated when
consumed through @Value.

7.3. Profiles
Spring Profiles provide a way to segregate parts of your application configuration and make it be
available only in certain environments. Any @Component, @Configuration or @ConfigurationProperties
can be marked with @Profile to limit when it is loaded, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Profile;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@Profile("production")
public class ProductionConfiguration {

  // ...

113
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Profile

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@Profile("production")
class ProductionConfiguration {

  // ...

If @ConfigurationProperties beans are registered through

@EnableConfigurationProperties instead of automatic scanning, the @Profile
annotation needs to be specified on the @Configuration class that has the
NOTE
@EnableConfigurationProperties annotation. In the case where
@ConfigurationProperties are scanned, @Profile can be specified on the
@ConfigurationProperties class itself.

You can use a spring.profiles.active Environment property to specify which profiles are active. You
can specify the property in any of the ways described earlier in this chapter. For example, you
could include it in your application.properties, as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.profiles.active=dev,hsqldb

Yaml

spring:
  profiles:
  active: "dev,hsqldb"

You could also specify it on the command line by using the following switch:
--spring.profiles.active=dev,hsqldb.

If no profile is active, a default profile is enabled. The name of the default profile is default and it
can be tuned using the spring.profiles.default Environment property, as shown in the following
example:

Properties

spring.profiles.default=none

114
Yaml

spring:
  profiles:
  default: "none"

spring.profiles.active and spring.profiles.default can only be used in non-profile specific

documents. This means they cannot be included in profile specific files or documents activated by
spring.config.activate.on-profile.

For example, the second document configuration is invalid:

Properties

# this document is valid

spring.profiles.active=prod
#---
# this document is invalid
spring.config.activate.on-profile=prod
spring.profiles.active=metrics

Yaml

# this document is valid

spring:
  profiles:
  active: "prod"
---
# this document is invalid
spring:
  config:
  activate:
  on-profile: "prod"
  profiles:
  active: "metrics"

7.3.1. Adding Active Profiles

The spring.profiles.active property follows the same ordering rules as other properties: The
highest PropertySource wins. This means that you can specify active profiles in
application.properties and then replace them by using the command line switch.

Sometimes, it is useful to have properties that add to the active profiles rather than replace them.
The spring.profiles.include property can be used to add active profiles on top of those activated by
the spring.profiles.active property. The SpringApplication entry point also has a Java API for
setting additional profiles. See the setAdditionalProfiles() method in SpringApplication.

For example, when an application with the following properties is run, the common and local
profiles will be activated even when it runs using the --spring.profiles.active switch:

115
Properties

spring.profiles.include[0]=common
spring.profiles.include[1]=local

Yaml

spring:
  profiles:
  include:
  - "common"
  - "local"

Similar to spring.profiles.active, spring.profiles.include can only be used in

WARNING non-profile specific documents. This means it cannot be included in profile
specific files or documents activated by spring.config.activate.on-profile.

Profile groups, which are described in the next section can also be used to add active profiles if a
given profile is active.

7.3.2. Profile Groups

Occasionally the profiles that you define and use in your application are too fine-grained and
become cumbersome to use. For example, you might have proddb and prodmq profiles that you use to
enable database and messaging features independently.

To help with this, Spring Boot lets you define profile groups. A profile group allows you to define a
logical name for a related group of profiles.

For example, we can create a production group that consists of our proddb and prodmq profiles.

Properties

spring.profiles.group.production[0]=proddb
spring.profiles.group.production[1]=prodmq

Yaml

spring:
  profiles:
  group:
  production:
  - "proddb"
  - "prodmq"

Our application can now be started using --spring.profiles.active=production to active the

production, proddb and prodmq profiles in one hit.

116
7.3.3. Programmatically Setting Profiles

You can programmatically set active profiles by calling SpringApplication.setAdditionalProfiles(…

) before your application runs. It is also possible to activate profiles by using Spring’s
ConfigurableEnvironment interface.

7.3.4. Profile-specific Configuration Files

Profile-specific variants of both application.properties (or application.yml) and files referenced

through @ConfigurationProperties are considered as files and loaded. See "Profile Specific Files" for
details.

7.4. Logging
Spring Boot uses Commons Logging for all internal logging but leaves the underlying log
implementation open. Default configurations are provided for Java Util Logging, Log4J2, and
Logback. In each case, loggers are pre-configured to use console output with optional file output
also available.

By default, if you use the “Starters”, Logback is used for logging. Appropriate Logback routing is
also included to ensure that dependent libraries that use Java Util Logging, Commons Logging,
Log4J, or SLF4J all work correctly.

There are a lot of logging frameworks available for Java. Do not worry if the above list
TIP seems confusing. Generally, you do not need to change your logging dependencies and
the Spring Boot defaults work just fine.

When you deploy your application to a servlet container or application server, logging
performed with the Java Util Logging API is not routed into your application’s logs.
TIP
This prevents logging performed by the container or other applications that have been
deployed to it from appearing in your application’s logs.

7.4.1. Log Format

The default log output from Spring Boot resembles the following example:

117
 2019-03-05 10:57:51.112 INFO 45469 --- [ main]
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine : Starting Servlet Engine: Apache
Tomcat/7.0.52
2019-03-05 10:57:51.253 INFO 45469 --- [ost-startStop-1]
o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/] : Initializing Spring embedded
WebApplicationContext
2019-03-05 10:57:51.253 INFO 45469 --- [ost-startStop-1]
o.s.web.context.ContextLoader : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization
completed in 1358 ms
2019-03-05 10:57:51.698 INFO 45469 --- [ost-startStop-1]
o.s.b.c.e.ServletRegistrationBean : Mapping servlet: 'dispatcherServlet' to [/]
2019-03-05 10:57:51.702 INFO 45469 --- [ost-startStop-1]
o.s.b.c.embedded.FilterRegistrationBean : Mapping filter: 'hiddenHttpMethodFilter'
to: [/*]

The following items are output:

• Date and Time: Millisecond precision and easily sortable.

• Log Level: ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, or TRACE.

• Process ID.

• A --- separator to distinguish the start of actual log messages.

• Thread name: Enclosed in square brackets (may be truncated for console output).

• Logger name: This is usually the source class name (often abbreviated).

• The log message.

NOTE Logback does not have a FATAL level. It is mapped to ERROR.

7.4.2. Console Output

The default log configuration echoes messages to the console as they are written. By default, ERROR
-level, WARN-level, and INFO-level messages are logged. You can also enable a “debug” mode by
starting your application with a --debug flag.

$ java -jar myapp.jar --debug

NOTE You can also specify debug=true in your application.properties.

When the debug mode is enabled, a selection of core loggers (embedded container, Hibernate, and
Spring Boot) are configured to output more information. Enabling the debug mode does not
configure your application to log all messages with DEBUG level.

Alternatively, you can enable a “trace” mode by starting your application with a --trace flag (or
trace=true in your application.properties). Doing so enables trace logging for a selection of core
loggers (embedded container, Hibernate schema generation, and the whole Spring portfolio).

118
Color-coded Output

If your terminal supports ANSI, color output is used to aid readability. You can set
spring.output.ansi.enabled to a supported value to override the auto-detection.

Color coding is configured by using the %clr conversion word. In its simplest form, the converter
colors the output according to the log level, as shown in the following example:

%clr(%5p)

The following table describes the mapping of log levels to colors:

Level Color
FATAL Red
ERROR Red
WARN Yellow
INFO Green
DEBUG Green
TRACE Green

Alternatively, you can specify the color or style that should be used by providing it as an option to
the conversion. For example, to make the text yellow, use the following setting:

%clr(%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS}){yellow}

The following colors and styles are supported:

• blue

• cyan

• faint

• green

• magenta

• red

• yellow

7.4.3. File Output

By default, Spring Boot logs only to the console and does not write log files. If you want to write log
files in addition to the console output, you need to set a logging.file.name or logging.file.path
property (for example, in your application.properties).

The following table shows how the logging.* properties can be used together:

119
Table 8. Logging properties

logging.file logging.file Example Description

.name .path

(none) (none) Console only logging.

Specific file (none) my.log Writes to the specified log file. Names can be an exact
location or relative to the current directory.

(none) Specific /var/log Writes spring.log to the specified directory. Names can
directory be an exact location or relative to the current directory.

Log files rotate when they reach 10 MB and, as with console output, ERROR-level, WARN-level, and INFO
-level messages are logged by default.

Logging properties are independent of the actual logging infrastructure. As a result,

TIP specific configuration keys (such as logback.configurationFile for Logback) are not
managed by spring Boot.

7.4.4. File Rotation

If you are using the Logback, it is possible to fine-tune log rotation settings using your
application.properties or application.yaml file. For all other logging system, you will need to
configure rotation settings directly yourself (for example, if you use Log4J2 then you could add a
log4j2.xml or log4j2-spring.xml file).

The following rotation policy properties are supported:

Name Description
logging.logback.rollingpolicy.file-name- The filename pattern used to create log archives.
pattern
logging.logback.rollingpolicy.clean-history- If log archive cleanup should occur when the
on-start application starts.
logging.logback.rollingpolicy.max-file-size The maximum size of log file before it is
archived.
logging.logback.rollingpolicy.total-size-cap The maximum amount of size log archives can
take before being deleted.
logging.logback.rollingpolicy.max-history The maximum number of archive log files to
keep (defaults to 7).

7.4.5. Log Levels

All the supported logging systems can have the logger levels set in the Spring Environment (for
example, in application.properties) by using logging.level.<logger-name>=<level> where level is
one of TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL, or OFF. The root logger can be configured by
using logging.level.root.

The following example shows potential logging settings in application.properties:

120
Properties

logging.level.root=warn
logging.level.org.springframework.web=debug
logging.level.org.hibernate=error

Yaml

logging:
  level:
  root: "warn"
  org.springframework.web: "debug"
  org.hibernate: "error"

It is also possible to set logging levels using environment variables. For example,
LOGGING_LEVEL_ORG_SPRINGFRAMEWORK_WEB=DEBUG will set org.springframework.web to DEBUG.

The above approach will only work for package level logging. Since relaxed binding
always converts environment variables to lowercase, it is not possible to configure
NOTE
logging for an individual class in this way. If you need to configure logging for a
class, you can use the SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON variable.

7.4.6. Log Groups

It is often useful to be able to group related loggers together so that they can all be configured at the
same time. For example, you might commonly change the logging levels for all Tomcat related
loggers, but you can not easily remember top level packages.

To help with this, Spring Boot allows you to define logging groups in your Spring Environment. For
example, here is how you could define a “tomcat” group by adding it to your
application.properties:

Properties

logging.group.tomcat=org.apache.catalina,org.apache.coyote,org.apache.tomcat

Yaml

logging:
  group:
  tomcat: "org.apache.catalina,org.apache.coyote,org.apache.tomcat"

Once defined, you can change the level for all the loggers in the group with a single line:

Properties

logging.level.tomcat=trace

121
Yaml

logging:
  level:
  tomcat: "trace"

Spring Boot includes the following pre-defined logging groups that can be used out-of-the-box:

Name Loggers

web org.springframework.core.codec, org.springframework.http,

org.springframework.web, org.springframework.boot.actuate.endpoint.web,
org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletContextInitializerBeans

sql org.springframework.jdbc.core, org.hibernate.SQL,

org.jooq.tools.LoggerListener

7.4.7. Using a Log Shutdown Hook

In order to release logging resources when your application terminates, a shutdown hook that will
trigger log system cleanup when the JVM exits is provided. This shutdown hook is registered
automatically unless your application is deployed as a war file. If your application has complex
context hierarchies the shutdown hook may not meet your needs. If it does not, disable the
shutdown hook and investigate the options provided directly by the underlying logging system. For
example, Logback offers context selectors which allow each Logger to be created in its own context.
You can use the logging.register-shutdown-hook property to disable the shutdown hook. Setting it to
false will disable the registration. You can set the property in your application.properties or
application.yaml file:

Properties

logging.register-shutdown-hook=false

Yaml

logging:
  register-shutdown-hook: false

7.4.8. Custom Log Configuration

The various logging systems can be activated by including the appropriate libraries on the
classpath and can be further customized by providing a suitable configuration file in the root of the
classpath or in a location specified by the following Spring Environment property: logging.config.

You can force Spring Boot to use a particular logging system by using the
org.springframework.boot.logging.LoggingSystem system property. The value should be the fully
qualified class name of a LoggingSystem implementation. You can also disable Spring Boot’s logging
configuration entirely by using a value of none.

122
 Since logging is initialized before the ApplicationContext is created, it is not possible
NOTE to control logging from @PropertySources in Spring @Configuration files. The only
way to change the logging system or disable it entirely is through System properties.

Depending on your logging system, the following files are loaded:

Logging System Customization

Logback logback-spring.xml, logback-spring.groovy,

logback.xml, or logback.groovy

Log4j2 log4j2-spring.xml or log4j2.xml

JDK (Java Util Logging) logging.properties

When possible, we recommend that you use the -spring variants for your logging
configuration (for example, logback-spring.xml rather than logback.xml). If you use
NOTE
standard configuration locations, Spring cannot completely control log
initialization.

There are known classloading issues with Java Util Logging that cause
WARNING problems when running from an 'executable jar'. We recommend that you
avoid it when running from an 'executable jar' if at all possible.

To help with the customization, some other properties are transferred from the Spring Environment
to System properties, as described in the following table:

Spring Environment System Property Comments

logging.exception-conversion- LOG_EXCEPTION_CONVERSION_WORD The conversion word used
word when logging exceptions.
logging.file.name LOG_FILE If defined, it is used in the
default log configuration.
logging.file.path LOG_PATH If defined, it is used in the
default log configuration.
logging.pattern.console CONSOLE_LOG_PATTERN The log pattern to use on the
console (stdout).
logging.pattern.dateformat LOG_DATEFORMAT_PATTERN Appender pattern for log date
format.
logging.charset.console CONSOLE_LOG_CHARSET The charset to use for console
logging.
logging.pattern.file FILE_LOG_PATTERN The log pattern to use in a file
(if LOG_FILE is enabled).
logging.charset.file FILE_LOG_CHARSET The charset to use for file
logging (if LOG_FILE is enabled).

123
Spring Environment System Property Comments
logging.pattern.level LOG_LEVEL_PATTERN The format to use when
rendering the log level (default
%5p).
PID PID The current process ID
(discovered if possible and
when not already defined as an
OS environment variable).

If you use Logback, the following properties are also transferred:

Spring Environment System Property Comments

logging.logback.rollingpolicy. LOGBACK_ROLLINGPOLICY_FILE_NAM Pattern for rolled-over log file
file-name-pattern E_PATTERN names (default
${LOG_FILE}.%d{yyyy-MM-
dd}.%i.gz).
logging.logback.rollingpolicy. LOGBACK_ROLLINGPOLICY_CLEAN_HI Whether to clean the archive
clean-history-on-start STORY_ON_START log files on startup.
logging.logback.rollingpolicy. LOGBACK_ROLLINGPOLICY_MAX_FILE Maximum log file size.
max-file-size _SIZE
logging.logback.rollingpolicy. LOGBACK_ROLLINGPOLICY_TOTAL_SI Total size of log backups to be
total-size-cap ZE_CAP kept.
logging.logback.rollingpolicy. LOGBACK_ROLLINGPOLICY_MAX_HIST Maximum number of archive
max-history ORY log files to keep.

All the supported logging systems can consult System properties when parsing their configuration
files. See the default configurations in spring-boot.jar for examples:

• Logback

• Log4j 2

• Java Util logging

If you want to use a placeholder in a logging property, you should use Spring Boot’s
syntax and not the syntax of the underlying framework. Notably, if you use Logback,
TIP
you should use : as the delimiter between a property name and its default value and
not use :-.

124
 You can add MDC and other ad-hoc content to log lines by overriding only the
LOG_LEVEL_PATTERN (or logging.pattern.level with Logback). For example, if you use
logging.pattern.level=user:%X{user} %5p, then the default log format contains an MDC
entry for "user", if it exists, as shown in the following example.
TIP

2019-08-30 12:30:04.031 user:someone INFO 22174 --- [ nio-8080-exec-0]

demo.Controller
Handling authenticated request

7.4.9. Logback Extensions

Spring Boot includes a number of extensions to Logback that can help with advanced configuration.
You can use these extensions in your logback-spring.xml configuration file.

Because the standard logback.xml configuration file is loaded too early, you cannot
NOTE use extensions in it. You need to either use logback-spring.xml or define a
logging.config property.

The extensions cannot be used with Logback’s configuration scanning. If you

WARNING attempt to do so, making changes to the configuration file results in an error
similar to one of the following being logged:

ERROR in ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.Interpreter@4:71 - no applicable action for

[springProperty], current ElementPath is [[configuration][springProperty]]
ERROR in ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.Interpreter@4:71 - no applicable action for
[springProfile], current ElementPath is [[configuration][springProfile]]

Profile-specific Configuration

The <springProfile> tag lets you optionally include or exclude sections of configuration based on
the active Spring profiles. Profile sections are supported anywhere within the <configuration>
element. Use the name attribute to specify which profile accepts the configuration. The
<springProfile> tag can contain a profile name (for example staging) or a profile expression. A
profile expression allows for more complicated profile logic to be expressed, for example
production & (eu-central | eu-west). Check the reference guide for more details. The following
listing shows three sample profiles:

125
 <springProfile name="staging">
  <!-- configuration to be enabled when the "staging" profile is active -->
</springProfile>

<springProfile name="dev | staging">

  <!-- configuration to be enabled when the "dev" or "staging" profiles are active
-->
</springProfile>

<springProfile name="!production">
  <!-- configuration to be enabled when the "production" profile is not active -->
</springProfile>

Environment Properties

The <springProperty> tag lets you expose properties from the Spring Environment for use within
Logback. Doing so can be useful if you want to access values from your application.properties file
in your Logback configuration. The tag works in a similar way to Logback’s standard <property> tag.
However, rather than specifying a direct value, you specify the source of the property (from the
Environment). If you need to store the property somewhere other than in local scope, you can use
the scope attribute. If you need a fallback value (in case the property is not set in the Environment),
you can use the defaultValue attribute. The following example shows how to expose properties for
use within Logback:

<springProperty scope="context" name="fluentHost" source="myapp.fluentd.host"

  defaultValue="localhost"/>
<appender name="FLUENT" class="ch.qos.logback.more.appenders.DataFluentAppender">
  <remoteHost>${fluentHost}</remoteHost>
  ...
</appender>

The source must be specified in kebab case (such as my.property-name). However,

NOTE
properties can be added to the Environment by using the relaxed rules.

7.5. Internationalization
Spring Boot supports localized messages so that your application can cater to users of different
language preferences. By default, Spring Boot looks for the presence of a messages resource bundle
at the root of the classpath.

The auto-configuration applies when the default properties file for the configured
resource bundle is available (messages.properties by default). If your resource
NOTE bundle contains only language-specific properties files, you are required to add the
default. If no properties file is found that matches any of the configured base
names, there will be no auto-configured MessageSource.

126
The basename of the resource bundle as well as several other attributes can be configured using
the spring.messages namespace, as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.messages.basename=messages,config.i18n.messages
spring.messages.fallback-to-system-locale=false

Yaml

spring:
  messages:
  basename: "messages,config.i18n.messages"
  fallback-to-system-locale: false

spring.messages.basename supports comma-separated list of locations, either a package

TIP
qualifier or a resource resolved from the classpath root.

See MessageSourceProperties for more supported options.

7.6. JSON
Spring Boot provides integration with three JSON mapping libraries:

• Gson

• Jackson

• JSON-B

Jackson is the preferred and default library.

7.6.1. Jackson

Auto-configuration for Jackson is provided and Jackson is part of spring-boot-starter-json. When

Jackson is on the classpath an ObjectMapper bean is automatically configured. Several configuration
properties are provided for customizing the configuration of the ObjectMapper.

Custom Serializers and Deserializers

If you use Jackson to serialize and deserialize JSON data, you might want to write your own
JsonSerializer and JsonDeserializer classes. Custom serializers are usually registered with Jackson
through a module, but Spring Boot provides an alternative @JsonComponent annotation that makes it
easier to directly register Spring Beans.

You can use the @JsonComponent annotation directly on JsonSerializer, JsonDeserializer or

KeyDeserializer implementations. You can also use it on classes that contain
serializers/deserializers as inner classes, as shown in the following example:

127
Java

import java.io.IOException;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.ObjectCodec;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonSerializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider;

import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonComponent;

@JsonComponent
public class MyJsonComponent {

  public static class Serializer extends JsonSerializer<MyObject> {

  @Override
  public void serialize(MyObject value, JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider
serializers) throws IOException {
  jgen.writeStartObject();
  jgen.writeStringField("name", value.getName());
  jgen.writeNumberField("age", value.getAge());
  jgen.writeEndObject();
  }

  }

  public static class Deserializer extends JsonDeserializer<MyObject> {

  @Override
  public MyObject deserialize(JsonParser jsonParser, DeserializationContext
ctxt) throws IOException {
  ObjectCodec codec = jsonParser.getCodec();
  JsonNode tree = codec.readTree(jsonParser);
  String name = tree.get("name").textValue();
  int age = tree.get("age").intValue();
  return new MyObject(name, age);
  }

  }

128
Kotlin

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonDeserializer
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonSerializer
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonComponent
import java.io.IOException
import kotlin.jvm.Throws

@JsonComponent
class MyJsonComponent {

  class Serializer : JsonSerializer<MyObject>() {

  @Throws(IOException::class)
  override fun serialize(value: MyObject, jgen: JsonGenerator, serializers:
SerializerProvider) {
  jgen.writeStartObject()
  jgen.writeStringField("name", value.name)
  jgen.writeNumberField("age", value.age)
  jgen.writeEndObject()
  }
  }

  class Deserializer : JsonDeserializer<MyObject>() {

  @Throws(IOException::class, JsonProcessingException::class)
  override fun deserialize(jsonParser: JsonParser, ctxt:
DeserializationContext): MyObject {
  val codec = jsonParser.codec
  val tree = codec.readTree<JsonNode>(jsonParser)
  val name = tree["name"].textValue()
  val age = tree["age"].intValue()
  return MyObject(name, age)
  }
  }

All @JsonComponent beans in the ApplicationContext are automatically registered with Jackson.
Because @JsonComponent is meta-annotated with @Component, the usual component-scanning rules
apply.

Spring Boot also provides JsonObjectSerializer and JsonObjectDeserializer base classes that
provide useful alternatives to the standard Jackson versions when serializing objects. See
JsonObjectSerializer and JsonObjectDeserializer in the Javadoc for details.

129
The example above can be rewritten to use JsonObjectSerializer/JsonObjectDeserializer as follows:

Java

import java.io.IOException;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.ObjectCodec;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider;

import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonComponent;
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonObjectDeserializer;
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonObjectSerializer;

@JsonComponent
public class MyJsonComponent {

  public static class Serializer extends JsonObjectSerializer<MyObject> {

  @Override
  protected void serializeObject(MyObject value, JsonGenerator jgen,
SerializerProvider provider)
  throws IOException {
  jgen.writeStringField("name", value.getName());
  jgen.writeNumberField("age", value.getAge());
  }

  }

  public static class Deserializer extends JsonObjectDeserializer<MyObject> {

  @Override
  protected MyObject deserializeObject(JsonParser jsonParser,
DeserializationContext context, ObjectCodec codec,
  JsonNode tree) throws IOException {
  String name = nullSafeValue(tree.get("name"), String.class);
  int age = nullSafeValue(tree.get("age"), Integer.class);
  return new MyObject(name, age);
  }

  }

130
Kotlin

`object`

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.ObjectCodec
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonComponent
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonObjectDeserializer
import org.springframework.boot.jackson.JsonObjectSerializer
import java.io.IOException
import kotlin.jvm.Throws

@JsonComponent
class MyJsonComponent {

  class Serializer : JsonObjectSerializer<MyObject>() {

  @Throws(IOException::class)
  override fun serializeObject(value: MyObject, jgen: JsonGenerator, provider:
SerializerProvider) {
  jgen.writeStringField("name", value.name)
  jgen.writeNumberField("age", value.age)
  }
  }

  class Deserializer : JsonObjectDeserializer<MyObject>() {

  @Throws(IOException::class)
  override fun deserializeObject(jsonParser: JsonParser, context:
DeserializationContext,
  codec: ObjectCodec, tree: JsonNode): MyObject {
  val name = nullSafeValue(tree["name"], String::class.java)
  val age = nullSafeValue(tree["age"], Int::class.java)
  return MyObject(name, age)
  }
  }

Mixins

Jackson has support for mixins that can be used to mix additional annotations into those already
declared on a target class. Spring Boot’s Jackson auto-configuration will scan your application’s
packages for classes annotated with @JsonMixin and register them with the auto-configured
ObjectMapper. The registration is performed by Spring Boot’s JsonMixinModule.

131
7.6.2. Gson

Auto-configuration for Gson is provided. When Gson is on the classpath a Gson bean is automatically
configured. Several spring.gson.* configuration properties are provided for customizing the
configuration. To take more control, one or more GsonBuilderCustomizer beans can be used.

7.6.3. JSON-B

Auto-configuration for JSON-B is provided. When the JSON-B API and an implementation are on the
classpath a Jsonb bean will be automatically configured. The preferred JSON-B implementation is
Apache Johnzon for which dependency management is provided.

7.7. Task Execution and Scheduling

In the absence of an Executor bean in the context, Spring Boot auto-configures a
ThreadPoolTaskExecutor with sensible defaults that can be automatically associated to asynchronous
task execution (@EnableAsync) and Spring MVC asynchronous request processing.

If you have defined a custom Executor in the context, regular task execution (that is
@EnableAsync) will use it transparently but the Spring MVC support will not be
configured as it requires an AsyncTaskExecutor implementation (named
applicationTaskExecutor). Depending on your target arrangement, you could change
TIP your Executor into a ThreadPoolTaskExecutor or define both a ThreadPoolTaskExecutor
and an AsyncConfigurer wrapping your custom Executor.

The auto-configured TaskExecutorBuilder allows you to easily create instances that

reproduce what the auto-configuration does by default.

The thread pool uses 8 core threads that can grow and shrink according to the load. Those default
settings can be fine-tuned using the spring.task.execution namespace, as shown in the following
example:

Properties

spring.task.execution.pool.max-size=16
spring.task.execution.pool.queue-capacity=100
spring.task.execution.pool.keep-alive=10s

Yaml

spring:
  task:
  execution:
  pool:
  max-size: 16
  queue-capacity: 100
  keep-alive: "10s"

132
This changes the thread pool to use a bounded queue so that when the queue is full (100 tasks), the
thread pool increases to maximum 16 threads. Shrinking of the pool is more aggressive as threads
are reclaimed when they are idle for 10 seconds (rather than 60 seconds by default).

A ThreadPoolTaskScheduler can also be auto-configured if need to be associated to scheduled task

execution (using @EnableScheduling for instance). The thread pool uses one thread by default and its
settings can be fine-tuned using the spring.task.scheduling namespace, as shown in the following
example:

Properties

spring.task.scheduling.thread-name-prefix=scheduling-
spring.task.scheduling.pool.size=2

Yaml

spring:
  task:
  scheduling:
  thread-name-prefix: "scheduling-"
  pool:
  size: 2

Both a TaskExecutorBuilder bean and a TaskSchedulerBuilder bean are made available in the context
if a custom executor or scheduler needs to be created.

7.8. Testing
Spring Boot provides a number of utilities and annotations to help when testing your application.
Test support is provided by two modules: spring-boot-test contains core items, and spring-boot-
test-autoconfigure supports auto-configuration for tests.

Most developers use the spring-boot-starter-test “Starter”, which imports both Spring Boot test
modules as well as JUnit Jupiter, AssertJ, Hamcrest, and a number of other useful libraries.

133
 If you have tests that use JUnit 4, JUnit 5’s vintage engine can be used to run them. To
use the vintage engine, add a dependency on junit-vintage-engine, as shown in the
following example:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.junit.vintage</groupId>
  <artifactId>junit-vintage-engine</artifactId>
TIP   <scope>test</scope>
  <exclusions>
  <exclusion>
  <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
  <artifactId>hamcrest-core</artifactId>
  </exclusion>
  </exclusions>
</dependency>

hamcrest-core is excluded in favor of org.hamcrest:hamcrest that is part of spring-boot-starter-test.

7.8.1. Test Scope Dependencies

The spring-boot-starter-test “Starter” (in the test scope) contains the following provided libraries:

• JUnit 5: The de-facto standard for unit testing Java applications.

• Spring Test & Spring Boot Test: Utilities and integration test support for Spring Boot
applications.

• AssertJ: A fluent assertion library.

• Hamcrest: A library of matcher objects (also known as constraints or predicates).

• Mockito: A Java mocking framework.

• JSONassert: An assertion library for JSON.

• JsonPath: XPath for JSON.

We generally find these common libraries to be useful when writing tests. If these libraries do not
suit your needs, you can add additional test dependencies of your own.

7.8.2. Testing Spring Applications

One of the major advantages of dependency injection is that it should make your code easier to unit
test. You can instantiate objects by using the new operator without even involving Spring. You can
also use mock objects instead of real dependencies.

Often, you need to move beyond unit testing and start integration testing (with a Spring
ApplicationContext). It is useful to be able to perform integration testing without requiring
deployment of your application or needing to connect to other infrastructure.

The Spring Framework includes a dedicated test module for such integration testing. You can
declare a dependency directly to org.springframework:spring-test or use the spring-boot-starter-

134
test “Starter” to pull it in transitively.

If you have not used the spring-test module before, you should start by reading the relevant
section of the Spring Framework reference documentation.

7.8.3. Testing Spring Boot Applications

A Spring Boot application is a Spring ApplicationContext, so nothing very special has to be done to
test it beyond what you would normally do with a vanilla Spring context.

External properties, logging, and other features of Spring Boot are installed in the
NOTE
context by default only if you use SpringApplication to create it.

Spring Boot provides a @SpringBootTest annotation, which can be used as an alternative to the
standard spring-test @ContextConfiguration annotation when you need Spring Boot features. The
annotation works by creating the ApplicationContext used in your tests through SpringApplication.
In addition to @SpringBootTest a number of other annotations are also provided for testing more
specific slices of an application.

If you are using JUnit 4, do not forget to also add @RunWith(SpringRunner.class) to your
test, otherwise the annotations will be ignored. If you are using JUnit 5, there is no
TIP
need to add the equivalent @ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class) as @SpringBootTest and
the other @…Test annotations are already annotated with it.

By default, @SpringBootTest will not start a server. You can use the webEnvironment attribute of
@SpringBootTest to further refine how your tests run:

• MOCK(Default) : Loads a web ApplicationContext and provides a mock web environment.

Embedded servers are not started when using this annotation. If a web environment is not
available on your classpath, this mode transparently falls back to creating a regular non-web
ApplicationContext. It can be used in conjunction with @AutoConfigureMockMvc or
@AutoConfigureWebTestClient for mock-based testing of your web application.

• RANDOM_PORT: Loads a WebServerApplicationContext and provides a real web environment.

Embedded servers are started and listen on a random port.

• DEFINED_PORT: Loads a WebServerApplicationContext and provides a real web environment.

Embedded servers are started and listen on a defined port (from your application.properties)
or on the default port of 8080.

• NONE: Loads an ApplicationContext by using SpringApplication but does not provide any web
environment (mock or otherwise).

If your test is @Transactional, it rolls back the transaction at the end of each test
method by default. However, as using this arrangement with either RANDOM_PORT or
NOTE DEFINED_PORT implicitly provides a real servlet environment, the HTTP client and
server run in separate threads and, thus, in separate transactions. Any transaction
initiated on the server does not roll back in this case.

135
 @SpringBootTest with webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT will also start
NOTE the management server on a separate random port if your application uses a
different port for the management server.

Detecting Web Application Type

If Spring MVC is available, a regular MVC-based application context is configured. If you have only
Spring WebFlux, we will detect that and configure a WebFlux-based application context instead.

If both are present, Spring MVC takes precedence. If you want to test a reactive web application in
this scenario, you must set the spring.main.web-application-type property:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;

@SpringBootTest(properties = "spring.main.web-application-type=reactive")
class MyWebFluxTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest

@SpringBootTest(properties = ["spring.main.web-application-type=reactive"])
class MyWebFluxTests {

  // ...

Detecting Test Configuration

If you are familiar with the Spring Test Framework, you may be used to using
@ContextConfiguration(classes=…) in order to specify which Spring @Configuration to load.
Alternatively, you might have often used nested @Configuration classes within your test.

When testing Spring Boot applications, this is often not required. Spring Boot’s @*Test annotations
search for your primary configuration automatically whenever you do not explicitly define one.

The search algorithm works up from the package that contains the test until it finds a class
annotated with @SpringBootApplication or @SpringBootConfiguration. As long as you structured your
code in a sensible way, your main configuration is usually found.

136
 If you use a test annotation to test a more specific slice of your application, you
should avoid adding configuration settings that are specific to a particular area on
the main method’s application class.

NOTE The underlying component scan configuration of @SpringBootApplication defines

exclude filters that are used to make sure slicing works as expected. If you are using
an explicit @ComponentScan directive on your @SpringBootApplication-annotated class,
be aware that those filters will be disabled. If you are using slicing, you should
define them again.

If you want to customize the primary configuration, you can use a nested @TestConfiguration class.
Unlike a nested @Configuration class, which would be used instead of your application’s primary
configuration, a nested @TestConfiguration class is used in addition to your application’s primary
configuration.

Spring’s test framework caches application contexts between tests. Therefore, as

NOTE long as your tests share the same configuration (no matter how it is discovered), the
potentially time-consuming process of loading the context happens only once.

Excluding Test Configuration

If your application uses component scanning (for example, if you use @SpringBootApplication or
@ComponentScan), you may find top-level configuration classes that you created only for specific tests
accidentally get picked up everywhere.

As we have seen earlier, @TestConfiguration can be used on an inner class of a test to customize the
primary configuration. When placed on a top-level class, @TestConfiguration indicates that classes
in src/test/java should not be picked up by scanning. You can then import that class explicitly
where it is required, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import;

@SpringBootTest
@Import(MyTestsConfiguration.class)
class MyTests {

  @Test
  void exampleTest() {
  // ...
  }

137
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import

@SpringBootTest
@Import(MyTestsConfiguration::class)
class MyTests {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest() {
  // ...
  }

If you directly use @ComponentScan (that is, not through @SpringBootApplication) you
NOTE
need to register the TypeExcludeFilter with it. See the Javadoc for details.

Using Application Arguments

If your application expects arguments, you can have @SpringBootTest inject them using the args
attribute.

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@SpringBootTest(args = "--app.test=one")
class MyApplicationArgumentTests {

  @Test
  void applicationArgumentsPopulated(@Autowired ApplicationArguments args) {
  assertThat(args.getOptionNames()).containsOnly("app.test");
  assertThat(args.getOptionValues("app.test")).containsOnly("one");
  }

138
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest

@SpringBootTest(args = ["--app.test=one"])
class MyApplicationArgumentTests {

  @Test
  fun applicationArgumentsPopulated(@Autowired args: ApplicationArguments) {
  assertThat(args.optionNames).containsOnly("app.test")
  assertThat(args.getOptionValues("app.test")).containsOnly("one")
  }

Testing with a mock environment

By default, @SpringBootTest does not start the server but instead sets up a mock environment for
testing web endpoints.

With Spring MVC, we can query our web endpoints using MockMvc or WebTestClient, as shown in the
following example:

139
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.AutoConfigureMockMvc;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;

import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.get;

import static
org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.content;
import static
org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureMockMvc
class MyMockMvcTests {

  @Test
  void testWithMockMvc(@Autowired MockMvc mvc) throws Exception {
 
mvc.perform(get("/")).andExpect(status().isOk()).andExpect(content().string("Hello
World"));
  }

  // If Spring WebFlux is on the classpath, you can drive MVC tests with a
WebTestClient
  @Test
  void testWithWebTestClient(@Autowired WebTestClient webClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk()
  .expectBody(String.class).isEqualTo("Hello World");
  }

140
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.AutoConfigureMockMvc
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.expectBody
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureMockMvc
class MyMockMvcTests {

  @Test
  fun testWithMockMvc(@Autowired mvc: MockMvc) {
 
mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("/")).andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.status().
isOk)
  .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.content().string("Hello World"))
  }

  // If Spring WebFlux is on the classpath, you can drive MVC tests with a
WebTestClient

  @Test
  fun testWithWebTestClient(@Autowired webClient: WebTestClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk
  .expectBody<String>().isEqualTo("Hello World")
  }

If you want to focus only on the web layer and not start a complete
TIP
ApplicationContext, consider using @WebMvcTest instead.

With Spring WebFlux endpoints, you can use WebTestClient as shown in the following example:

141
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.AutoConfigureWebTestClient;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient;

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureWebTestClient
class MyMockWebTestClientTests {

  @Test
  void exampleTest(@Autowired WebTestClient webClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk()
  .expectBody(String.class).isEqualTo("Hello World");
  }

Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.AutoConfigureWebTestClient
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.expectBody

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureWebTestClient
class MyMockWebTestClientTests {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest(@Autowired webClient: WebTestClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk
  .expectBody<String>().isEqualTo("Hello World")
  }

142
 Testing within a mocked environment is usually faster than running with a full servlet
container. However, since mocking occurs at the Spring MVC layer, code that relies on
lower-level servlet container behavior cannot be directly tested with MockMvc.

TIP For example, Spring Boot’s error handling is based on the “error page” support
provided by the servlet container. This means that, whilst you can test your MVC layer
throws and handles exceptions as expected, you cannot directly test that a specific
custom error page is rendered. If you need to test these lower-level concerns, you can
start a fully running server as described in the next section.

Testing with a running server

If you need to start a full running server, we recommend that you use random ports. If you use
@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment=WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT), an available port is picked at random
each time your test runs.

The @LocalServerPort annotation can be used to inject the actual port used into your test. For
convenience, tests that need to make REST calls to the started server can additionally @Autowire a
WebTestClient, which resolves relative links to the running server and comes with a dedicated API
for verifying responses, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment;
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient;

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MyRandomPortWebTestClientTests {

  @Test
  void exampleTest(@Autowired WebTestClient webClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk()
  .expectBody(String.class).isEqualTo("Hello World");
  }

143
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.expectBody

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MyRandomPortWebTestClientTests {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest(@Autowired webClient: WebTestClient) {
  webClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk
  .expectBody<String>().isEqualTo("Hello World")
  }

TIP WebTestClient can be used against both live servers and mock environments.

This setup requires spring-webflux on the classpath. If you can not or will not add webflux, Spring
Boot also provides a TestRestTemplate facility:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment;
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MyRandomPortTestRestTemplateTests {

  @Test
  void exampleTest(@Autowired TestRestTemplate restTemplate) {
  String body = restTemplate.getForObject("/", String.class);
  assertThat(body).isEqualTo("Hello World");
  }

144
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MyRandomPortTestRestTemplateTests {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest(@Autowired restTemplate: TestRestTemplate) {
  val body = restTemplate.getForObject("/", String::class.java)
  assertThat(body).isEqualTo("Hello World")
  }

Customizing WebTestClient

To customize the WebTestClient bean, configure a WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer bean. Any such

beans are called with the WebTestClient.Builder that is used to create the WebTestClient.

Using JMX

As the test context framework caches context, JMX is disabled by default to prevent identical
components to register on the same domain. If such test needs access to an MBeanServer, consider
marking it dirty as well:

145
Java

import javax.management.MBeanServer;
import javax.management.MalformedObjectNameException;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.annotation.DirtiesContext;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
@SpringBootTest(properties = "spring.jmx.enabled=true")
@DirtiesContext
class MyJmxTests {

  @Autowired
  private MBeanServer mBeanServer;

  @Test
  void exampleTest() throws MalformedObjectNameException {
  assertThat(this.mBeanServer.getDomains()).contains("java.lang");
  // ...
  }

146
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.test.annotation.DirtiesContext
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension
import javax.management.MBeanServer

@ExtendWith(SpringExtension::class)
@SpringBootTest(properties = ["spring.jmx.enabled=true"])
@DirtiesContext
class MyJmxTests(@Autowired val mBeanServer: MBeanServer) {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest() {
  assertThat(mBeanServer.domains).contains("java.lang")
  // ...
  }

Using Metrics

Regardless of your classpath, meter registries, except the in-memory backed, are not auto-
configured when using @SpringBootTest.

If you need to export metrics to a different backend as part of an integration test, annotate it with
@AutoConfigureMetrics.

Mocking and Spying Beans

When running tests, it is sometimes necessary to mock certain components within your application
context. For example, you may have a facade over some remote service that is unavailable during
development. Mocking can also be useful when you want to simulate failures that might be hard to
trigger in a real environment.

Spring Boot includes a @MockBean annotation that can be used to define a Mockito mock for a bean
inside your ApplicationContext. You can use the annotation to add new beans or replace a single
existing bean definition. The annotation can be used directly on test classes, on fields within your
test, or on @Configuration classes and fields. When used on a field, the instance of the created mock
is also injected. Mock beans are automatically reset after each test method.

147
 If your test uses one of Spring Boot’s test annotations (such as @SpringBootTest), this
feature is automatically enabled. To use this feature with a different arrangement,
listeners must be explicitly added, as shown in the following example:

Java

import
org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockitoTestExecutionListener;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.ResetMocksTestExecutionListen
er;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.TestExecutionListeners;

@ContextConfiguration(classes = MyConfig.class)
@TestExecutionListeners({ MockitoTestExecutionListener.class,
ResetMocksTestExecutionListener.class })
class MyTests {

  // ...

}
NOTE

Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockitoTestExecutionListener
import
org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.ResetMocksTestExecutionListen
er
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration
import org.springframework.test.context.TestExecutionListeners

@ContextConfiguration(classes = [MyConfig::class])
@TestExecutionListeners(
  MockitoTestExecutionListener::class,
  ResetMocksTestExecutionListener::class
)
class MyTests {

  // ...

The following example replaces an existing RemoteService bean with a mock implementation:

148
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.given;

@SpringBootTest
class MyTests {

  @Autowired
  private Reverser reverser;

  @MockBean
  private RemoteService remoteService;

  @Test
  void exampleTest() {
  given(this.remoteService.getValue()).willReturn("spring");
  String reverse = this.reverser.getReverseValue(); // Calls injected
RemoteService
  assertThat(reverse).isEqualTo("gnirps");
  }

149
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.mockito.BDDMockito.given
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean

@SpringBootTest
class MyTests(@Autowired val reverser: Reverser, @MockBean val remoteService:
RemoteService) {

  @Test
  fun exampleTest() {
  given(remoteService.value).willReturn("spring")
  val reverse = reverser.reverseValue // Calls injected RemoteService
  assertThat(reverse).isEqualTo("gnirps")
  }

@MockBean cannot be used to mock the behavior of a bean that is exercised during
application context refresh. By the time the test is executed, the application context
NOTE
refresh has completed and it is too late to configure the mocked behavior. We
recommend using a @Bean method to create and configure the mock in this situation.

Additionally, you can use @SpyBean to wrap any existing bean with a Mockito spy. See the Javadoc for
full details.

CGLib proxies, such as those created for scoped beans, declare the proxied methods
as final. This stops Mockito from functioning correctly as it cannot mock or spy on
final methods in its default configuration. If you want to mock or spy on such a
NOTE
bean, configure Mockito to use its inline mock maker by adding
org.mockito:mockito-inline to your application’s test dependencies. This allows
Mockito to mock and spy on final methods.

While Spring’s test framework caches application contexts between tests and reuses
NOTE a context for tests sharing the same configuration, the use of @MockBean or @SpyBean
influences the cache key, which will most likely increase the number of contexts.

If you are using @SpyBean to spy on a bean with @Cacheable methods that refer to
parameters by name, your application must be compiled with -parameters. This
TIP
ensures that the parameter names are available to the caching infrastructure once the
bean has been spied upon.

150
 When you are using @SpyBean to spy on a bean that is proxied by Spring, you may need
TIP to remove Spring’s proxy in some situations, for example when setting expectations
using given or when. Use AopTestUtils.getTargetObject(yourProxiedSpy) to do so.

Auto-configured Tests

Spring Boot’s auto-configuration system works well for applications but can sometimes be a little
too much for tests. It often helps to load only the parts of the configuration that are required to test
a “slice” of your application. For example, you might want to test that Spring MVC controllers are
mapping URLs correctly, and you do not want to involve database calls in those tests, or you might
want to test JPA entities, and you are not interested in the web layer when those tests run.

The spring-boot-test-autoconfigure module includes a number of annotations that can be used to

automatically configure such “slices”. Each of them works in a similar way, providing a @…Test
annotation that loads the ApplicationContext and one or more @AutoConfigure… annotations that
can be used to customize auto-configuration settings.

Each slice restricts component scan to appropriate components and loads a very
restricted set of auto-configuration classes. If you need to exclude one of them, most
NOTE
@…Test annotations provide an excludeAutoConfiguration attribute. Alternatively,
you can use @ImportAutoConfiguration#exclude.

Including multiple “slices” by using several @…Test annotations in one test is not
NOTE supported. If you need multiple “slices”, pick one of the @…Test annotations and
include the @AutoConfigure… annotations of the other “slices” by hand.

It is also possible to use the @AutoConfigure… annotations with the standard

TIP @SpringBootTest annotation. You can use this combination if you are not interested in
“slicing” your application but you want some of the auto-configured test beans.

Auto-configured JSON Tests

To test that object JSON serialization and deserialization is working as expected, you can use the
@JsonTest annotation. @JsonTest auto-configures the available supported JSON mapper, which can
be one of the following libraries:

• Jackson ObjectMapper, any @JsonComponent beans and any Jackson Modules

• Gson

• Jsonb

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @JsonTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

If you need to configure elements of the auto-configuration, you can use the
@AutoConfigureJsonTesters annotation.

Spring Boot includes AssertJ-based helpers that work with the JSONAssert and JsonPath libraries to

151
check that JSON appears as expected. The JacksonTester, GsonTester, JsonbTester, and
BasicJsonTester classes can be used for Jackson, Gson, Jsonb, and Strings respectively. Any helper
fields on the test class can be @Autowired when using @JsonTest. The following example shows a test
class for Jackson:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.json.JsonTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.json.JacksonTester;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@JsonTest
class MyJsonTests {

  @Autowired
  private JacksonTester<VehicleDetails> json;

  @Test
  void serialize() throws Exception {
  VehicleDetails details = new VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic");
  // Assert against a `.json` file in the same package as the test
  assertThat(this.json.write(details)).isEqualToJson("expected.json");
  // Or use JSON path based assertions
  assertThat(this.json.write(details)).hasJsonPathStringValue("@.make");
 
assertThat(this.json.write(details)).extractingJsonPathStringValue("@.make").isEqualTo
("Honda");
  }

  @Test
  void deserialize() throws Exception {
  String content = "{\"make\":\"Ford\",\"model\":\"Focus\"}";
  assertThat(this.json.parse(content)).isEqualTo(new VehicleDetails("Ford",
"Focus"));
  assertThat(this.json.parseObject(content).getMake()).isEqualTo("Ford");
  }

152
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.json.JsonTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.json.JacksonTester

@JsonTest
class MyJsonTests(@Autowired val json: JacksonTester<VehicleDetails>) {

  @Test
  fun serialize() {
  val details = VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic")
  // Assert against a `.json` file in the same package as the test
  assertThat(json.write(details)).isEqualToJson("expected.json")
  // Or use JSON path based assertions
  assertThat(json.write(details)).hasJsonPathStringValue("@.make")
 
assertThat(json.write(details)).extractingJsonPathStringValue("@.make").isEqualTo("Hon
da")
  }

  @Test
  fun deserialize() {
  val content = "{\"make\":\"Ford\",\"model\":\"Focus\"}"
  assertThat(json.parse(content)).isEqualTo(VehicleDetails("Ford", "Focus"))
  assertThat(json.parseObject(content).make).isEqualTo("Ford")
  }

JSON helper classes can also be used directly in standard unit tests. To do so, call the
NOTE
initFields method of the helper in your @Before method if you do not use @JsonTest.

If you use Spring Boot’s AssertJ-based helpers to assert on a number value at a given JSON path, you
might not be able to use isEqualTo depending on the type. Instead, you can use AssertJ’s satisfies to
assert that the value matches the given condition. For instance, the following example asserts that
the actual number is a float value close to 0.15 within an offset of 0.01.

153
Java

@Test
void someTest() throws Exception {
  SomeObject value = new SomeObject(0.152f);
 
assertThat(this.json.write(value)).extractingJsonPathNumberValue("@.test.numberValue")
  .satisfies((number) -> assertThat(number.floatValue()).isCloseTo(0.15f,
within(0.01f)));
}

Kotlin

@Test
fun someTest() {
  val value = SomeObject(0.152f)
  assertThat(json.write(value)).extractingJsonPathNumberValue("@.test.numberValue")
  .satisfies(ThrowingConsumer { number ->
  assertThat(number.toFloat()).isCloseTo(0.15f, within(0.01f))
  })
}

Auto-configured Spring MVC Tests

To test whether Spring MVC controllers are working as expected, use the @WebMvcTest annotation.
@WebMvcTest auto-configures the Spring MVC infrastructure and limits scanned beans to @Controller,
@ControllerAdvice, @JsonComponent, Converter, GenericConverter, Filter, HandlerInterceptor,
WebMvcConfigurer, WebMvcRegistrations, and HandlerMethodArgumentResolver. Regular @Component and
@ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when the @WebMvcTest annotation is used.
@EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @WebMvcTest can be found
TIP
in the appendix.

If you need to register extra components, such as the Jackson Module, you can import
TIP
additional configuration classes by using @Import on your test.

Often, @WebMvcTest is limited to a single controller and is used in combination with @MockBean to
provide mock implementations for required collaborators.

@WebMvcTest also auto-configures MockMvc. Mock MVC offers a powerful way to quickly test MVC
controllers without needing to start a full HTTP server.

You can also auto-configure MockMvc in a non-@WebMvcTest (such as @SpringBootTest) by

TIP
annotating it with @AutoConfigureMockMvc. The following example uses MockMvc:

154
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;

import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.given;

import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.get;
import static
org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.content;
import static
org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;

@WebMvcTest(UserVehicleController.class)
class MyControllerTests {

  @Autowired
  private MockMvc mvc;

  @MockBean
  private UserVehicleService userVehicleService;

  @Test
  void testExample() throws Exception {
  given(this.userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot"))
  .willReturn(new VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic"));
  this.mvc.perform(get("/sboot/vehicle").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN))
  .andExpect(status().isOk())
  .andExpect(content().string("Honda Civic"));
  }

155
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.mockito.BDDMockito.given
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers

@WebMvcTest(UserVehicleController::class)
class MyControllerTests(@Autowired val mvc: MockMvc) {

  @MockBean
  lateinit var userVehicleService: UserVehicleService

  @Test
  fun testExample() {
  given(userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot"))
  .willReturn(VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic"))
 
mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("/sboot/vehicle").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN))
  .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.status().isOk)
  .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.content().string("Honda Civic"))
  }

If you need to configure elements of the auto-configuration (for example, when servlet
TIP filters should be applied) you can use attributes in the @AutoConfigureMockMvc
annotation.

If you use HtmlUnit and Selenium, auto-configuration also provides an HtmlUnit WebClient bean
and/or a Selenium WebDriver bean. The following example uses HtmlUnit:

156
Java

import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.WebClient;
import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.html.HtmlPage;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.given;

@WebMvcTest(UserVehicleController.class)
class MyHtmlUnitTests {

  @Autowired
  private WebClient webClient;

  @MockBean
  private UserVehicleService userVehicleService;

  @Test
  void testExample() throws Exception {
  given(this.userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot")).willReturn(new
VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic"));
  HtmlPage page = this.webClient.getPage("/sboot/vehicle.html");
  assertThat(page.getBody().getTextContent()).isEqualTo("Honda Civic");
  }

157
Kotlin

import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.WebClient
import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.html.HtmlPage
import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.mockito.BDDMockito.given
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean

@WebMvcTest(UserVehicleController::class)
class MyHtmlUnitTests(@Autowired val webClient: WebClient) {

  @MockBean
  lateinit var userVehicleService: UserVehicleService

  @Test
  fun testExample() {
 
given(userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot")).willReturn(VehicleDetails("Honda"
, "Civic"))
  val page = webClient.getPage<HtmlPage>("/sboot/vehicle.html")
  assertThat(page.body.textContent).isEqualTo("Honda Civic")
  }

By default, Spring Boot puts WebDriver beans in a special “scope” to ensure that the
NOTE driver exits after each test and that a new instance is injected. If you do not want
this behavior, you can add @Scope("singleton") to your WebDriver @Bean definition.

The webDriver scope created by Spring Boot will replace any user defined scope
WARNING of the same name. If you define your own webDriver scope you may find it stops
working when you use @WebMvcTest.

If you have Spring Security on the classpath, @WebMvcTest will also scan WebSecurityConfigurer
beans. Instead of disabling security completely for such tests, you can use Spring Security’s test
support. More details on how to use Spring Security’s MockMvc support can be found in this Testing
With Spring Security how-to section.

Sometimes writing Spring MVC tests is not enough; Spring Boot can help you run full
TIP
end-to-end tests with an actual server.

Auto-configured Spring WebFlux Tests

To test that Spring WebFlux controllers are working as expected, you can use the @WebFluxTest
annotation. @WebFluxTest auto-configures the Spring WebFlux infrastructure and limits scanned

158
beans to @Controller, @ControllerAdvice, @JsonComponent, Converter, GenericConverter, WebFilter, and
WebFluxConfigurer. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when
the @WebFluxTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include
@ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @WebFluxTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

If you need to register extra components, such as Jackson Module, you can import
TIP
additional configuration classes using @Import on your test.

Often, @WebFluxTest is limited to a single controller and used in combination with the @MockBean
annotation to provide mock implementations for required collaborators.

@WebFluxTest also auto-configures WebTestClient, which offers a powerful way to quickly test
WebFlux controllers without needing to start a full HTTP server.

You can also auto-configure WebTestClient in a non-@WebFluxTest (such as

TIP @SpringBootTest) by annotating it with @AutoConfigureWebTestClient. The following
example shows a class that uses both @WebFluxTest and a WebTestClient:

159
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.WebFluxTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient;

import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.given;

@WebFluxTest(UserVehicleController.class)
class MyControllerTests {

  @Autowired
  private WebTestClient webClient;

  @MockBean
  private UserVehicleService userVehicleService;

  @Test
  void testExample() throws Exception {
  given(this.userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot"))
  .willReturn(new VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic"));
 
this.webClient.get().uri("/sboot/vehicle").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN).exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk()
  .expectBody(String.class).isEqualTo("Honda Civic");
  }

160
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.mockito.BDDMockito.given
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.WebFluxTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.mock.mockito.MockBean
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.expectBody

@WebFluxTest(UserVehicleController::class)
class MyControllerTests(@Autowired val webClient: WebTestClient) {

  @MockBean
  lateinit var userVehicleService: UserVehicleService

  @Test
  fun testExample() {
  given(userVehicleService.getVehicleDetails("sboot"))
  .willReturn(VehicleDetails("Honda", "Civic"))
  webClient.get().uri("/sboot/vehicle").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN).exchange()
  .expectStatus().isOk
  .expectBody<String>().isEqualTo("Honda Civic")
  }

This setup is only supported by WebFlux applications as using WebTestClient in a

TIP
mocked web application only works with WebFlux at the moment.

@WebFluxTest cannot detect routes registered through the functional web

NOTE framework. For testing RouterFunction beans in the context, consider importing
your RouterFunction yourself by using @Import or by using @SpringBootTest.

@WebFluxTest cannot detect custom security configuration registered as a @Bean of

NOTE type SecurityWebFilterChain. To include that in your test, you will need to import the
configuration that registers the bean by using @Import or by using @SpringBootTest.

Sometimes writing Spring WebFlux tests is not enough; Spring Boot can help you run
TIP
full end-to-end tests with an actual server.

Auto-configured Spring GraphQL Tests

Spring GraphQL offers a dedicated testing support module; you’ll need to add it to your project:

161
Maven

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.graphql</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-graphql-test</artifactId>
  <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
  <!-- Unless already present in the compile scope -->
  <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
  <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Gradle

dependencies {
  testImplementation("org.springframework.graphql:spring-graphql-test")
  // Unless already present in the implementation configuration
  testImplementation("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-webflux")
}

This testing module ships the GraphQlTester. The tester is heavily used in test, so be sure to become
familiar with using it. There are GraphQlTester variants and Spring Boot will auto-configure them
depending on the type of tests:

• the ExecutionGraphQlServiceTester performs tests on the server side, without a client nor a
transport

• the HttpGraphQlTester performs tests with a client that connects to a server, with or without a
live server

Spring Boot helps you to test your Spring GraphQL Controllers with the @GraphQlTest annotation.
@GraphQlTest auto-configures the Spring GraphQL infrastructure, without any transport nor server
being involved. This limits scanned beans to @Controller, RuntimeWiringConfigurer, JsonComponent,
Converter, GenericConverter, DataFetcherExceptionResolver, Instrumentation and
GraphQlSourceBuilderCustomizer. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not
scanned when the @GraphQlTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to
include @ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @GraphQlTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

If you need to register extra components, such as Jackson Module, you can import
TIP
additional configuration classes using @Import on your test.

Often, @GraphQlTest is limited to a set of controllers and used in combination with the @MockBean

162
annotation to provide mock implementations for required collaborators.

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.docs.web.graphql.runtimewiring.GreetingController;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.graphql.GraphQlTest;
import org.springframework.graphql.test.tester.GraphQlTester;

@GraphQlTest(GreetingController.class)
class GreetingControllerTests {

  @Autowired
  private GraphQlTester graphQlTester;

  @Test
  void shouldGreetWithSpecificName() {
  this.graphQlTester.document("{ greeting(name: \"Alice\") }
").execute().path("greeting").entity(String.class)
  .isEqualTo("Hello, Alice!");
  }

  @Test
  void shouldGreetWithDefaultName() {
  this.graphQlTester.document("{ greeting }
").execute().path("greeting").entity(String.class)
  .isEqualTo("Hello, Spring!");
  }

163
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.docs.web.graphql.runtimewiring.GreetingController
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.graphql.GraphQlTest
import org.springframework.graphql.test.tester.GraphQlTester

@GraphQlTest(GreetingController::class)
internal class GreetingControllerTests {

  @Autowired
  lateinit var graphQlTester: GraphQlTester

  @Test
  fun shouldGreetWithSpecificName() {
  graphQlTester.document("{ greeting(name: \"Alice\") }
").execute().path("greeting").entity(String::class.java)
  .isEqualTo("Hello, Alice!")
  }

  @Test
  fun shouldGreetWithDefaultName() {
  graphQlTester.document("{ greeting }
").execute().path("greeting").entity(String::class.java)
  .isEqualTo("Hello, Spring!")
  }

@SpringBootTest tests are full integration tests and involve the entire application. When using a
random or defined port, a live server is configured and an HttpGraphQlTester bean is contributed
automatically so you can use it to test your server. When a MOCK environment is configured, you
can also request an HttpGraphQlTester bean by annotating your test class with
@AutoConfigureHttpGraphQlTester:

164
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.graphql.tester.AutoConfigureHttpGraphQlTes
ter;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.graphql.test.tester.HttpGraphQlTester;

@AutoConfigureHttpGraphQlTester
@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment.MOCK)
class GraphQlIntegrationTests {

  @Test
  void shouldGreetWithSpecificName(@Autowired HttpGraphQlTester graphQlTester) {
  HttpGraphQlTester authenticatedTester = graphQlTester.mutate()
  .webTestClient(
  (client) -> client.defaultHeaders((headers) ->
headers.setBasicAuth("admin", "ilovespring")))
  .build();
  authenticatedTester.document("{ greeting(name: \"Alice\") }
").execute().path("greeting").entity(String.class)
  .isEqualTo("Hello, Alice!");
  }

165
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.graphql.tester.AutoConfigureHttpGraphQlTes
ter
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.graphql.test.tester.HttpGraphQlTester
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient

@AutoConfigureHttpGraphQlTester
@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment.MOCK)
class GraphQlIntegrationTests {

  @Test
  fun shouldGreetWithSpecificName(@Autowired graphQlTester: HttpGraphQlTester) {
  val authenticatedTester = graphQlTester.mutate()
  .webTestClient { client: WebTestClient.Builder ->
  client.defaultHeaders { headers: HttpHeaders ->
  headers.setBasicAuth("admin", "ilovespring")
  }
  }.build()
  authenticatedTester.document("{ greeting(name: \"Alice\") } ").execute()
  .path("greeting").entity(String::class.java).isEqualTo("Hello, Alice!")
  }
}

Auto-configured Data Cassandra Tests

You can use @DataCassandraTest to test Cassandra applications. By default, it configures a

CassandraTemplate, scans for @Table classes, and configures Spring Data Cassandra repositories.
Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when the
@DataCassandraTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include
@ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using Cassandra with Spring Boot, see "
Cassandra", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataCassandraTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The following example shows a typical setup for using Cassandra tests in Spring Boot:

166
Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.cassandra.DataCassandraTest;

@DataCassandraTest
class MyDataCassandraTests {

  @Autowired
  private SomeRepository repository;

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.cassandra.DataCassandraTest

@DataCassandraTest
class MyDataCassandraTests(@Autowired val repository: SomeRepository)

Auto-configured Data Couchbase Tests

You can use @DataCouchbaseTest to test Couchbase applications. By default, it configures a

CouchbaseTemplate or ReactiveCouchbaseTemplate, scans for @Document classes, and configures Spring
Data Couchbase repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not
scanned when the @DataCouchbaseTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be
used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using Couchbase with Spring Boot,
see "Couchbase", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataCouchbaseTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The following example shows a typical setup for using Couchbase tests in Spring Boot:

167
Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.couchbase.DataCouchbaseTest;

@DataCouchbaseTest
class MyDataCouchbaseTests {

  @Autowired
  private SomeRepository repository;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.couchbase.DataCouchbaseTest

@DataCouchbaseTest
class MyDataCouchbaseTests(@Autowired val repository: SomeRepository) {

  // ...

Auto-configured Data Elasticsearch Tests

You can use @DataElasticsearchTest to test Elasticsearch applications. By default, it configures an

ElasticsearchRestTemplate, scans for @Document classes, and configures Spring Data Elasticsearch
repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when the
@DataElasticsearchTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include
@ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using Elasticsearch with Spring Boot, see
"Elasticsearch", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataElasticsearchTest can

TIP
be found in the appendix.

The following example shows a typical setup for using Elasticsearch tests in Spring Boot:

168
Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.elasticsearch.DataElasticsearchTest;

@DataElasticsearchTest
class MyDataElasticsearchTests {

  @Autowired
  private SomeRepository repository;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.elasticsearch.DataElasticsearchTest

@DataElasticsearchTest
class MyDataElasticsearchTests(@Autowired val repository: SomeRepository) {

  // ...

Auto-configured Data JPA Tests

You can use the @DataJpaTest annotation to test JPA applications. By default, it scans for @Entity
classes and configures Spring Data JPA repositories. If an embedded database is available on the
classpath, it configures one as well. SQL queries are logged by default by setting the
spring.jpa.show-sql property to true. This can be disabled using the showSql() attribute of the
annotation.

Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when the @DataJpaTest
annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include @ConfigurationProperties
beans.

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataJpaTest can be found
TIP
in the appendix.

By default, data JPA tests are transactional and roll back at the end of each test. See the relevant
section in the Spring Framework Reference Documentation for more details. If that is not what you
want, you can disable transaction management for a test or for the whole class as follows:

169
Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

@DataJpaTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyNonTransactionalTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional

@DataJpaTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyNonTransactionalTests {

  // ...

Data JPA tests may also inject a TestEntityManager bean, which provides an alternative to the
standard JPA EntityManager that is specifically designed for tests.

TestEntityManager can also be auto-configured to any of your Spring-based test class by

adding @AutoConfigureTestEntityManager. When doing so, make sure that your test is
TIP
running in a transaction, for instance by adding @Transactional on your test class or
method.

A JdbcTemplate is also available if you need that. The following example shows the @DataJpaTest
annotation in use:

170
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.TestEntityManager;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@DataJpaTest
class MyRepositoryTests {

  @Autowired
  private TestEntityManager entityManager;

  @Autowired
  private UserRepository repository;

  @Test
  void testExample() throws Exception {
  this.entityManager.persist(new User("sboot", "1234"));
  User user = this.repository.findByUsername("sboot");
  assertThat(user.getUsername()).isEqualTo("sboot");
  assertThat(user.getEmployeeNumber()).isEqualTo("1234");
  }

Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.TestEntityManager

@DataJpaTest
class MyRepositoryTests(@Autowired val entityManager: TestEntityManager, @Autowired
val repository: UserRepository) {

  @Test
  fun testExample() {
  entityManager.persist(User("sboot", "1234"))
  val user = repository.findByUsername("sboot")
  assertThat(user?.username).isEqualTo("sboot")
  assertThat(user?.employeeNumber).isEqualTo("1234")
  }

171
In-memory embedded databases generally work well for tests, since they are fast and do not
require any installation. If, however, you prefer to run tests against a real database you can use the
@AutoConfigureTestDatabase annotation, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.AutoConfigureTestDatabase;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.AutoConfigureTestDatabase.Replace;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest;

@DataJpaTest
@AutoConfigureTestDatabase(replace = Replace.NONE)
class MyRepositoryTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.AutoConfigureTestDatabase
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.orm.jpa.DataJpaTest

@DataJpaTest
@AutoConfigureTestDatabase(replace = AutoConfigureTestDatabase.Replace.NONE)
class MyRepositoryTests {

  // ...

Auto-configured JDBC Tests

@JdbcTest is similar to @DataJpaTest but is for tests that only require a DataSource and do not use
Spring Data JDBC. By default, it configures an in-memory embedded database and a JdbcTemplate.
Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned when the @JdbcTest
annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include @ConfigurationProperties
beans.

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @JdbcTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

By default, JDBC tests are transactional and roll back at the end of each test. See the relevant section
in the Spring Framework Reference Documentation for more details. If that is not what you want,
you can disable transaction management for a test or for the whole class, as follows:

172
Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.JdbcTest;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

@JdbcTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyTransactionalTests {

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.JdbcTest
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional

@JdbcTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyTransactionalTests

If you prefer your test to run against a real database, you can use the @AutoConfigureTestDatabase
annotation in the same way as for DataJpaTest. (See "Auto-configured Data JPA Tests".)

Auto-configured Data JDBC Tests

@DataJdbcTest is similar to @JdbcTest but is for tests that use Spring Data JDBC repositories. By
default, it configures an in-memory embedded database, a JdbcTemplate, and Spring Data JDBC
repositories. Only AbstractJdbcConfiguration sub-classes are scanned when the @DataJdbcTest
annotation is used, regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned.
@EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @DataJdbcTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

By default, Data JDBC tests are transactional and roll back at the end of each test. See the relevant
section in the Spring Framework Reference Documentation for more details. If that is not what you
want, you can disable transaction management for a test or for the whole test class as shown in the
JDBC example.

If you prefer your test to run against a real database, you can use the @AutoConfigureTestDatabase
annotation in the same way as for DataJpaTest. (See "Auto-configured Data JPA Tests".)

Auto-configured jOOQ Tests

You can use @JooqTest in a similar fashion as @JdbcTest but for jOOQ-related tests. As jOOQ relies
heavily on a Java-based schema that corresponds with the database schema, the existing DataSource
is used. If you want to replace it with an in-memory database, you can use

173
@AutoConfigureTestDatabase to override those settings. (For more about using jOOQ with Spring
Boot, see "Using jOOQ", earlier in this chapter.) Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties
beans are not scanned when the @JooqTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can
be used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configurations that are enabled by @JooqTest can be found in the
TIP
appendix.

@JooqTest configures a DSLContext. The following example shows the @JooqTest annotation in use:

Java

import org.jooq.DSLContext;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jooq.JooqTest;

@JooqTest
class MyJooqTests {

  @Autowired
  private DSLContext dslContext;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.jooq.DSLContext
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jooq.JooqTest

@JooqTest
class MyJooqTests(@Autowired val dslContext: DSLContext) {

  // ...

JOOQ tests are transactional and roll back at the end of each test by default. If that is not what you
want, you can disable transaction management for a test or for the whole test class as shown in the
JDBC example.

Auto-configured Data MongoDB Tests

You can use @DataMongoTest to test MongoDB applications. By default, it configures an in-memory
embedded MongoDB (if available), configures a MongoTemplate, scans for @Document classes, and
configures Spring Data MongoDB repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties

174
beans are not scanned when the @DataMongoTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties
can be used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using MongoDB with
Spring Boot, see "MongoDB", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataMongoTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The following class shows the @DataMongoTest annotation in use:

Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.mongo.DataMongoTest;
import org.springframework.data.mongodb.core.MongoTemplate;

@DataMongoTest
class MyDataMongoDbTests {

  @Autowired
  private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.mongo.DataMongoTest
import org.springframework.data.mongodb.core.MongoTemplate

@DataMongoTest
class MyDataMongoDbTests(@Autowired val mongoTemplate: MongoTemplate) {

  // ...

In-memory embedded MongoDB generally works well for tests, since it is fast and does not require
any developer installation. If, however, you prefer to run tests against a real MongoDB server, you
should exclude the embedded MongoDB auto-configuration, as shown in the following example:

175
Java

import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mongo.embedded.EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.mongo.DataMongoTest;

@DataMongoTest(excludeAutoConfiguration = EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration.class)
class MyDataMongoDbTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mongo.embedded.EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.mongo.DataMongoTest

@DataMongoTest(excludeAutoConfiguration = [EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration::class])
class MyDataMongoDbTests {

  // ...

Auto-configured Data Neo4j Tests

You can use @DataNeo4jTest to test Neo4j applications. By default, it scans for @Node classes, and
configures Spring Data Neo4j repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans
are not scanned when the @DataNeo4jTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be
used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using Neo4J with Spring Boot, see
"Neo4j", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataNeo4jTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The following example shows a typical setup for using Neo4J tests in Spring Boot:

176
Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.neo4j.DataNeo4jTest;

@DataNeo4jTest
class MyDataNeo4jTests {

  @Autowired
  private SomeRepository repository;

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.neo4j.DataNeo4jTest

@DataNeo4jTest
class MyDataNeo4jTests(@Autowired val repository: SomeRepository) {

  // ...

By default, Data Neo4j tests are transactional and roll back at the end of each test. See the relevant
section in the Spring Framework Reference Documentation for more details. If that is not what you
want, you can disable transaction management for a test or for the whole class, as follows:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.neo4j.DataNeo4jTest;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

@DataNeo4jTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyDataNeo4jTests {

177
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.neo4j.DataNeo4jTest
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional

@DataNeo4jTest
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.NOT_SUPPORTED)
class MyDataNeo4jTests

Transactional tests are not supported with reactive access. If you are using this
NOTE
style, you must configure @DataNeo4jTest tests as described above.

Auto-configured Data Redis Tests

You can use @DataRedisTest to test Redis applications. By default, it scans for @RedisHash classes and
configures Spring Data Redis repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans
are not scanned when the @DataRedisTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be
used to include @ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using Redis with Spring Boot, see
"Redis", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataRedisTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The following example shows the @DataRedisTest annotation in use:

Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.redis.DataRedisTest;

@DataRedisTest
class MyDataRedisTests {

  @Autowired
  private SomeRepository repository;

  // ...

178
Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.redis.DataRedisTest

@DataRedisTest
class MyDataRedisTests(@Autowired val repository: SomeRepository) {

  // ...

Auto-configured Data LDAP Tests

You can use @DataLdapTest to test LDAP applications. By default, it configures an in-memory
embedded LDAP (if available), configures an LdapTemplate, scans for @Entry classes, and configures
Spring Data LDAP repositories. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not
scanned when the @DataLdapTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to
include @ConfigurationProperties beans. (For more about using LDAP with Spring Boot, see "LDAP",
earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @DataLdapTest can be found
TIP
in the appendix.

The following example shows the @DataLdapTest annotation in use:

Java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.ldap.DataLdapTest;
import org.springframework.ldap.core.LdapTemplate;

@DataLdapTest
class MyDataLdapTests {

  @Autowired
  private LdapTemplate ldapTemplate;

  // ...

179
Kotlin

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.ldap.DataLdapTest
import org.springframework.ldap.core.LdapTemplate

@DataLdapTest
class MyDataLdapTests(@Autowired val ldapTemplate: LdapTemplate) {

  // ...

In-memory embedded LDAP generally works well for tests, since it is fast and does not require any
developer installation. If, however, you prefer to run tests against a real LDAP server, you should
exclude the embedded LDAP auto-configuration, as shown in the following example:

Java

import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ldap.embedded.EmbeddedLdapAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.ldap.DataLdapTest;

@DataLdapTest(excludeAutoConfiguration = EmbeddedLdapAutoConfiguration.class)
class MyDataLdapTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ldap.embedded.EmbeddedLdapAutoConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.data.ldap.DataLdapTest

@DataLdapTest(excludeAutoConfiguration = [EmbeddedLdapAutoConfiguration::class])
class MyDataLdapTests {

  // ...

Auto-configured REST Clients

You can use the @RestClientTest annotation to test REST clients. By default, it auto-configures
Jackson, GSON, and Jsonb support, configures a RestTemplateBuilder, and adds support for
MockRestServiceServer. Regular @Component and @ConfigurationProperties beans are not scanned
when the @RestClientTest annotation is used. @EnableConfigurationProperties can be used to

180
include @ConfigurationProperties beans.

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @RestClientTest can be

TIP
found in the appendix.

The specific beans that you want to test should be specified by using the value or components
attribute of @RestClientTest, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.client.RestClientTest;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.web.client.MockRestServiceServer;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

import static
org.springframework.test.web.client.match.MockRestRequestMatchers.requestTo;
import static
org.springframework.test.web.client.response.MockRestResponseCreators.withSuccess;

@RestClientTest(RemoteVehicleDetailsService.class)
class MyRestClientTests {

  @Autowired
  private RemoteVehicleDetailsService service;

  @Autowired
  private MockRestServiceServer server;

  @Test
  void getVehicleDetailsWhenResultIsSuccessShouldReturnDetails() throws Exception {
 
this.server.expect(requestTo("/greet/details")).andRespond(withSuccess("hello",
MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN));
  String greeting = this.service.callRestService();
  assertThat(greeting).isEqualTo("hello");
  }

181
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.client.RestClientTest
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.test.web.client.MockRestServiceServer
import org.springframework.test.web.client.match.MockRestRequestMatchers
import org.springframework.test.web.client.response.MockRestResponseCreators

@RestClientTest(RemoteVehicleDetailsService::class)
class MyRestClientTests(
  @Autowired val service: RemoteVehicleDetailsService,
  @Autowired val server: MockRestServiceServer) {

  @Test
  fun getVehicleDetailsWhenResultIsSuccessShouldReturnDetails(): Unit {
  server.expect(MockRestRequestMatchers.requestTo("/greet/details"))
  .andRespond(MockRestResponseCreators.withSuccess("hello",
MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN))
  val greeting = service.callRestService()
  assertThat(greeting).isEqualTo("hello")
  }

Auto-configured Spring REST Docs Tests

You can use the @AutoConfigureRestDocs annotation to use Spring REST Docs in your tests with Mock
MVC, REST Assured, or WebTestClient. It removes the need for the JUnit extension in Spring REST
Docs.

@AutoConfigureRestDocs can be used to override the default output directory (target/generated-

snippets if you are using Maven or build/generated-snippets if you are using Gradle). It can also be
used to configure the host, scheme, and port that appears in any documented URIs.

Auto-configured Spring REST Docs Tests with Mock MVC

@AutoConfigureRestDocs customizes the MockMvc bean to use Spring REST Docs when testing servlet-
based web applications. You can inject it by using @Autowired and use it in your tests as you
normally would when using Mock MVC and Spring REST Docs, as shown in the following example:

182
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;

import static org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation.document;

import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.get;
import static
org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;

@WebMvcTest(UserController.class)
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUserDocumentationTests {

  @Autowired
  private MockMvc mvc;

  @Test
  void listUsers() throws Exception {
  this.mvc.perform(get("/users").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN))
  .andExpect(status().isOk())
  .andDo(document("list-users"));
  }

183
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTest
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers

@WebMvcTest(UserController::class)
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUserDocumentationTests(@Autowired val mvc: MockMvc) {

  @Test
  fun listUsers() {
  mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("/users").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN))
  .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.status().isOk)
  .andDo(MockMvcRestDocumentation.document("list-users"))
  }

If you require more control over Spring REST Docs configuration than offered by the attributes of
@AutoConfigureRestDocs, you can use a RestDocsMockMvcConfigurationCustomizer bean, as shown in
the following example:

Java

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsMockMvcConfigurationCusto
mizer;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer;
import org.springframework.restdocs.templates.TemplateFormats;

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRestDocsConfiguration implements RestDocsMockMvcConfigurationCustomizer
{

  @Override
  public void customize(MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer configurer) {
  configurer.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown());
  }

184
Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsMockMvcConfigurationCusto
mizer
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer
import org.springframework.restdocs.templates.TemplateFormats

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRestDocsConfiguration : RestDocsMockMvcConfigurationCustomizer {

  override fun customize(configurer: MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer) {

  configurer.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown())
  }

If you want to make use of Spring REST Docs support for a parameterized output directory, you can
create a RestDocumentationResultHandler bean. The auto-configuration calls alwaysDo with this result
handler, thereby causing each MockMvc call to automatically generate the default snippets. The
following example shows a RestDocumentationResultHandler being defined:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation;
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.RestDocumentationResultHandler;

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyResultHandlerConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public RestDocumentationResultHandler restDocumentation() {
  return MockMvcRestDocumentation.document("{method-name}");
  }

185
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation
import org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.RestDocumentationResultHandler

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyResultHandlerConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun restDocumentation(): RestDocumentationResultHandler {
  return MockMvcRestDocumentation.document("{method-name}")
  }

Auto-configured Spring REST Docs Tests with WebTestClient

@AutoConfigureRestDocs can also be used with WebTestClient when testing reactive web applications.
You can inject it by using @Autowired and use it in your tests as you normally would when using
@WebFluxTest and Spring REST Docs, as shown in the following example:

186
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.WebFluxTest;
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient;

import static
org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentation.document;

@WebFluxTest
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUsersDocumentationTests {

  @Autowired
  private WebTestClient webTestClient;

  @Test
  void listUsers() {
  this.webTestClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus()
  .isOk()
  .expectBody()
  .consumeWith(document("list-users"));
  }

187
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.reactive.WebFluxTest
import org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentation
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient

@WebFluxTest
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUsersDocumentationTests(@Autowired val webTestClient: WebTestClient) {

  @Test
  fun listUsers() {
  webTestClient
  .get().uri("/")
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus()
  .isOk
  .expectBody()
  .consumeWith(WebTestClientRestDocumentation.document("list-users"))
  }

If you require more control over Spring REST Docs configuration than offered by the attributes of
@AutoConfigureRestDocs, you can use a RestDocsWebTestClientConfigurationCustomizer bean, as
shown in the following example:

Java

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsWebTestClientConfiguratio
nCustomizer;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import
org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentationConfigurer;

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRestDocsConfiguration implements
RestDocsWebTestClientConfigurationCustomizer {

  @Override
  public void customize(WebTestClientRestDocumentationConfigurer configurer) {
  configurer.snippets().withEncoding("UTF-8");
  }

188
Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsWebTestClientConfiguratio
nCustomizer
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import
org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentationConfigurer

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRestDocsConfiguration : RestDocsWebTestClientConfigurationCustomizer {

  override fun customize(configurer: WebTestClientRestDocumentationConfigurer) {

  configurer.snippets().withEncoding("UTF-8")
  }

If you want to make use of Spring REST Docs support for a parameterized output directory, you can
use a WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer to configure a consumer for every entity exchange result. The
following example shows such a WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer being defined:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;

import static
org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentation.document;

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyWebTestClientBuilderCustomizerConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer restDocumentation() {
  return (builder) -> builder.entityExchangeResultConsumer(document("{method-
name}"));
  }

189
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import
org.springframework.boot.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.restdocs.webtestclient.WebTestClientRestDocumentation
import org.springframework.test.web.reactive.server.WebTestClient

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyWebTestClientBuilderCustomizerConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun restDocumentation(): WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer {
  return WebTestClientBuilderCustomizer { builder: WebTestClient.Builder ->
  builder.entityExchangeResultConsumer(
  WebTestClientRestDocumentation.document("{method-name}")
  )
  }
  }

Auto-configured Spring REST Docs Tests with REST Assured

@AutoConfigureRestDocs makes a RequestSpecification bean, preconfigured to use Spring REST Docs,

available to your tests. You can inject it by using @Autowired and use it in your tests as you normally
would when using REST Assured and Spring REST Docs, as shown in the following example:

190
Java

import io.restassured.specification.RequestSpecification;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment;
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.server.LocalServerPort;

import static io.restassured.RestAssured.given;

import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
import static
org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3.RestAssuredRestDocumentation.document;

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUserDocumentationTests {

  @Test
  void listUsers(@Autowired RequestSpecification documentationSpec, @LocalServerPort
int port) {
  given(documentationSpec)
  .filter(document("list-users"))
  .when()
  .port(port)
  .get("/")
  .then().assertThat()
  .statusCode(is(200));
  }

191
Kotlin

import io.restassured.RestAssured
import io.restassured.specification.RequestSpecification
import org.hamcrest.Matchers
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.server.LocalServerPort
import org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3.RestAssuredRestDocumentation

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class MyUserDocumentationTests {

  @Test
  fun listUsers(@Autowired documentationSpec: RequestSpecification?,
@LocalServerPort port: Int) {
  RestAssured.given(documentationSpec)
  .filter(RestAssuredRestDocumentation.document("list-users"))
  .`when`()
  .port(port)["/"]
  .then().assertThat()
  .statusCode(Matchers.`is`(200))
  }

If you require more control over Spring REST Docs configuration than offered by the attributes of
@AutoConfigureRestDocs, a RestDocsRestAssuredConfigurationCustomizer bean can be used, as shown
in the following example:

192
Java

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsRestAssuredConfigurationC
ustomizer;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import
org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3.RestAssuredRestDocumentationConfigurer;
import org.springframework.restdocs.templates.TemplateFormats;

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRestDocsConfiguration implements
RestDocsRestAssuredConfigurationCustomizer {

  @Override
  public void customize(RestAssuredRestDocumentationConfigurer configurer) {
  configurer.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown());
  }

Kotlin

import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.RestDocsRestAssuredConfigurationC
ustomizer
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import
org.springframework.restdocs.restassured3.RestAssuredRestDocumentationConfigurer
import org.springframework.restdocs.templates.TemplateFormats

@TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRestDocsConfiguration : RestDocsRestAssuredConfigurationCustomizer {

  override fun customize(configurer: RestAssuredRestDocumentationConfigurer) {

  configurer.snippets().withTemplateFormat(TemplateFormats.markdown())
  }

Auto-configured Spring Web Services Tests

Auto-configured Spring Web Services Client Tests

You can use @WebServiceClientTest to test applications that call web services using the Spring Web
Services project. By default, it configures a mock WebServiceServer bean and automatically
customizes your WebServiceTemplateBuilder. (For more about using Web Services with Spring Boot,
see "Web Services", earlier in this chapter.)

193
 A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @WebServiceClientTest can
TIP
be found in the appendix.

The following example shows the @WebServiceClientTest annotation in use:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.webservices.client.WebServiceClientTest;
import org.springframework.ws.test.client.MockWebServiceServer;
import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringSource;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

import static org.springframework.ws.test.client.RequestMatchers.payload;
import static org.springframework.ws.test.client.ResponseCreators.withPayload;

@WebServiceClientTest(SomeWebService.class)
class MyWebServiceClientTests {

  @Autowired
  private MockWebServiceServer server;

  @Autowired
  private SomeWebService someWebService;

  @Test
  void mockServerCall() {
  this.server
  .expect(payload(new StringSource("<request/>")))
  .andRespond(withPayload(new
StringSource("<response><status>200</status></response>")));
  assertThat(this.someWebService.test())
  .extracting(Response::getStatus)
  .isEqualTo(200);
  }

194
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.webservices.client.WebServiceClientTest
import org.springframework.ws.test.client.MockWebServiceServer
import org.springframework.ws.test.client.RequestMatchers
import org.springframework.ws.test.client.ResponseCreators
import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringSource

@WebServiceClientTest(SomeWebService::class)
class MyWebServiceClientTests(@Autowired val server: MockWebServiceServer, @Autowired
val someWebService: SomeWebService) {

  @Test
  fun mockServerCall() {
  server
  .expect(RequestMatchers.payload(StringSource("<request/>")))
 
.andRespond(ResponseCreators.withPayload(StringSource("<response><status>200</status><
/response>")))
 
assertThat(this.someWebService.test()).extracting(Response::status).isEqualTo(200)
  }

Auto-configured Spring Web Services Server Tests

You can use @WebServiceServerTest to test applications that implement web services using the
Spring Web Services project. By default, it configures a MockWebServiceClient bean that can be used
to call your web service endpoints. (For more about using Web Services with Spring Boot, see "Web
Services", earlier in this chapter.)

A list of the auto-configuration settings that are enabled by @WebServiceServerTest can

TIP
be found in the appendix.

The following example shows the @WebServiceServerTest annotation in use:

195
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.webservices.server.WebServiceServerTest;
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.MockWebServiceClient;
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.RequestCreators;
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.ResponseMatchers;
import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringSource;

@WebServiceServerTest(ExampleEndpoint.class)
class MyWebServiceServerTests {

  @Autowired
  private MockWebServiceClient client;

  @Test
  void mockServerCall() {
  this.client
  .sendRequest(RequestCreators.withPayload(new
StringSource("<ExampleRequest/>")))
  .andExpect(ResponseMatchers.payload(new
StringSource("<ExampleResponse>42</ExampleResponse>")));
  }

196
Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import
org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.webservices.server.WebServiceServerTest
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.MockWebServiceClient
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.RequestCreators
import org.springframework.ws.test.server.ResponseMatchers
import org.springframework.xml.transform.StringSource

@WebServiceServerTest(ExampleEndpoint::class)
class MyWebServiceServerTests(@Autowired val client: MockWebServiceClient) {

  @Test
  fun mockServerCall() {
  client
 
.sendRequest(RequestCreators.withPayload(StringSource("<ExampleRequest/>")))
 
.andExpect(ResponseMatchers.payload(StringSource("<ExampleResponse>42</ExampleResponse
>")))
  }

Additional Auto-configuration and Slicing

Each slice provides one or more @AutoConfigure… annotations that namely defines the auto-
configurations that should be included as part of a slice. Additional auto-configurations can be
added on a test-by-test basis by creating a custom @AutoConfigure… annotation or by adding
@ImportAutoConfiguration to the test as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ImportAutoConfiguration;
import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.integration.IntegrationAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.JdbcTest;

@JdbcTest
@ImportAutoConfiguration(IntegrationAutoConfiguration.class)
class MyJdbcTests {

197
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ImportAutoConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.integration.IntegrationAutoConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.JdbcTest

@JdbcTest
@ImportAutoConfiguration(IntegrationAutoConfiguration::class)
class MyJdbcTests

Make sure to not use the regular @Import annotation to import auto-configurations
NOTE
as they are handled in a specific way by Spring Boot.

Alternatively, additional auto-configurations can be added for any use of a slice annotation by
registering them in a file stored in META-INF/spring as shown in the following example:

META-INF/spring/org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.JdbcTest.imports

com.example.IntegrationAutoConfiguration

In this example, the com.example.IntegrationAutoConfiguration is enabled on every test annotated

with @JdbcTest.

TIP You can use comments via # in this file.

A slice or @AutoConfigure… annotation can be customized this way as long as it is meta-

TIP
annotated with @ImportAutoConfiguration.

User Configuration and Slicing

If you structure your code in a sensible way, your @SpringBootApplication class is used by default as
the configuration of your tests.

It then becomes important not to litter the application’s main class with configuration settings that
are specific to a particular area of its functionality.

Assume that you are using Spring Batch and you rely on the auto-configuration for it. You could
define your @SpringBootApplication as follows:

198
Java

import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.annotation.EnableBatchProcessing;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableBatchProcessing
public class MyApplication {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.annotation.EnableBatchProcessing
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableBatchProcessing
class MyApplication {

  // ...

Because this class is the source configuration for the test, any slice test actually tries to start Spring
Batch, which is definitely not what you want to do. A recommended approach is to move that area-
specific configuration to a separate @Configuration class at the same level as your application, as
shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.annotation.EnableBatchProcessing;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableBatchProcessing
public class MyBatchConfiguration {

  // ...

199
Kotlin

import org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.annotation.EnableBatchProcessing
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
@EnableBatchProcessing
class MyBatchConfiguration {

  // ...

Depending on the complexity of your application, you may either have a single
@Configuration class for your customizations or one class per domain area. The
NOTE latter approach lets you enable it in one of your tests, if necessary, with the @Import
annotation. See this how-to section for more details on when you might want to
enable specific @Configuration classes for slice tests.

Test slices exclude @Configuration classes from scanning. For example, for a @WebMvcTest, the
following configuration will not include the given WebMvcConfigurer bean in the application context
loaded by the test slice:

Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyWebConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public WebMvcConfigurer testConfigurer() {
  return new WebMvcConfigurer() {
  // ...
  };
  }

200
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyWebConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun testConfigurer(): WebMvcConfigurer {
  return object : WebMvcConfigurer {
  // ...
  }
  }

The configuration below will, however, cause the custom WebMvcConfigurer to be loaded by the test
slice.

Java

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;

@Component
public class MyWebMvcConfigurer implements WebMvcConfigurer {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer

@Component
class MyWebMvcConfigurer : WebMvcConfigurer {

  // ...

Another source of confusion is classpath scanning. Assume that, while you structured your code in
a sensible way, you need to scan an additional package. Your application may resemble the
following code:

201
Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan({ "com.example.app", "com.example.another" })
public class MyApplication {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan("com.example.app", "com.example.another")
class MyApplication {

  // ...

Doing so effectively overrides the default component scan directive with the side effect of scanning
those two packages regardless of the slice that you chose. For instance, a @DataJpaTest seems to
suddenly scan components and user configurations of your application. Again, moving the custom
directive to a separate class is a good way to fix this issue.

If this is not an option for you, you can create a @SpringBootConfiguration somewhere
TIP in the hierarchy of your test so that it is used instead. Alternatively, you can specify a
source for your test, which disables the behavior of finding a default one.

Using Spock to Test Spring Boot Applications

Spock 2.x can be used to test a Spring Boot application. To do so, add a dependency on Spock’s
spock-spring module to your application’s build. spock-spring integrates Spring’s test framework
into Spock. See the documentation for Spock’s Spring module for further details.

7.8.4. Test Utilities

A few test utility classes that are generally useful when testing your application are packaged as
part of spring-boot.

ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer

ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer is an ApplicationContextInitializer that you can apply to

202
your tests to load Spring Boot application.properties files. You can use it when you do not need the
full set of features provided by @SpringBootTest, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;

@ContextConfiguration(classes = Config.class, initializers =

ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer.class)
class MyConfigFileTests {

  // ...

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.test.context.ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration

@ContextConfiguration(classes = [Config::class], initializers =

[ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer::class])
class MyConfigFileTests {

  // ...

Using ConfigDataApplicationContextInitializer alone does not provide support for

@Value("${…}") injection. Its only job is to ensure that application.properties files
NOTE are loaded into Spring’s Environment. For @Value support, you need to either
additionally configure a PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer or use
@SpringBootTest, which auto-configures one for you.

TestPropertyValues

TestPropertyValues lets you quickly add properties to a ConfigurableEnvironment or

ConfigurableApplicationContext. You can call it with key=value strings, as follows:

203
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.boot.test.util.TestPropertyValues;
import org.springframework.mock.env.MockEnvironment;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

class MyEnvironmentTests {

  @Test
  void testPropertySources() {
  MockEnvironment environment = new MockEnvironment();
  TestPropertyValues.of("org=Spring", "name=Boot").applyTo(environment);
  assertThat(environment.getProperty("name")).isEqualTo("Boot");
  }

Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.boot.test.util.TestPropertyValues
import org.springframework.mock.env.MockEnvironment

class MyEnvironmentTests {

  @Test
  fun testPropertySources() {
  val environment = MockEnvironment()
  TestPropertyValues.of("org=Spring", "name=Boot").applyTo(environment)
  assertThat(environment.getProperty("name")).isEqualTo("Boot")
  }

OutputCapture

OutputCapture is a JUnit Extension that you can use to capture System.out and System.err output. To
use add @ExtendWith(OutputCaptureExtension.class) and inject CapturedOutput as an argument to
your test class constructor or test method as follows:

204
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;

import org.springframework.boot.test.system.CapturedOutput;
import org.springframework.boot.test.system.OutputCaptureExtension;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@ExtendWith(OutputCaptureExtension.class)
class MyOutputCaptureTests {

  @Test
  void testName(CapturedOutput output) {
  System.out.println("Hello World!");
  assertThat(output).contains("World");
  }

Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith
import org.springframework.boot.test.system.CapturedOutput
import org.springframework.boot.test.system.OutputCaptureExtension

@ExtendWith(OutputCaptureExtension::class)
class MyOutputCaptureTests {

  @Test
  fun testName(output: CapturedOutput?) {
  println("Hello World!")
  assertThat(output).contains("World")
  }

TestRestTemplate

TestRestTemplate is a convenience alternative to Spring’s RestTemplate that is useful in integration

tests. You can get a vanilla template or one that sends Basic HTTP authentication (with a username
and password). In either case, the template is fault tolerant. This means that it behaves in a test-
friendly way by not throwing exceptions on 4xx and 5xx errors. Instead, such errors can be
detected through the returned ResponseEntity and its status code.

205
 Spring Framework 5.0 provides a new WebTestClient that works for WebFlux
TIP integration tests and both WebFlux and MVC end-to-end testing. It provides a fluent
API for assertions, unlike TestRestTemplate.

It is recommended, but not mandatory, to use the Apache HTTP Client (version 4.3.2 or better). If
you have that on your classpath, the TestRestTemplate responds by configuring the client
appropriately. If you do use Apache’s HTTP client, some additional test-friendly features are
enabled:

• Redirects are not followed (so you can assert the response location).

• Cookies are ignored (so the template is stateless).

TestRestTemplate can be instantiated directly in your integration tests, as shown in the following
example:

Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

class MyTests {

  private final TestRestTemplate template = new TestRestTemplate();

  @Test
  void testRequest() throws Exception {
  ResponseEntity<String> headers =
this.template.getForEntity("https://myhost.example.com/example", String.class);
  assertThat(headers.getHeaders().getLocation()).hasHost("other.example.com");
  }

206
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate

class MyTests {

  private val template = TestRestTemplate()

  @Test
  fun testRequest() {
  val headers = template.getForEntity("https://myhost.example.com/example",
String::class.java)
  assertThat(headers.headers.location).hasHost("other.example.com")
  }

Alternatively, if you use the @SpringBootTest annotation with WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT or

WebEnvironment.DEFINED_PORT, you can inject a fully configured TestRestTemplate and start using it. If
necessary, additional customizations can be applied through the RestTemplateBuilder bean. Any
URLs that do not specify a host and port automatically connect to the embedded server, as shown in
the following example:

207
Java

import java.time.Duration;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate;
import org.springframework.boot.web.client.RestTemplateBuilder;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MySpringBootTests {

  @Autowired
  private TestRestTemplate template;

  @Test
  void testRequest() {
  HttpHeaders headers = this.template.getForEntity("/example",
String.class).getHeaders();
  assertThat(headers.getLocation()).hasHost("other.example.com");
  }

  @TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
  static class RestTemplateBuilderConfiguration {

  @Bean
  RestTemplateBuilder restTemplateBuilder() {
  return new RestTemplateBuilder().setConnectTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(1))
  .setReadTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(1));
  }

  }

208
Kotlin

import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.TestConfiguration
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.client.TestRestTemplate
import org.springframework.boot.web.client.RestTemplateBuilder
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import java.time.Duration

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
class MySpringBootTests(@Autowired val template: TestRestTemplate) {

  @Test
  fun testRequest() {
  val headers = template.getForEntity("/example", String::class.java).headers
  assertThat(headers.location).hasHost("other.example.com")
  }

  @TestConfiguration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
  internal class RestTemplateBuilderConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun restTemplateBuilder(): RestTemplateBuilder {
  return RestTemplateBuilder().setConnectTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(1))
  .setReadTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(1))
  }

  }

7.9. Creating Your Own Auto-configuration

If you work in a company that develops shared libraries, or if you work on an open-source or
commercial library, you might want to develop your own auto-configuration. Auto-configuration
classes can be bundled in external jars and still be picked-up by Spring Boot.

Auto-configuration can be associated to a “starter” that provides the auto-configuration code as

well as the typical libraries that you would use with it. We first cover what you need to know to
build your own auto-configuration and then we move on to the typical steps required to create a
custom starter.

TIP A demo project is available to showcase how you can create a starter step-by-step.

209
7.9.1. Understanding Auto-configured Beans

Under the hood, auto-configuration is implemented with the @AutoConfiguration annotation. This
annotation itself is meta-annotated with @Configuration, making auto-configurations standard
@Configuration classes. Additional @Conditional annotations are used to constrain when the auto-
configuration should apply. Usually, auto-configuration classes use @ConditionalOnClass and
@ConditionalOnMissingBean annotations. This ensures that auto-configuration applies only when
relevant classes are found and when you have not declared your own @Configuration.

You can browse the source code of spring-boot-autoconfigure to see the @Configuration classes that
Spring provides (see the META-
INF/spring/org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.AutoConfiguration.imports file).

7.9.2. Locating Auto-configuration Candidates

Spring Boot checks for the presence of a META-

INF/spring/org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.AutoConfiguration.imports file within your
published jar. The file should list your configuration classes, as shown in the following example:

com.mycorp.libx.autoconfigure.LibXAutoConfiguration
com.mycorp.libx.autoconfigure.LibXWebAutoConfiguration

TIP You can use comments via # in this file.

Auto-configurations must be loaded that way only. Make sure that they are defined
in a specific package space and that they are never the target of component
NOTE
scanning. Furthermore, auto-configuration classes should not enable component
scanning to find additional components. Specific @Imports should be used instead.

You can use the @AutoConfigureAfter or @AutoConfigureBefore annotations if your configuration

needs to be applied in a specific order. For example, if you provide web-specific configuration, your
class may need to be applied after WebMvcAutoConfiguration.

If you are using the @AutoConfiguration annotation, you can use the before, beforeName,
TIP
after and afterName attribute aliases instead of the dedicated annotations.

If you want to order certain auto-configurations that should not have any direct knowledge of each
other, you can also use @AutoConfigureOrder. That annotation has the same semantic as the regular
@Order annotation but provides a dedicated order for auto-configuration classes.

As with standard @Configuration classes, the order in which auto-configuration classes are applied
only affects the order in which their beans are defined. The order in which those beans are
subsequently created is unaffected and is determined by each bean’s dependencies and any
@DependsOn relationships.

210
7.9.3. Condition Annotations

You almost always want to include one or more @Conditional annotations on your auto-
configuration class. The @ConditionalOnMissingBean annotation is one common example that is used
to allow developers to override auto-configuration if they are not happy with your defaults.

Spring Boot includes a number of @Conditional annotations that you can reuse in your own code by
annotating @Configuration classes or individual @Bean methods. These annotations include:

• Class Conditions

• Bean Conditions

• Property Conditions

• Resource Conditions

• Web Application Conditions

• SpEL Expression Conditions

Class Conditions

The @ConditionalOnClass and @ConditionalOnMissingClass annotations let @Configuration classes be

included based on the presence or absence of specific classes. Due to the fact that annotation
metadata is parsed by using ASM, you can use the value attribute to refer to the real class, even
though that class might not actually appear on the running application classpath. You can also use
the name attribute if you prefer to specify the class name by using a String value.

This mechanism does not apply the same way to @Bean methods where typically the return type is
the target of the condition: before the condition on the method applies, the JVM will have loaded
the class and potentially processed method references which will fail if the class is not present.

To handle this scenario, a separate @Configuration class can be used to isolate the condition, as
shown in the following example:

211
Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.AutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnClass;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnMissingBean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@AutoConfiguration
// Some conditions ...
public class MyAutoConfiguration {

  // Auto-configured beans ...

  @Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
  @ConditionalOnClass(SomeService.class)
  public static class SomeServiceConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConditionalOnMissingBean
  public SomeService someService() {
  return new SomeService();
  }

  }

212
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnClass
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnMissingBean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
// Some conditions ...
class MyAutoConfiguration {

  // Auto-configured beans ...

  @Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
  @ConditionalOnClass(SomeService::class)
  class SomeServiceConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConditionalOnMissingBean
  fun someService(): SomeService {
  return SomeService()
  }

  }

If you use @ConditionalOnClass or @ConditionalOnMissingClass as a part of a meta-

TIP annotation to compose your own composed annotations, you must use name as
referring to the class in such a case is not handled.

Bean Conditions

The @ConditionalOnBean and @ConditionalOnMissingBean annotations let a bean be included based on

the presence or absence of specific beans. You can use the value attribute to specify beans by type
or name to specify beans by name. The search attribute lets you limit the ApplicationContext
hierarchy that should be considered when searching for beans.

When placed on a @Bean method, the target type defaults to the return type of the method, as shown
in the following example:

213
Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.AutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnMissingBean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;

@AutoConfiguration
public class MyAutoConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConditionalOnMissingBean
  public SomeService someService() {
  return new SomeService();
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnMissingBean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyAutoConfiguration {

  @Bean
  @ConditionalOnMissingBean
  fun someService(): SomeService {
  return SomeService()
  }

In the preceding example, the someService bean is going to be created if no bean of type SomeService
is already contained in the ApplicationContext.

You need to be very careful about the order in which bean definitions are added, as
these conditions are evaluated based on what has been processed so far. For this
TIP reason, we recommend using only @ConditionalOnBean and @ConditionalOnMissingBean
annotations on auto-configuration classes (since these are guaranteed to load after
any user-defined bean definitions have been added).

@ConditionalOnBean and @ConditionalOnMissingBean do not prevent @Configuration

classes from being created. The only difference between using these conditions at
NOTE the class level and marking each contained @Bean method with the annotation is that
the former prevents registration of the @Configuration class as a bean if the
condition does not match.

214
 When declaring a @Bean method, provide as much type information as possible in the
method’s return type. For example, if your bean’s concrete class implements an
interface the bean method’s return type should be the concrete class and not the
TIP
interface. Providing as much type information as possible in @Bean methods is
particularly important when using bean conditions as their evaluation can only rely
upon to type information that is available in the method signature.

Property Conditions

The @ConditionalOnProperty annotation lets configuration be included based on a Spring

Environment property. Use the prefix and name attributes to specify the property that should be
checked. By default, any property that exists and is not equal to false is matched. You can also
create more advanced checks by using the havingValue and matchIfMissing attributes.

Resource Conditions

The @ConditionalOnResource annotation lets configuration be included only when a specific resource
is present. Resources can be specified by using the usual Spring conventions, as shown in the
following example: file:/home/user/test.dat.

Web Application Conditions

The @ConditionalOnWebApplication and @ConditionalOnNotWebApplication annotations let

configuration be included depending on whether the application is a “web application”. A servlet-
based web application is any application that uses a Spring WebApplicationContext, defines a session
scope, or has a ConfigurableWebEnvironment. A reactive web application is any application that uses a
ReactiveWebApplicationContext, or has a ConfigurableReactiveWebEnvironment.

The @ConditionalOnWarDeployment annotation lets configuration be included depending on whether

the application is a traditional WAR application that is deployed to a container. This condition will
not match for applications that are run with an embedded server.

SpEL Expression Conditions

The @ConditionalOnExpression annotation lets configuration be included based on the result of a

SpEL expression.

Referencing a bean in the expression will cause that bean to be initialized very
early in context refresh processing. As a result, the bean won’t be eligible for post-
NOTE
processing (such as configuration properties binding) and its state may be
incomplete.

7.9.4. Testing your Auto-configuration

An auto-configuration can be affected by many factors: user configuration (@Bean definition and
Environment customization), condition evaluation (presence of a particular library), and others.
Concretely, each test should create a well defined ApplicationContext that represents a combination
of those customizations. ApplicationContextRunner provides a great way to achieve that.

215
ApplicationContextRunner is usually defined as a field of the test class to gather the base, common
configuration. The following example makes sure that MyServiceAutoConfiguration is always
invoked:

Java

private final ApplicationContextRunner contextRunner = new ApplicationContextRunner()

  .withConfiguration(AutoConfigurations.of(MyServiceAutoConfiguration.class));

Kotlin

val contextRunner = ApplicationContextRunner()

  .withConfiguration(AutoConfigurations.of(MyServiceAutoConfiguration::class.java))

If multiple auto-configurations have to be defined, there is no need to order their

TIP declarations as they are invoked in the exact same order as when running the
application.

Each test can use the runner to represent a particular use case. For instance, the sample below
invokes a user configuration (UserConfiguration) and checks that the auto-configuration backs off
properly. Invoking run provides a callback context that can be used with AssertJ.

Java

@Test
void defaultServiceBacksOff() {
  this.contextRunner.withUserConfiguration(UserConfiguration.class).run((context) ->
{
  assertThat(context).hasSingleBean(MyService.class);
 
assertThat(context).getBean("myCustomService").isSameAs(context.getBean(MyService.clas
s));
  });
}

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
static class UserConfiguration {

  @Bean
  MyService myCustomService() {
  return new MyService("mine");
  }

216
Kotlin

@Test
fun defaultServiceBacksOff() {
  contextRunner.withUserConfiguration(UserConfiguration::class.java)
  .run { context: AssertableApplicationContext ->
  assertThat(context).hasSingleBean(MyService::class.java)
  assertThat(context).getBean("myCustomService")
  .isSameAs(context.getBean(MyService::class.java))
  }
}

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
internal class UserConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun myCustomService(): MyService {
  return MyService("mine")
  }

It is also possible to easily customize the Environment, as shown in the following example:

Java

@Test
void serviceNameCanBeConfigured() {
  this.contextRunner.withPropertyValues("user.name=test123").run((context) -> {
  assertThat(context).hasSingleBean(MyService.class);
  assertThat(context.getBean(MyService.class).getName()).isEqualTo("test123");
  });
}

Kotlin

@Test
fun serviceNameCanBeConfigured() {
  contextRunner.withPropertyValues("user.name=test123").run { context:
AssertableApplicationContext ->
  assertThat(context).hasSingleBean(MyService::class.java)
  assertThat(context.getBean(MyService::class.java).name).isEqualTo("test123")
  }
}

The runner can also be used to display the ConditionEvaluationReport. The report can be printed at
INFO or DEBUG level. The following example shows how to use the
ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener to print the report in auto-configuration tests.

217
Java

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.logging.ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListene
r;
import org.springframework.boot.logging.LogLevel;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.runner.ApplicationContextRunner;

class MyConditionEvaluationReportingTests {

  @Test
  void autoConfigTest() {
  new ApplicationContextRunner()
  .withInitializer(new
ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener(LogLevel.INFO))
  .run((context) -> {
  // Test something...
  });
  }

Kotlin

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.logging.ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListene
r
import org.springframework.boot.logging.LogLevel
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.assertj.AssertableApplicationContext
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.runner.ApplicationContextRunner

class MyConditionEvaluationReportingTests {

  @Test
  fun autoConfigTest() {
  ApplicationContextRunner()
  .withInitializer(ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener(LogLevel.INFO))
  .run { context: AssertableApplicationContext? -> }
  }

Simulating a Web Context

If you need to test an auto-configuration that only operates in a servlet or reactive web application
context, use the WebApplicationContextRunner or ReactiveWebApplicationContextRunner respectively.

218
Overriding the Classpath

It is also possible to test what happens when a particular class and/or package is not present at
runtime. Spring Boot ships with a FilteredClassLoader that can easily be used by the runner. In the
following example, we assert that if MyService is not present, the auto-configuration is properly
disabled:

Java

@Test
void serviceIsIgnoredIfLibraryIsNotPresent() {
  this.contextRunner.withClassLoader(new FilteredClassLoader(MyService.class))
  .run((context) -> assertThat(context).doesNotHaveBean("myService"));
}

Kotlin

@Test
fun serviceIsIgnoredIfLibraryIsNotPresent() {
  contextRunner.withClassLoader(FilteredClassLoader(MyService::class.java))
  .run { context: AssertableApplicationContext? ->
  assertThat(context).doesNotHaveBean("myService")
  }
}

7.9.5. Creating Your Own Starter

A typical Spring Boot starter contains code to auto-configure and customize the infrastructure of a
given technology, let’s call that "acme". To make it easily extensible, a number of configuration keys
in a dedicated namespace can be exposed to the environment. Finally, a single "starter" dependency
is provided to help users get started as easily as possible.

Concretely, a custom starter can contain the following:

• The autoconfigure module that contains the auto-configuration code for "acme".

• The starter module that provides a dependency to the autoconfigure module as well as "acme"
and any additional dependencies that are typically useful. In a nutshell, adding the starter
should provide everything needed to start using that library.

This separation in two modules is in no way necessary. If "acme" has several flavors, options or
optional features, then it is better to separate the auto-configuration as you can clearly express the
fact some features are optional. Besides, you have the ability to craft a starter that provides an
opinion about those optional dependencies. At the same time, others can rely only on the
autoconfigure module and craft their own starter with different opinions.

If the auto-configuration is relatively straightforward and does not have optional feature, merging
the two modules in the starter is definitely an option.

219
Naming

You should make sure to provide a proper namespace for your starter. Do not start your module
names with spring-boot, even if you use a different Maven groupId. We may offer official support
for the thing you auto-configure in the future.

As a rule of thumb, you should name a combined module after the starter. For example, assume
that you are creating a starter for "acme" and that you name the auto-configure module acme-
spring-boot and the starter acme-spring-boot-starter. If you only have one module that combines
the two, name it acme-spring-boot-starter.

Configuration keys

If your starter provides configuration keys, use a unique namespace for them. In particular, do not
include your keys in the namespaces that Spring Boot uses (such as server, management, spring, and
so on). If you use the same namespace, we may modify these namespaces in the future in ways that
break your modules. As a rule of thumb, prefix all your keys with a namespace that you own (for
example acme).

Make sure that configuration keys are documented by adding field javadoc for each property, as
shown in the following example:

220
Java

import java.time.Duration;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties("acme")
public class AcmeProperties {

  /**
  * Whether to check the location of acme resources.
  */
  private boolean checkLocation = true;

  /**
  * Timeout for establishing a connection to the acme server.
  */
  private Duration loginTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(3);

  public boolean isCheckLocation() {

  return this.checkLocation;
  }

  public void setCheckLocation(boolean checkLocation) {

  this.checkLocation = checkLocation;
  }

  public Duration getLoginTimeout() {

  return this.loginTimeout;
  }

  public void setLoginTimeout(Duration loginTimeout) {

  this.loginTimeout = loginTimeout;
  }

221
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties
import java.time.Duration

@ConfigurationProperties("acme")
class AcmeProperties(

  /**
  * Whether to check the location of acme resources.
  */
  var isCheckLocation: Boolean = true,

  /**
  * Timeout for establishing a connection to the acme server.
  */
  var loginTimeout:Duration = Duration.ofSeconds(3))

You should only use plain text with @ConfigurationProperties field Javadoc, since
NOTE
they are not processed before being added to the JSON.

Here are some rules we follow internally to make sure descriptions are consistent:

• Do not start the description by "The" or "A".

• For boolean types, start the description with "Whether" or "Enable".

• For collection-based types, start the description with "Comma-separated list"

• Use java.time.Duration rather than long and describe the default unit if it differs from
milliseconds, such as "If a duration suffix is not specified, seconds will be used".

• Do not provide the default value in the description unless it has to be determined at runtime.

Make sure to trigger meta-data generation so that IDE assistance is available for your keys as well.
You may want to review the generated metadata (META-INF/spring-configuration-metadata.json) to
make sure your keys are properly documented. Using your own starter in a compatible IDE is also a
good idea to validate that quality of the metadata.

The “autoconfigure” Module

The autoconfigure module contains everything that is necessary to get started with the library. It
may also contain configuration key definitions (such as @ConfigurationProperties) and any callback
interface that can be used to further customize how the components are initialized.

You should mark the dependencies to the library as optional so that you can include
TIP the autoconfigure module in your projects more easily. If you do it that way, the library
is not provided and, by default, Spring Boot backs off.

Spring Boot uses an annotation processor to collect the conditions on auto-configurations in a

metadata file (META-INF/spring-autoconfigure-metadata.properties). If that file is present, it is used

222
to eagerly filter auto-configurations that do not match, which will improve startup time. It is
recommended to add the following dependency in a module that contains auto-configurations:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-autoconfigure-processor</artifactId>
  <optional>true</optional>
</dependency>

If you have defined auto-configurations directly in your application, make sure to configure the
spring-boot-maven-plugin to prevent the repackage goal from adding the dependency into the fat jar:

<project>
  <build>
  <plugins>
  <plugin>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
  <excludes>
  <exclude>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-autoconfigure-
processor</artifactId>
  </exclude>
  </excludes>
  </configuration>
  </plugin>
  </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

With Gradle 4.5 and earlier, the dependency should be declared in the compileOnly configuration, as
shown in the following example:

dependencies {
  compileOnly "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure-processor"
}

With Gradle 4.6 and later, the dependency should be declared in the annotationProcessor
configuration, as shown in the following example:

dependencies {
  annotationProcessor "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure-processor"
}

223
Starter Module

The starter is really an empty jar. Its only purpose is to provide the necessary dependencies to work
with the library. You can think of it as an opinionated view of what is required to get started.

Do not make assumptions about the project in which your starter is added. If the library you are
auto-configuring typically requires other starters, mention them as well. Providing a proper set of
default dependencies may be hard if the number of optional dependencies is high, as you should
avoid including dependencies that are unnecessary for a typical usage of the library. In other
words, you should not include optional dependencies.

Either way, your starter must reference the core Spring Boot starter (spring-boot-
starter) directly or indirectly (there is no need to add it if your starter relies on
NOTE
another starter). If a project is created with only your custom starter, Spring Boot’s
core features will be honoured by the presence of the core starter.

7.10. Kotlin support

Kotlin is a statically-typed language targeting the JVM (and other platforms) which allows writing
concise and elegant code while providing interoperability with existing libraries written in Java.

Spring Boot provides Kotlin support by leveraging the support in other Spring projects such as
Spring Framework, Spring Data, and Reactor. See the Spring Framework Kotlin support
documentation for more information.

The easiest way to start with Spring Boot and Kotlin is to follow this comprehensive tutorial. You
can create new Kotlin projects by using start.spring.io. Feel free to join the #spring channel of Kotlin
Slack or ask a question with the spring and kotlin tags on Stack Overflow if you need support.

7.10.1. Requirements

Spring Boot requires at least Kotlin 1.3.x and manages a suitable Kotlin version through
dependency management. To use Kotlin, org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib and
org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-reflect must be present on the classpath. The kotlin-stdlib variants
kotlin-stdlib-jdk7 and kotlin-stdlib-jdk8 can also be used.

Since Kotlin classes are final by default, you are likely to want to configure kotlin-spring plugin in
order to automatically open Spring-annotated classes so that they can be proxied.

Jackson’s Kotlin module is required for serializing / deserializing JSON data in Kotlin. It is
automatically registered when found on the classpath. A warning message is logged if Jackson and
Kotlin are present but the Jackson Kotlin module is not.

These dependencies and plugins are provided by default if one bootstraps a Kotlin
TIP
project on start.spring.io.

224
7.10.2. Null-safety

One of Kotlin’s key features is null-safety. It deals with null values at compile time rather than
deferring the problem to runtime and encountering a NullPointerException. This helps to eliminate
a common source of bugs without paying the cost of wrappers like Optional. Kotlin also allows using
functional constructs with nullable values as described in this comprehensive guide to null-safety
in Kotlin.

Although Java does not allow one to express null-safety in its type system, Spring Framework,
Spring Data, and Reactor now provide null-safety of their API through tooling-friendly annotations.
By default, types from Java APIs used in Kotlin are recognized as platform types for which null-
checks are relaxed. Kotlin’s support for JSR 305 annotations combined with nullability annotations
provide null-safety for the related Spring API in Kotlin.

The JSR 305 checks can be configured by adding the -Xjsr305 compiler flag with the following
options: -Xjsr305={strict|warn|ignore}. The default behavior is the same as -Xjsr305=warn. The
strict value is required to have null-safety taken in account in Kotlin types inferred from Spring
API but should be used with the knowledge that Spring API nullability declaration could evolve
even between minor releases and more checks may be added in the future).

Generic type arguments, varargs and array elements nullability are not yet
WARNING supported. See SPR-15942 for up-to-date information. Also be aware that
Spring Boot’s own API is not yet annotated.

7.10.3. Kotlin API

runApplication

Spring Boot provides an idiomatic way to run an application with

runApplication<MyApplication>(*args) as shown in the following example:

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication

@SpringBootApplication
class MyApplication

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

  runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
}

This is a drop-in replacement for SpringApplication.run(MyApplication::class.java, *args). It also

allows customization of the application as shown in the following example:

runApplication<MyApplication>(*args) {
  setBannerMode(OFF)
}

225
Extensions

Kotlin extensions provide the ability to extend existing classes with additional functionality. The
Spring Boot Kotlin API makes use of these extensions to add new Kotlin specific conveniences to
existing APIs.

TestRestTemplate extensions, similar to those provided by Spring Framework for RestOperations in

Spring Framework, are provided. Among other things, the extensions make it possible to take
advantage of Kotlin reified type parameters.

7.10.4. Dependency management

In order to avoid mixing different versions of Kotlin dependencies on the classpath, Spring Boot
imports the Kotlin BOM.

With Maven, the Kotlin version can be customized by setting the kotlin.version property and
plugin management is provided for kotlin-maven-plugin. With Gradle, the Spring Boot plugin
automatically aligns the kotlin.version with the version of the Kotlin plugin.

Spring Boot also manages the version of Coroutines dependencies by importing the Kotlin
Coroutines BOM. The version can be customized by setting the kotlin-coroutines.version property.

org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-reactor dependency is provided by default

TIP if one bootstraps a Kotlin project with at least one reactive dependency on
start.spring.io.

7.10.5. @ConfigurationProperties

@ConfigurationProperties when used in combination with @ConstructorBinding supports classes with

immutable val properties as shown in the following example:

@ConstructorBinding
@ConfigurationProperties("example.kotlin")
data class KotlinExampleProperties(
  val name: String,
  val description: String,
  val myService: MyService) {

  data class MyService(

  val apiToken: String,
  val uri: URI
  )
}

To generate your own metadata using the annotation processor, kapt should be
configured with the spring-boot-configuration-processor dependency. Note that some
TIP
features (such as detecting the default value or deprecated items) are not working due
to limitations in the model kapt provides.

226
7.10.6. Testing

While it is possible to use JUnit 4 to test Kotlin code, JUnit 5 is provided by default and is
recommended. JUnit 5 enables a test class to be instantiated once and reused for all of the class’s
tests. This makes it possible to use @BeforeAll and @AfterAll annotations on non-static methods,
which is a good fit for Kotlin.

To mock Kotlin classes, MockK is recommended. If you need the Mockk equivalent of the Mockito
specific @MockBean and @SpyBean annotations, you can use SpringMockK which provides similar
@MockkBean and @SpykBean annotations.

7.10.7. Resources

Further reading

• Kotlin language reference

• Kotlin Slack (with a dedicated #spring channel)

• Stackoverflow with spring and kotlin tags

• Try Kotlin in your browser

• Kotlin blog

• Awesome Kotlin

• Tutorial: building web applications with Spring Boot and Kotlin

• Developing Spring Boot applications with Kotlin

• A Geospatial Messenger with Kotlin, Spring Boot and PostgreSQL

• Introducing Kotlin support in Spring Framework 5.0

• Spring Framework 5 Kotlin APIs, the functional way

Examples

• spring-boot-kotlin-demo: regular Spring Boot + Spring Data JPA project

• mixit: Spring Boot 2 + WebFlux + Reactive Spring Data MongoDB

• spring-kotlin-fullstack: WebFlux Kotlin fullstack example with Kotlin2js for frontend instead of
JavaScript or TypeScript

• spring-petclinic-kotlin: Kotlin version of the Spring PetClinic Sample Application

• spring-kotlin-deepdive: a step by step migration for Boot 1.0 + Java to Boot 2.0 + Kotlin

• spring-boot-coroutines-demo: Coroutines sample project

7.11. What to Read Next

If you want to learn more about any of the classes discussed in this section, see the Spring Boot API
documentation or you can browse the source code directly. If you have specific questions, see the
how-to section.

227
If you are comfortable with Spring Boot’s core features, you can continue on and read about
production-ready features.

228
Chapter 8. Web
Spring Boot is well suited for web application development. You can create a self-contained HTTP
server by using embedded Tomcat, Jetty, Undertow, or Netty. Most web applications use the spring-
boot-starter-web module to get up and running quickly. You can also choose to build reactive web
applications by using the spring-boot-starter-webflux module.

If you have not yet developed a Spring Boot web application, you can follow the "Hello World!"
example in the Getting started section.

8.1. Servlet Web Applications

If you want to build servlet-based web applications, you can take advantage of Spring Boot’s auto-
configuration for Spring MVC or Jersey.

8.1.1. The “Spring Web MVC Framework”

The Spring Web MVC framework (often referred to as “Spring MVC”) is a rich “model view
controller” web framework. Spring MVC lets you create special @Controller or @RestController
beans to handle incoming HTTP requests. Methods in your controller are mapped to HTTP by using
@RequestMapping annotations.

The following code shows a typical @RestController that serves JSON data:

229
Java

import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.DeleteMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
public class MyRestController {

  private final UserRepository userRepository;

  private final CustomerRepository customerRepository;

  public MyRestController(UserRepository userRepository, CustomerRepository

customerRepository) {
  this.userRepository = userRepository;
  this.customerRepository = customerRepository;
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}")
  public User getUser(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  return this.userRepository.findById(userId).get();
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}/customers")
  public List<Customer> getUserCustomers(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  return
this.userRepository.findById(userId).map(this.customerRepository::findByUser).get();
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/{userId}")
  public void deleteUser(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  this.userRepository.deleteById(userId);
  }

230
Kotlin

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.DeleteMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
class MyRestController(private val userRepository: UserRepository, private val
customerRepository: CustomerRepository) {

  @GetMapping("/{userId}")
  fun getUser(@PathVariable userId: Long): User {
  return userRepository.findById(userId).get()
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}/customers")
  fun getUserCustomers(@PathVariable userId: Long): List<Customer> {
  return
userRepository.findById(userId).map(customerRepository::findByUser).get()
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/{userId}")
  fun deleteUser(@PathVariable userId: Long) {
  userRepository.deleteById(userId)
  }

“WebMvc.fn”, the functional variant, separates the routing configuration from the actual handling
of the requests, as shown in the following example:

231
Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RequestPredicate;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RouterFunction;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerResponse;

import static org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RequestPredicates.accept;

import static org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RouterFunctions.route;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  private static final RequestPredicate ACCEPT_JSON =

accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

  @Bean
  public RouterFunction<ServerResponse> routerFunction(MyUserHandler userHandler) {
  return route()
  .GET("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUser)
  .GET("/{user}/customers", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUserCustomers)
  .DELETE("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::deleteUser)
  .build();
  }

232
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RequestPredicates.accept
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RouterFunction
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.RouterFunctions
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerResponse

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun routerFunction(userHandler: MyUserHandler): RouterFunction<ServerResponse> {
  return RouterFunctions.route()
  .GET("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUser)
  .GET("/{user}/customers", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUserCustomers)
  .DELETE("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::deleteUser)
  .build()
  }

  companion object {
  private val ACCEPT_JSON = accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
  }

233
Java

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerRequest;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerResponse;

@Component
public class MyUserHandler {

  public ServerResponse getUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  return ServerResponse.ok().build();
  }

  public ServerResponse getUserCustomers(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  return ServerResponse.ok().build();
  }

  public ServerResponse deleteUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  return ServerResponse.ok().build();
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerRequest
import org.springframework.web.servlet.function.ServerResponse

@Component
class MyUserHandler {

  fun getUser(request: ServerRequest?): ServerResponse {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun getUserCustomers(request: ServerRequest?): ServerResponse {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun deleteUser(request: ServerRequest?): ServerResponse {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

Spring MVC is part of the core Spring Framework, and detailed information is available in the

234
reference documentation. There are also several guides that cover Spring MVC available at
spring.io/guides.

You can define as many RouterFunction beans as you like to modularize the definition
TIP
of the router. Beans can be ordered if you need to apply a precedence.

Spring MVC Auto-configuration

Spring Boot provides auto-configuration for Spring MVC that works well with most applications.

The auto-configuration adds the following features on top of Spring’s defaults:

• Inclusion of ContentNegotiatingViewResolver and BeanNameViewResolver beans.

• Support for serving static resources, including support for WebJars (covered later in this
document).

• Automatic registration of Converter, GenericConverter, and Formatter beans.

• Support for HttpMessageConverters (covered later in this document).

• Automatic registration of MessageCodesResolver (covered later in this document).

• Static index.html support.

• Automatic use of a ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer bean (covered later in this document).

If you want to keep those Spring Boot MVC customizations and make more MVC customizations
(interceptors, formatters, view controllers, and other features), you can add your own
@Configuration class of type WebMvcConfigurer but without @EnableWebMvc.

If you want to provide custom instances of RequestMappingHandlerMapping,

RequestMappingHandlerAdapter, or ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver, and still keep the Spring Boot
MVC customizations, you can declare a bean of type WebMvcRegistrations and use it to provide
custom instances of those components.

If you want to take complete control of Spring MVC, you can add your own @Configuration
annotated with @EnableWebMvc, or alternatively add your own @Configuration-annotated
DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration as described in the Javadoc of @EnableWebMvc.

Spring MVC uses a different ConversionService to the one used to convert values
from your application.properties or application.yaml file. It means that Period,
Duration and DataSize converters are not available and that @DurationUnit and
@DataSizeUnit annotations will be ignored.
NOTE
If you want to customize the ConversionService used by Spring MVC, you can
provide a WebMvcConfigurer bean with an addFormatters method. From this method
you can register any converter that you like, or you can delegate to the static
methods available on ApplicationConversionService.

HttpMessageConverters

Spring MVC uses the HttpMessageConverter interface to convert HTTP requests and responses.

235
Sensible defaults are included out of the box. For example, objects can be automatically converted
to JSON (by using the Jackson library) or XML (by using the Jackson XML extension, if available, or
by using JAXB if the Jackson XML extension is not available). By default, strings are encoded in UTF-
8.

If you need to add or customize converters, you can use Spring Boot’s HttpMessageConverters class,
as shown in the following listing:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.http.HttpMessageConverters;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageConverter;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyHttpMessageConvertersConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public HttpMessageConverters customConverters() {
  HttpMessageConverter<?> additional = new AdditionalHttpMessageConverter();
  HttpMessageConverter<?> another = new AnotherHttpMessageConverter();
  return new HttpMessageConverters(additional, another);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.http.HttpMessageConverters
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageConverter

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyHttpMessageConvertersConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun customConverters(): HttpMessageConverters {
  val additional: HttpMessageConverter<*> = AdditionalHttpMessageConverter()
  val another: HttpMessageConverter<*> = AnotherHttpMessageConverter()
  return HttpMessageConverters(additional, another)
  }

Any HttpMessageConverter bean that is present in the context is added to the list of converters. You
can also override default converters in the same way.

236
MessageCodesResolver

Spring MVC has a strategy for generating error codes for rendering error messages from binding
errors: MessageCodesResolver. If you set the spring.mvc.message-codes-resolver-format property
PREFIX_ERROR_CODE or POSTFIX_ERROR_CODE, Spring Boot creates one for you (see the enumeration in
DefaultMessageCodesResolver.Format).

Static Content

By default, Spring Boot serves static content from a directory called /static (or /public or
/resources or /META-INF/resources) in the classpath or from the root of the ServletContext. It uses
the ResourceHttpRequestHandler from Spring MVC so that you can modify that behavior by adding
your own WebMvcConfigurer and overriding the addResourceHandlers method.

In a stand-alone web application, the default servlet from the container is also enabled and acts as
a fallback, serving content from the root of the ServletContext if Spring decides not to handle it.
Most of the time, this does not happen (unless you modify the default MVC configuration), because
Spring can always handle requests through the DispatcherServlet.

By default, resources are mapped on /**, but you can tune that with the spring.mvc.static-path-
pattern property. For instance, relocating all resources to /resources/** can be achieved as follows:

Properties

spring.mvc.static-path-pattern=/resources/**

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  static-path-pattern: "/resources/**"

You can also customize the static resource locations by using the spring.web.resources.static-
locations property (replacing the default values with a list of directory locations). The root servlet
context path, "/", is automatically added as a location as well.

In addition to the “standard” static resource locations mentioned earlier, a special case is made for
Webjars content. Any resources with a path in /webjars/** are served from jar files if they are
packaged in the Webjars format.

Do not use the src/main/webapp directory if your application is packaged as a jar.

TIP Although this directory is a common standard, it works only with war packaging, and
it is silently ignored by most build tools if you generate a jar.

Spring Boot also supports the advanced resource handling features provided by Spring MVC,
allowing use cases such as cache-busting static resources or using version agnostic URLs for
Webjars.

To use version agnostic URLs for Webjars, add the webjars-locator-core dependency. Then declare

237
your Webjar. Using jQuery as an example, adding "/webjars/jquery/jquery.min.js" results in
"/webjars/jquery/x.y.z/jquery.min.js" where x.y.z is the Webjar version.

If you use JBoss, you need to declare the webjars-locator-jboss-vfs dependency

NOTE
instead of the webjars-locator-core. Otherwise, all Webjars resolve as a 404.

To use cache busting, the following configuration configures a cache busting solution for all static
resources, effectively adding a content hash, such as <link href="/css/spring-
2a2d595e6ed9a0b24f027f2b63b134d6.css"/>, in URLs:

Properties

spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.content.enabled=true
spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.content.paths=/**

Yaml

spring:
  web:
  resources:
  chain:
  strategy:
  content:
  enabled: true
  paths: "/**"

Links to resources are rewritten in templates at runtime, thanks to a

ResourceUrlEncodingFilter that is auto-configured for Thymeleaf and FreeMarker.
NOTE You should manually declare this filter when using JSPs. Other template engines are
currently not automatically supported but can be with custom template
macros/helpers and the use of the ResourceUrlProvider.

When loading resources dynamically with, for example, a JavaScript module loader, renaming files
is not an option. That is why other strategies are also supported and can be combined. A "fixed"
strategy adds a static version string in the URL without changing the file name, as shown in the
following example:

Properties

spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.content.enabled=true
spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.content.paths=/**
spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.fixed.enabled=true
spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.fixed.paths=/js/lib/
spring.web.resources.chain.strategy.fixed.version=v12

238
Yaml

spring:
  web:
  resources:
  chain:
  strategy:
  content:
  enabled: true
  paths: "/**"
  fixed:
  enabled: true
  paths: "/js/lib/"
  version: "v12"

With this configuration, JavaScript modules located under "/js/lib/" use a fixed versioning
strategy ("/v12/js/lib/mymodule.js"), while other resources still use the content one (<link
href="/css/spring-2a2d595e6ed9a0b24f027f2b63b134d6.css"/>).

See WebProperties.Resources for more supported options.

This feature has been thoroughly described in a dedicated blog post and in Spring
TIP
Framework’s reference documentation.

Welcome Page

Spring Boot supports both static and templated welcome pages. It first looks for an index.html file in
the configured static content locations. If one is not found, it then looks for an index template. If
either is found, it is automatically used as the welcome page of the application.

Path Matching and Content Negotiation

Spring MVC can map incoming HTTP requests to handlers by looking at the request path and
matching it to the mappings defined in your application (for example, @GetMapping annotations on
Controller methods).

Spring Boot chooses to disable suffix pattern matching by default, which means that requests like
"GET /projects/spring-boot.json" will not be matched to @GetMapping("/projects/spring-boot")
mappings. This is considered as a best practice for Spring MVC applications. This feature was
mainly useful in the past for HTTP clients which did not send proper "Accept" request headers; we
needed to make sure to send the correct Content Type to the client. Nowadays, Content Negotiation
is much more reliable.

There are other ways to deal with HTTP clients that do not consistently send proper "Accept"
request headers. Instead of using suffix matching, we can use a query parameter to ensure that
requests like "GET /projects/spring-boot?format=json" will be mapped to
@GetMapping("/projects/spring-boot"):

239
Properties

spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.favor-parameter=true

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  contentnegotiation:
  favor-parameter: true

Or if you prefer to use a different parameter name:

Properties

spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.favor-parameter=true
spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.parameter-name=myparam

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  contentnegotiation:
  favor-parameter: true
  parameter-name: "myparam"

Most standard media types are supported out-of-the-box, but you can also define new ones:

Properties

spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.media-types.markdown=text/markdown

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  contentnegotiation:
  media-types:
  markdown: "text/markdown"

Suffix pattern matching is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. If you understand
the caveats and would still like your application to use suffix pattern matching, the following
configuration is required:

240
Properties

spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.favor-path-extension=true
spring.mvc.pathmatch.use-suffix-pattern=true

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  contentnegotiation:
  favor-path-extension: true
  pathmatch:
  use-suffix-pattern: true

Alternatively, rather than open all suffix patterns, it is more secure to only support registered suffix
patterns:

Properties

spring.mvc.contentnegotiation.favor-path-extension=true
spring.mvc.pathmatch.use-registered-suffix-pattern=true

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  contentnegotiation:
  favor-path-extension: true
  pathmatch:
  use-registered-suffix-pattern: true

As of Spring Framework 5.3, Spring MVC supports several implementation strategies for matching
request paths to Controller handlers. It was previously only supporting the AntPathMatcher strategy,
but it now also offers PathPatternParser. Spring Boot now provides a configuration property to
choose and opt in the new strategy:

Properties

spring.mvc.pathmatch.matching-strategy=path-pattern-parser

Yaml

spring:
  mvc:
  pathmatch:
  matching-strategy: "path-pattern-parser"

241
For more details on why you should consider this new implementation, see the dedicated blog post.

PathPatternParser is an optimized implementation but restricts usage of some path

patterns variants and is incompatible with suffix pattern matching
NOTE (spring.mvc.pathmatch.use-suffix-pattern, spring.mvc.pathmatch.use-registered-
suffix-pattern) or mapping the DispatcherServlet with a servlet prefix
(spring.mvc.servlet.path).

ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer

Spring MVC uses a WebBindingInitializer to initialize a WebDataBinder for a particular request. If you
create your own ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer @Bean, Spring Boot automatically configures
Spring MVC to use it.

Template Engines

As well as REST web services, you can also use Spring MVC to serve dynamic HTML content. Spring
MVC supports a variety of templating technologies, including Thymeleaf, FreeMarker, and JSPs.
Also, many other templating engines include their own Spring MVC integrations.

Spring Boot includes auto-configuration support for the following templating engines:

• FreeMarker

• Groovy

• Thymeleaf

• Mustache

If possible, JSPs should be avoided. There are several known limitations when using
TIP
them with embedded servlet containers.

When you use one of these templating engines with the default configuration, your templates are
picked up automatically from src/main/resources/templates.

Depending on how you run your application, your IDE may order the classpath
differently. Running your application in the IDE from its main method results in a
different ordering than when you run your application by using Maven or Gradle or
TIP
from its packaged jar. This can cause Spring Boot to fail to find the expected template.
If you have this problem, you can reorder the classpath in the IDE to place the
module’s classes and resources first.

Error Handling

By default, Spring Boot provides an /error mapping that handles all errors in a sensible way, and it
is registered as a “global” error page in the servlet container. For machine clients, it produces a
JSON response with details of the error, the HTTP status, and the exception message. For browser
clients, there is a “whitelabel” error view that renders the same data in HTML format (to customize
it, add a View that resolves to error).

242
There are a number of server.error properties that can be set if you want to customize the default
error handling behavior. See the “Server Properties” section of the Appendix.

To replace the default behavior completely, you can implement ErrorController and register a bean
definition of that type or add a bean of type ErrorAttributes to use the existing mechanism but
replace the contents.

The BasicErrorController can be used as a base class for a custom ErrorController.

This is particularly useful if you want to add a handler for a new content type (the
TIP default is to handle text/html specifically and provide a fallback for everything else).
To do so, extend BasicErrorController, add a public method with a @RequestMapping
that has a produces attribute, and create a bean of your new type.

You can also define a class annotated with @ControllerAdvice to customize the JSON document to
return for a particular controller and/or exception type, as shown in the following example:

Java

import javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ResponseEntityExceptionHandler;

@ControllerAdvice(basePackageClasses = SomeController.class)
public class MyControllerAdvice extends ResponseEntityExceptionHandler {

  @ResponseBody
  @ExceptionHandler(MyException.class)
  public ResponseEntity<?> handleControllerException(HttpServletRequest request,
Throwable ex) {
  HttpStatus status = getStatus(request);
  return new ResponseEntity<>(new MyErrorBody(status.value(), ex.getMessage()),
status);
  }

  private HttpStatus getStatus(HttpServletRequest request) {

  Integer code = (Integer)
request.getAttribute(RequestDispatcher.ERROR_STATUS_CODE);
  HttpStatus status = HttpStatus.resolve(code);
  return (status != null) ? status : HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR;
  }

243
Kotlin

import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody
import
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ResponseEntityExceptionHandler
import javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest

@ControllerAdvice(basePackageClasses = [SomeController::class])
class MyControllerAdvice : ResponseEntityExceptionHandler() {

  @ResponseBody
  @ExceptionHandler(MyException::class)
  fun handleControllerException(request: HttpServletRequest, ex: Throwable):
ResponseEntity<*> {
  val status = getStatus(request)
  return ResponseEntity(MyErrorBody(status.value(), ex.message), status)
  }

  private fun getStatus(request: HttpServletRequest): HttpStatus {

  val code = request.getAttribute(RequestDispatcher.ERROR_STATUS_CODE) as Int
  val status = HttpStatus.resolve(code)
  return status ?: HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR
  }

In the preceding example, if YourException is thrown by a controller defined in the same package as
SomeController, a JSON representation of the CustomErrorType POJO is used instead of the
ErrorAttributes representation.

In some cases, errors handled at the controller level are not recorded by the metrics infrastructure.
Applications can ensure that such exceptions are recorded with the request metrics by setting the
handled exception as a request attribute:

244
Java

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.error.ErrorAttributes;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;

@Controller
public class MyController {

  @ExceptionHandler(CustomException.class)
  String handleCustomException(HttpServletRequest request, CustomException ex) {
  request.setAttribute(ErrorAttributes.ERROR_ATTRIBUTE, ex);
  return "errorView";
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.error.ErrorAttributes
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest

@Controller
class MyController {

  @ExceptionHandler(CustomException::class)
  fun handleCustomException(request: HttpServletRequest, ex: CustomException?):
String {
  request.setAttribute(ErrorAttributes.ERROR_ATTRIBUTE, ex)
  return "errorView"
  }

Custom Error Pages

If you want to display a custom HTML error page for a given status code, you can add a file to an
/error directory. Error pages can either be static HTML (that is, added under any of the static
resource directories) or be built by using templates. The name of the file should be the exact status
code or a series mask.

For example, to map 404 to a static HTML file, your directory structure would be as follows:

245
 src/
 +- main/
  +- java/
  | + <source code>
  +- resources/
  +- public/
  +- error/
  | +- 404.html
  +- <other public assets>

To map all 5xx errors by using a FreeMarker template, your directory structure would be as follows:

src/
 +- main/
  +- java/
  | + <source code>
  +- resources/
  +- templates/
  +- error/
  | +- 5xx.ftlh
  +- <other templates>

For more complex mappings, you can also add beans that implement the ErrorViewResolver
interface, as shown in the following example:

246
Java

import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.servlet.error.ErrorViewResolver;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

public class MyErrorViewResolver implements ErrorViewResolver {

  @Override
  public ModelAndView resolveErrorView(HttpServletRequest request, HttpStatus
status, Map<String, Object> model) {
  // Use the request or status to optionally return a ModelAndView
  if (status == HttpStatus.INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE) {
  // We could add custom model values here
  new ModelAndView("myview");
  }
  return null;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.servlet.error.ErrorViewResolver
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest

class MyErrorViewResolver : ErrorViewResolver {

  override fun resolveErrorView(request: HttpServletRequest, status: HttpStatus,

  model: Map<String, Any>): ModelAndView? {
  // Use the request or status to optionally return a ModelAndView
  if (status == HttpStatus.INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE) {
  // We could add custom model values here
  return ModelAndView("myview")
  }
  return null
  }

You can also use regular Spring MVC features such as @ExceptionHandler methods and
@ControllerAdvice. The ErrorController then picks up any unhandled exceptions.

247
Mapping Error Pages outside of Spring MVC

For applications that do not use Spring MVC, you can use the ErrorPageRegistrar interface to
directly register ErrorPages. This abstraction works directly with the underlying embedded servlet
container and works even if you do not have a Spring MVC DispatcherServlet.

Java

import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPage;
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPageRegistrar;
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPageRegistry;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyErrorPagesConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public ErrorPageRegistrar errorPageRegistrar() {
  return this::registerErrorPages;
  }

  private void registerErrorPages(ErrorPageRegistry registry) {

  registry.addErrorPages(new ErrorPage(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST, "/400"));
  }

248
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPage
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPageRegistrar
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.ErrorPageRegistry
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyErrorPagesConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun errorPageRegistrar(): ErrorPageRegistrar {
  return ErrorPageRegistrar { registry: ErrorPageRegistry ->
registerErrorPages(registry) }
  }

  private fun registerErrorPages(registry: ErrorPageRegistry) {

  registry.addErrorPages(ErrorPage(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST, "/400"))
  }

If you register an ErrorPage with a path that ends up being handled by a Filter (as is
common with some non-Spring web frameworks, like Jersey and Wicket), then the
NOTE
Filter has to be explicitly registered as an ERROR dispatcher, as shown in the
following example:

249
Java

import java.util.EnumSet;

import javax.servlet.DispatcherType;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.FilterRegistrationBean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyFilterConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public FilterRegistrationBean<MyFilter> myFilter() {
  FilterRegistrationBean<MyFilter> registration = new
FilterRegistrationBean<>(new MyFilter());
  // ...
  registration.setDispatcherTypes(EnumSet.allOf(DispatcherType.class));
  return registration;
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.FilterRegistrationBean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import java.util.EnumSet
import javax.servlet.DispatcherType

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyFilterConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun myFilter(): FilterRegistrationBean<MyFilter> {
  val registration = FilterRegistrationBean(MyFilter())
  // ...
  registration.setDispatcherTypes(EnumSet.allOf(DispatcherType::class.java))
  return registration
  }

Note that the default FilterRegistrationBean does not include the ERROR dispatcher type.

Error handling in a war deployment

When deployed to a servlet container, Spring Boot uses its error page filter to forward a request

250
with an error status to the appropriate error page. This is necessary as the servlet specification does
not provide an API for registering error pages. Depending on the container that you are deploying
your war file to and the technologies that your application uses, some additional configuration may
be required.

The error page filter can only forward the request to the correct error page if the response has not
already been committed. By default, WebSphere Application Server 8.0 and later commits the
response upon successful completion of a servlet’s service method. You should disable this behavior
by setting com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.invokeFlushAfterService to false.

If you are using Spring Security and want to access the principal in an error page, you must
configure Spring Security’s filter to be invoked on error dispatches. To do so, set the
spring.security.filter.dispatcher-types property to async, error, forward, request.

CORS Support

Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is a W3C specification implemented by most browsers that
lets you specify in a flexible way what kind of cross-domain requests are authorized, instead of
using some less secure and less powerful approaches such as IFRAME or JSONP.

As of version 4.2, Spring MVC supports CORS. Using controller method CORS configuration with
@CrossOrigin annotations in your Spring Boot application does not require any specific
configuration. Global CORS configuration can be defined by registering a WebMvcConfigurer bean
with a customized addCorsMappings(CorsRegistry) method, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.CorsRegistry;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyCorsConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public WebMvcConfigurer corsConfigurer() {
  return new WebMvcConfigurer() {

  @Override
  public void addCorsMappings(CorsRegistry registry) {
  registry.addMapping("/api/**");
  }

  };
  }

251
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.CorsRegistry
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyCorsConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun corsConfigurer(): WebMvcConfigurer {
  return object : WebMvcConfigurer {
  override fun addCorsMappings(registry: CorsRegistry) {
  registry.addMapping("/api/**")
  }
  }
  }

8.1.2. JAX-RS and Jersey

If you prefer the JAX-RS programming model for REST endpoints, you can use one of the available
implementations instead of Spring MVC. Jersey and Apache CXF work quite well out of the box. CXF
requires you to register its Servlet or Filter as a @Bean in your application context. Jersey has some
native Spring support, so we also provide auto-configuration support for it in Spring Boot, together
with a starter.

To get started with Jersey, include the spring-boot-starter-jersey as a dependency and then you
need one @Bean of type ResourceConfig in which you register all the endpoints, as shown in the
following example:

Java

import org.glassfish.jersey.server.ResourceConfig;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyJerseyConfig extends ResourceConfig {

  public MyJerseyConfig() {
  register(MyEndpoint.class);
  }

252
Kotlin

import org.glassfish.jersey.server.ResourceConfig
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyJerseyConfig : ResourceConfig() {

  init {
  register(MyEndpoint::class.java)
  }

Jersey’s support for scanning executable archives is rather limited. For

example, it cannot scan for endpoints in a package found in a fully executable
jar file or in WEB-INF/classes when running an executable war file. To avoid
WARNING
this limitation, the packages method should not be used, and endpoints should
be registered individually by using the register method, as shown in the
preceding example.

For more advanced customizations, you can also register an arbitrary number of beans that
implement ResourceConfigCustomizer.

All the registered endpoints should be @Components with HTTP resource annotations (@GET and
others), as shown in the following example:

Java

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
@Path("/hello")
public class MyEndpoint {

  @GET
  public String message() {
  return "Hello";
  }

253
Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import javax.ws.rs.GET
import javax.ws.rs.Path

@Component
@Path("/hello")
class MyEndpoint {

  @GET
  fun message(): String {
  return "Hello"
  }

Since the Endpoint is a Spring @Component, its lifecycle is managed by Spring and you can use the
@Autowired annotation to inject dependencies and use the @Value annotation to inject external
configuration. By default, the Jersey servlet is registered and mapped to /*. You can change the
mapping by adding @ApplicationPath to your ResourceConfig.

By default, Jersey is set up as a servlet in a @Bean of type ServletRegistrationBean named

jerseyServletRegistration. By default, the servlet is initialized lazily, but you can customize that
behavior by setting spring.jersey.servlet.load-on-startup. You can disable or override that bean
by creating one of your own with the same name. You can also use a filter instead of a servlet by
setting spring.jersey.type=filter (in which case, the @Bean to replace or override is
jerseyFilterRegistration). The filter has an @Order, which you can set with
spring.jersey.filter.order. When using Jersey as a filter, a servlet that will handle any requests
that are not intercepted by Jersey must be present. If your application does not contain such a
servlet, you may want to enable the default servlet by setting server.servlet.register-default-
servlet to true. Both the servlet and the filter registrations can be given init parameters by using
spring.jersey.init.* to specify a map of properties.

8.1.3. Embedded Servlet Container Support

For servlet application, Spring Boot includes support for embedded Tomcat, Jetty, and Undertow
servers. Most developers use the appropriate “Starter” to obtain a fully configured instance. By
default, the embedded server listens for HTTP requests on port 8080.

Servlets, Filters, and listeners

When using an embedded servlet container, you can register servlets, filters, and all the listeners
(such as HttpSessionListener) from the servlet spec, either by using Spring beans or by scanning for
servlet components.

Registering Servlets, Filters, and Listeners as Spring Beans

Any Servlet, Filter, or servlet *Listener instance that is a Spring bean is registered with the

254
embedded container. This can be particularly convenient if you want to refer to a value from your
application.properties during configuration.

By default, if the context contains only a single Servlet, it is mapped to /. In the case of multiple
servlet beans, the bean name is used as a path prefix. Filters map to /*.

If convention-based mapping is not flexible enough, you can use the ServletRegistrationBean,
FilterRegistrationBean, and ServletListenerRegistrationBean classes for complete control.

It is usually safe to leave filter beans unordered. If a specific order is required, you should annotate
the Filter with @Order or make it implement Ordered. You cannot configure the order of a Filter by
annotating its bean method with @Order. If you cannot change the Filter class to add @Order or
implement Ordered, you must define a FilterRegistrationBean for the Filter and set the registration
bean’s order using the setOrder(int) method. Avoid configuring a filter that reads the request body
at Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE, since it might go against the character encoding configuration of
your application. If a servlet filter wraps the request, it should be configured with an order that is
less than or equal to OrderedFilter.REQUEST_WRAPPER_FILTER_MAX_ORDER.

To see the order of every Filter in your application, enable debug level logging for the
TIP web logging group (logging.level.web=debug). Details of the registered filters, including
their order and URL patterns, will then be logged at startup.

Take care when registering Filter beans since they are initialized very early in
WARNING the application lifecycle. If you need to register a Filter that interacts with
other beans, consider using a DelegatingFilterProxyRegistrationBean instead.

Servlet Context Initialization

Embedded servlet containers do not directly execute the servlet 3.0+

javax.servlet.ServletContainerInitializer interface or Spring’s
org.springframework.web.WebApplicationInitializer interface. This is an intentional design decision
intended to reduce the risk that third party libraries designed to run inside a war may break Spring
Boot applications.

If you need to perform servlet context initialization in a Spring Boot application, you should
register a bean that implements the
org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletContextInitializer interface. The single onStartup
method provides access to the ServletContext and, if necessary, can easily be used as an adapter to
an existing WebApplicationInitializer.

Scanning for Servlets, Filters, and listeners

When using an embedded container, automatic registration of classes annotated with @WebServlet,
@WebFilter, and @WebListener can be enabled by using @ServletComponentScan.

@ServletComponentScan has no effect in a standalone container, where the container’s

TIP
built-in discovery mechanisms are used instead.

255
The ServletWebServerApplicationContext

Under the hood, Spring Boot uses a different type of ApplicationContext for embedded servlet
container support. The ServletWebServerApplicationContext is a special type of
WebApplicationContext that bootstraps itself by searching for a single ServletWebServerFactory bean.
Usually a TomcatServletWebServerFactory, JettyServletWebServerFactory, or
UndertowServletWebServerFactory has been auto-configured.

You usually do not need to be aware of these implementation classes. Most

NOTE applications are auto-configured, and the appropriate ApplicationContext and
ServletWebServerFactory are created on your behalf.

In an embedded container setup, the ServletContext is set as part of server startup which happens
during application context initialization. Because of this beans in the ApplicationContext cannot be
reliably initialized with a ServletContext. One way to get around this is to inject ApplicationContext
as a dependency of the bean and access the ServletContext only when it is needed. Another way is
to use a callback once the server has started. This can be done using an ApplicationListener which
listens for the ApplicationStartedEvent as follows:

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;

import org.springframework.boot.context.event.ApplicationStartedEvent;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationListener;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;

public class MyDemoBean implements ApplicationListener<ApplicationStartedEvent> {

  private ServletContext servletContext;

  @Override
  public void onApplicationEvent(ApplicationStartedEvent event) {
  ApplicationContext applicationContext = event.getApplicationContext();
  this.servletContext = ((WebApplicationContext)
applicationContext).getServletContext();
  }

Customizing Embedded Servlet Containers

Common servlet container settings can be configured by using Spring Environment properties.
Usually, you would define the properties in your application.properties or application.yaml file.

Common server settings include:

• Network settings: Listen port for incoming HTTP requests (server.port), interface address to
bind to server.address, and so on.

256
 • Session settings: Whether the session is persistent (server.servlet.session.persistent), session
timeout (server.servlet.session.timeout), location of session data
(server.servlet.session.store-dir), and session-cookie configuration
(server.servlet.session.cookie.*).

• Error management: Location of the error page (server.error.path) and so on.

• SSL

• HTTP compression

Spring Boot tries as much as possible to expose common settings, but this is not always possible. For
those cases, dedicated namespaces offer server-specific customizations (see server.tomcat and
server.undertow). For instance, access logs can be configured with specific features of the embedded
servlet container.

TIP See the ServerProperties class for a complete list.

SameSite Cookies

The SameSite cookie attribute can be used by web browsers to control if and how cookies are
submitted in cross-site requests. The attribute is particularly relevant for modern web browsers
which have started to change the default value that is used when the attribute is missing.

If you want to change the SameSite attribute of your session cookie, you can use the
server.servlet.session.cookie.same-site property. This property is supported by auto-configured
Tomcat, Jetty and Undertow servers. It is also used to configure Spring Session servlet based
SessionRepository beans.

For example, if you want your session cookie to have a SameSite attribute of None, you can add the
following to your application.properties or application.yaml file:

Properties

server.servlet.session.cookie.same-site=none

Yaml

server:
  servlet:
  session:
  cookie:
  same-site: "none"

If you want to change the SameSite attribute on other cookies added to your HttpServletResponse,
you can use a CookieSameSiteSupplier. The CookieSameSiteSupplier is passed a Cookie and may
return a SameSite value, or null.

There are a number of convenience factory and filter methods that you can use to quickly match
specific cookies. For example, adding the following bean will automatically apply a SameSite of Lax
for all cookies with a name that matches the regular expression myapp.*.

257
Java

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.CookieSameSiteSupplier;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MySameSiteConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public CookieSameSiteSupplier applicationCookieSameSiteSupplier() {
  return CookieSameSiteSupplier.ofLax().whenHasNameMatching("myapp.*");
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.CookieSameSiteSupplier
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MySameSiteConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun applicationCookieSameSiteSupplier(): CookieSameSiteSupplier {
  return CookieSameSiteSupplier.ofLax().whenHasNameMatching("myapp.*")
  }

Programmatic Customization

If you need to programmatically configure your embedded servlet container, you can register a
Spring bean that implements the WebServerFactoryCustomizer interface. WebServerFactoryCustomizer
provides access to the ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory, which includes numerous
customization setter methods. The following example shows programmatically setting the port:

258
Java

import org.springframework.boot.web.server.WebServerFactoryCustomizer;
import
org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyWebServerFactoryCustomizer implements
WebServerFactoryCustomizer<ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory> {

  @Override
  public void customize(ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory server) {
  server.setPort(9000);
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.server.WebServerFactoryCustomizer
import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyWebServerFactoryCustomizer :
WebServerFactoryCustomizer<ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory> {

  override fun customize(server: ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory) {

  server.setPort(9000)
  }

TomcatServletWebServerFactory, JettyServletWebServerFactory and UndertowServletWebServerFactory

are dedicated variants of ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory that have additional customization
setter methods for Tomcat, Jetty and Undertow respectively. The following example shows how to
customize TomcatServletWebServerFactory that provides access to Tomcat-specific configuration
options:

259
Java

import java.time.Duration;

import org.springframework.boot.web.embedded.tomcat.TomcatServletWebServerFactory;
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.WebServerFactoryCustomizer;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyTomcatWebServerFactoryCustomizer implements
WebServerFactoryCustomizer<TomcatServletWebServerFactory> {

  @Override
  public void customize(TomcatServletWebServerFactory server) {
  server.addConnectorCustomizers((connector) ->
connector.setAsyncTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(20).toMillis()));
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.embedded.tomcat.TomcatServletWebServerFactory
import org.springframework.boot.web.server.WebServerFactoryCustomizer
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import java.time.Duration

@Component
class MyTomcatWebServerFactoryCustomizer :
WebServerFactoryCustomizer<TomcatServletWebServerFactory> {

  override fun customize(server: TomcatServletWebServerFactory) {

  server.addConnectorCustomizers({ connector -> connector.asyncTimeout =
Duration.ofSeconds(20).toMillis() })
  }

Customizing ConfigurableServletWebServerFactory Directly

For more advanced use cases that require you to extend from ServletWebServerFactory, you can
expose a bean of such type yourself.

Setters are provided for many configuration options. Several protected method “hooks” are also
provided should you need to do something more exotic. See the source code documentation for
details.

Auto-configured customizers are still applied on your custom factory, so use that
NOTE
option carefully.

260
JSP Limitations

When running a Spring Boot application that uses an embedded servlet container (and is packaged
as an executable archive), there are some limitations in the JSP support.

• With Jetty and Tomcat, it should work if you use war packaging. An executable war will work
when launched with java -jar, and will also be deployable to any standard container. JSPs are
not supported when using an executable jar.

• Undertow does not support JSPs.

• Creating a custom error.jsp page does not override the default view for error handling. Custom
error pages should be used instead.

8.2. Reactive Web Applications

Spring Boot simplifies development of reactive web applications by providing auto-configuration
for Spring Webflux.

8.2.1. The “Spring WebFlux Framework”

Spring WebFlux is the new reactive web framework introduced in Spring Framework 5.0. Unlike
Spring MVC, it does not require the servlet API, is fully asynchronous and non-blocking, and
implements the Reactive Streams specification through the Reactor project.

Spring WebFlux comes in two flavors: functional and annotation-based. The annotation-based one
is quite close to the Spring MVC model, as shown in the following example:

261
Java

import reactor.core.publisher.Flux;
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.DeleteMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
public class MyRestController {

  private final UserRepository userRepository;

  private final CustomerRepository customerRepository;

  public MyRestController(UserRepository userRepository, CustomerRepository

customerRepository) {
  this.userRepository = userRepository;
  this.customerRepository = customerRepository;
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}")
  public Mono<User> getUser(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  return this.userRepository.findById(userId);
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}/customers")
  public Flux<Customer> getUserCustomers(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  return
this.userRepository.findById(userId).flatMapMany(this.customerRepository::findByUser);
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/{userId}")
  public Mono<Void> deleteUser(@PathVariable Long userId) {
  return this.userRepository.deleteById(userId);
  }

262
Kotlin

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.DeleteMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController
import reactor.core.publisher.Flux
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/users")
class MyRestController(private val userRepository: UserRepository, private val
customerRepository: CustomerRepository) {

  @GetMapping("/{userId}")
  fun getUser(@PathVariable userId: Long): Mono<User?> {
  return userRepository.findById(userId)
  }

  @GetMapping("/{userId}/customers")
  fun getUserCustomers(@PathVariable userId: Long): Flux<Customer> {
  return userRepository.findById(userId).flatMapMany { user: User? ->
  customerRepository.findByUser(user)
  }
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/{userId}")
  fun deleteUser(@PathVariable userId: Long): Mono<Void> {
  return userRepository.deleteById(userId)
  }

“WebFlux.fn”, the functional variant, separates the routing configuration from the actual handling
of the requests, as shown in the following example:

263
Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicate;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse;

import static
org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.accept;
import static org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions.route;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  private static final RequestPredicate ACCEPT_JSON =

accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

  @Bean
  public RouterFunction<ServerResponse> monoRouterFunction(MyUserHandler
userHandler) {
  return route()
  .GET("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUser)
  .GET("/{user}/customers", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUserCustomers)
  .DELETE("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::deleteUser)
  .build();
  }

264
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.DELETE
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.GET
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.accept
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun monoRouterFunction(userHandler: MyUserHandler): RouterFunction<ServerResponse>
{
  return RouterFunctions.route(
  GET("/{user}").and(ACCEPT_JSON), userHandler::getUser).andRoute(
  GET("/{user}/customers").and(ACCEPT_JSON),
userHandler::getUserCustomers).andRoute(
  DELETE("/{user}").and(ACCEPT_JSON), userHandler::deleteUser)
  }

  companion object {
  private val ACCEPT_JSON = accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
  }

265
Java

import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse;

@Component
public class MyUserHandler {

  public Mono<ServerResponse> getUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

  public Mono<ServerResponse> getUserCustomers(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

  public Mono<ServerResponse> deleteUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono

@Component
class MyUserHandler {

  fun getUser(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun getUserCustomers(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun deleteUser(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

WebFlux is part of the Spring Framework and detailed information is available in its reference

266
documentation.

You can define as many RouterFunction beans as you like to modularize the definition
TIP
of the router. Beans can be ordered if you need to apply a precedence.

To get started, add the spring-boot-starter-webflux module to your application.

Adding both spring-boot-starter-web and spring-boot-starter-webflux modules in

your application results in Spring Boot auto-configuring Spring MVC, not WebFlux.
This behavior has been chosen because many Spring developers add spring-boot-
NOTE
starter-webflux to their Spring MVC application to use the reactive WebClient. You
can still enforce your choice by setting the chosen application type to
SpringApplication.setWebApplicationType(WebApplicationType.REACTIVE).

“WebFlux.fn”, the functional variant, separates the routing configuration from the actual handling
of the requests, as shown in the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicate;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse;

import static
org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.accept;
import static org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions.route;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  private static final RequestPredicate ACCEPT_JSON =

accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

  @Bean
  public RouterFunction<ServerResponse> monoRouterFunction(MyUserHandler
userHandler) {
  return route()
  .GET("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUser)
  .GET("/{user}/customers", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::getUserCustomers)
  .DELETE("/{user}", ACCEPT_JSON, userHandler::deleteUser)
  .build();
  }

267
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.DELETE
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.GET
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RequestPredicates.accept
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyRoutingConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun monoRouterFunction(userHandler: MyUserHandler): RouterFunction<ServerResponse>
{
  return RouterFunctions.route(
  GET("/{user}").and(ACCEPT_JSON), userHandler::getUser).andRoute(
  GET("/{user}/customers").and(ACCEPT_JSON),
userHandler::getUserCustomers).andRoute(
  DELETE("/{user}").and(ACCEPT_JSON), userHandler::deleteUser)
  }

  companion object {
  private val ACCEPT_JSON = accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
  }

268
Java

import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse;

@Component
public class MyUserHandler {

  public Mono<ServerResponse> getUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

  public Mono<ServerResponse> getUserCustomers(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

  public Mono<ServerResponse> deleteUser(ServerRequest request) {

  ...
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono

@Component
class MyUserHandler {

  fun getUser(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun getUserCustomers(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

  fun deleteUser(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  return ServerResponse.ok().build()
  }

WebFlux is part of the Spring Framework and detailed information is available in its reference

269
documentation.

You can define as many RouterFunction beans as you like to modularize the definition
TIP
of the router. Beans can be ordered if you need to apply a precedence.

To get started, add the spring-boot-starter-webflux module to your application.

Adding both spring-boot-starter-web and spring-boot-starter-webflux modules in

your application results in Spring Boot auto-configuring Spring MVC, not WebFlux.
This behavior has been chosen because many Spring developers add spring-boot-
NOTE
starter-webflux to their Spring MVC application to use the reactive WebClient. You
can still enforce your choice by setting the chosen application type to
SpringApplication.setWebApplicationType(WebApplicationType.REACTIVE).

Spring WebFlux Auto-configuration

Spring Boot provides auto-configuration for Spring WebFlux that works well with most
applications.

The auto-configuration adds the following features on top of Spring’s defaults:

• Configuring codecs for HttpMessageReader and HttpMessageWriter instances (described later in

this document).

• Support for serving static resources, including support for WebJars (described later in this
document).

If you want to keep Spring Boot WebFlux features and you want to add additional WebFlux
configuration, you can add your own @Configuration class of type WebFluxConfigurer but without
@EnableWebFlux.

If you want to take complete control of Spring WebFlux, you can add your own @Configuration
annotated with @EnableWebFlux.

HTTP Codecs with HttpMessageReaders and HttpMessageWriters

Spring WebFlux uses the HttpMessageReader and HttpMessageWriter interfaces to convert HTTP
requests and responses. They are configured with CodecConfigurer to have sensible defaults by
looking at the libraries available in your classpath.

Spring Boot provides dedicated configuration properties for codecs, spring.codec.*. It also applies
further customization by using CodecCustomizer instances. For example, spring.jackson.*
configuration keys are applied to the Jackson codec.

If you need to add or customize codecs, you can create a custom CodecCustomizer component, as
shown in the following example:

270
Java

import org.springframework.boot.web.codec.CodecCustomizer;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.http.codec.ServerSentEventHttpMessageReader;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyCodecsConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public CodecCustomizer myCodecCustomizer() {
  return (configurer) -> {
  configurer.registerDefaults(false);
  configurer.customCodecs().register(new
ServerSentEventHttpMessageReader());
  // ...
  };
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.codec.CodecCustomizer
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.http.codec.CodecConfigurer
import org.springframework.http.codec.ServerSentEventHttpMessageReader

class MyCodecsConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun myCodecCustomizer(): CodecCustomizer {
  return CodecCustomizer { configurer: CodecConfigurer ->
  configurer.registerDefaults(false)
  configurer.customCodecs().register(ServerSentEventHttpMessageReader())
  }
  }

You can also leverage Boot’s custom JSON serializers and deserializers.

Static Content

By default, Spring Boot serves static content from a directory called /static (or /public or
/resources or /META-INF/resources) in the classpath. It uses the ResourceWebHandler from Spring
WebFlux so that you can modify that behavior by adding your own WebFluxConfigurer and
overriding the addResourceHandlers method.

271
By default, resources are mapped on /**, but you can tune that by setting the
spring.webflux.static-path-pattern property. For instance, relocating all resources to /resources/**
can be achieved as follows:

Properties

spring.webflux.static-path-pattern=/resources/**

Yaml

spring:
  webflux:
  static-path-pattern: "/resources/**"

You can also customize the static resource locations by using spring.web.resources.static-
locations. Doing so replaces the default values with a list of directory locations. If you do so, the
default welcome page detection switches to your custom locations. So, if there is an index.html in
any of your locations on startup, it is the home page of the application.

In addition to the “standard” static resource locations listed earlier, a special case is made for
Webjars content. Any resources with a path in /webjars/** are served from jar files if they are
packaged in the Webjars format.

Spring WebFlux applications do not strictly depend on the servlet API, so they cannot
TIP
be deployed as war files and do not use the src/main/webapp directory.

Welcome Page

Spring Boot supports both static and templated welcome pages. It first looks for an index.html file in
the configured static content locations. If one is not found, it then looks for an index template. If
either is found, it is automatically used as the welcome page of the application.

Template Engines

As well as REST web services, you can also use Spring WebFlux to serve dynamic HTML content.
Spring WebFlux supports a variety of templating technologies, including Thymeleaf, FreeMarker,
and Mustache.

Spring Boot includes auto-configuration support for the following templating engines:

• FreeMarker

• Thymeleaf

• Mustache

When you use one of these templating engines with the default configuration, your templates are
picked up automatically from src/main/resources/templates.

272
Error Handling

Spring Boot provides a WebExceptionHandler that handles all errors in a sensible way. Its position in
the processing order is immediately before the handlers provided by WebFlux, which are
considered last. For machine clients, it produces a JSON response with details of the error, the HTTP
status, and the exception message. For browser clients, there is a “whitelabel” error handler that
renders the same data in HTML format. You can also provide your own HTML templates to display
errors (see the next section).

The first step to customizing this feature often involves using the existing mechanism but replacing
or augmenting the error contents. For that, you can add a bean of type ErrorAttributes.

To change the error handling behavior, you can implement ErrorWebExceptionHandler and register a
bean definition of that type. Because an ErrorWebExceptionHandler is quite low-level, Spring Boot
also provides a convenient AbstractErrorWebExceptionHandler to let you handle errors in a WebFlux
functional way, as shown in the following example:

273
Java

import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.WebProperties.Resources;
import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.reactive.error.AbstractErrorWebExceptionHan
dler;
import org.springframework.boot.web.reactive.error.ErrorAttributes;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse.BodyBuilder;

@Component
public class MyErrorWebExceptionHandler extends AbstractErrorWebExceptionHandler {

  public MyErrorWebExceptionHandler(ErrorAttributes errorAttributes, Resources

resources,
  ApplicationContext applicationContext) {
  super(errorAttributes, resources, applicationContext);
  }

  @Override
  protected RouterFunction<ServerResponse> getRoutingFunction(ErrorAttributes
errorAttributes) {
  return RouterFunctions.route(this::acceptsXml, this::handleErrorAsXml);
  }

  private boolean acceptsXml(ServerRequest request) {

  return request.headers().accept().contains(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML);
  }

  public Mono<ServerResponse> handleErrorAsXml(ServerRequest request) {

  BodyBuilder builder = ServerResponse.status(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
  // ... additional builder calls
  return builder.build();
  }

274
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.WebProperties
import
org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.reactive.error.AbstractErrorWebExceptionHan
dler
import org.springframework.boot.web.reactive.error.ErrorAttributes
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunction
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.RouterFunctions
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerRequest
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.server.ServerResponse
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono

@Component
class MyErrorWebExceptionHandler(errorAttributes: ErrorAttributes?, resources:
WebProperties.Resources?,
  applicationContext: ApplicationContext?) :
AbstractErrorWebExceptionHandler(errorAttributes, resources, applicationContext) {

  override fun getRoutingFunction(errorAttributes: ErrorAttributes):

RouterFunction<ServerResponse> {
  return RouterFunctions.route(this::acceptsXml, this::handleErrorAsXml)
  }

  private fun acceptsXml(request: ServerRequest): Boolean {

  return request.headers().accept().contains(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
  }

  fun handleErrorAsXml(request: ServerRequest?): Mono<ServerResponse> {

  val builder = ServerResponse.status(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
  // ... additional builder calls
  return builder.build()
  }

For a more complete picture, you can also subclass DefaultErrorWebExceptionHandler directly and
override specific methods.

In some cases, errors handled at the controller or handler function level are not recorded by the
metrics infrastructure. Applications can ensure that such exceptions are recorded with the request
metrics by setting the handled exception as a request attribute:

275
Java

import org.springframework.boot.web.reactive.error.ErrorAttributes;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.result.view.Rendering;
import org.springframework.web.server.ServerWebExchange;

@Controller
public class MyExceptionHandlingController {

  @GetMapping("/profile")
  public Rendering userProfile() {
  // ...
  throw new IllegalStateException();
  }

  @ExceptionHandler(IllegalStateException.class)
  public Rendering handleIllegalState(ServerWebExchange exchange,
IllegalStateException exc) {
  exchange.getAttributes().putIfAbsent(ErrorAttributes.ERROR_ATTRIBUTE, exc);
  return Rendering.view("errorView").modelAttribute("message",
exc.getMessage()).build();
  }

276
Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.web.reactive.error.ErrorAttributes
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping
import org.springframework.web.reactive.result.view.Rendering
import org.springframework.web.server.ServerWebExchange

@Controller
class MyExceptionHandlingController {

  @GetMapping("/profile")
  fun userProfile(): Rendering {
  // ...
  throw IllegalStateException()
  }

  @ExceptionHandler(IllegalStateException::class)
  fun handleIllegalState(exchange: ServerWebExchange, exc: IllegalStateException):
Rendering {
  exchange.attributes.putIfAbsent(ErrorAttributes.ERROR_ATTRIBUTE, exc)
  return Rendering.view("errorView").modelAttribute("message", exc.message ?:
"").build()
  }

Custom Error Pages

If you want to display a custom HTML error page for a given status code, you can add a file to an
/error directory. Error pages can either be static HTML (that is, added under any of the static
resource directories) or built with templates. The name of the file should be the exact status code or
a series mask.

For example, to map 404 to a static HTML file, your directory structure would be as follows:

src/
 +- main/
  +- java/
  | + <source code>
  +- resources/
  +- public/
  +- error/
  | +- 404.html
  +- <other public assets>

To map all 5xx errors by using a Mustache template, your directory structure would be as follows:

277
 src/
 +- main/
  +- java/
  | + <source code>
  +- resources/
  +- templates/
  +- error/
  | +- 5xx.mustache
  +- <other templates>

Web Filters

Spring WebFlux provides a WebFilter interface that can be implemented to filter HTTP request-
response exchanges. WebFilter beans found in the application context will be automatically used to
filter each exchange.

Where the order of the filters is important they can implement Ordered or be annotated with @Order.
Spring Boot auto-configuration may configure web filters for you. When it does so, the orders
shown in the following table will be used:

Web Filter Order

MetricsWebFilter Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE + 1

WebFilterChainProxy (Spring Security) -100

HttpTraceWebFilter Ordered.LOWEST_PRECEDENCE - 10

8.2.2. Embedded Reactive Server Support

Spring Boot includes support for the following embedded reactive web servers: Reactor Netty,
Tomcat, Jetty, and Undertow. Most developers use the appropriate “Starter” to obtain a fully
configured instance. By default, the embedded server listens for HTTP requests on port 8080.

8.2.3. Reactive Server Resources Configuration

When auto-configuring a Reactor Netty or Jetty server, Spring Boot will create specific beans that
will provide HTTP resources to the server instance: ReactorResourceFactory or JettyResourceFactory.

By default, those resources will be also shared with the Reactor Netty and Jetty clients for optimal
performances, given:

• the same technology is used for server and client

• the client instance is built using the WebClient.Builder bean auto-configured by Spring Boot

Developers can override the resource configuration for Jetty and Reactor Netty by providing a
custom ReactorResourceFactory or JettyResourceFactory bean - this will be applied to both clients
and servers.

You can learn more about the resource configuration on the client side in the WebClient Runtime

278
section.

8.3. Graceful Shutdown

Graceful shutdown is supported with all four embedded web servers (Jetty, Reactor Netty, Tomcat,
and Undertow) and with both reactive and servlet-based web applications. It occurs as part of
closing the application context and is performed in the earliest phase of stopping SmartLifecycle
beans. This stop processing uses a timeout which provides a grace period during which existing
requests will be allowed to complete but no new requests will be permitted. The exact way in which
new requests are not permitted varies depending on the web server that is being used. Jetty,
Reactor Netty, and Tomcat will stop accepting requests at the network layer. Undertow will accept
requests but respond immediately with a service unavailable (503) response.

NOTE Graceful shutdown with Tomcat requires Tomcat 9.0.33 or later.

To enable graceful shutdown, configure the server.shutdown property, as shown in the following
example:

Properties

server.shutdown=graceful

Yaml

server:
  shutdown: "graceful"

To configure the timeout period, configure the spring.lifecycle.timeout-per-shutdown-phase

property, as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.lifecycle.timeout-per-shutdown-phase=20s

Yaml

spring:
  lifecycle:
  timeout-per-shutdown-phase: "20s"

Using graceful shutdown with your IDE may not work properly if it does not
IMPORTANT send a proper SIGTERM signal. See the documentation of your IDE for more
details.

279
8.4. Spring Security
If Spring Security is on the classpath, then web applications are secured by default. Spring Boot
relies on Spring Security’s content-negotiation strategy to determine whether to use httpBasic or
formLogin. To add method-level security to a web application, you can also add
@EnableGlobalMethodSecurity with your desired settings. Additional information can be found in the
Spring Security Reference Guide.

The default UserDetailsService has a single user. The user name is user, and the password is
random and is printed at WARN level when the application starts, as shown in the following
example:

Using generated security password: 78fa095d-3f4c-48b1-ad50-e24c31d5cf35

This generated password is for development use only. Your security configuration must
be updated before running your application in production.

If you fine-tune your logging configuration, ensure that the

NOTE org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.security category is set to log WARN-level
messages. Otherwise, the default password is not printed.

You can change the username and password by providing a spring.security.user.name and
spring.security.user.password.

The basic features you get by default in a web application are:

• A UserDetailsService (or ReactiveUserDetailsService in case of a WebFlux application) bean

with in-memory store and a single user with a generated password (see SecurityProperties.User
for the properties of the user).

• Form-based login or HTTP Basic security (depending on the Accept header in the request) for the
entire application (including actuator endpoints if actuator is on the classpath).

• A DefaultAuthenticationEventPublisher for publishing authentication events.

You can provide a different AuthenticationEventPublisher by adding a bean for it.

8.4.1. MVC Security

The default security configuration is implemented in SecurityAutoConfiguration and

UserDetailsServiceAutoConfiguration. SecurityAutoConfiguration imports
SpringBootWebSecurityConfiguration for web security and UserDetailsServiceAutoConfiguration
configures authentication, which is also relevant in non-web applications. To switch off the default
web application security configuration completely or to combine multiple Spring Security
components such as OAuth2 Client and Resource Server, add a bean of type SecurityFilterChain
(doing so does not disable the UserDetailsService configuration or Actuator’s security).

To also switch off the UserDetailsService configuration, you can add a bean of type
UserDetailsService, AuthenticationProvider, or AuthenticationManager.

280
Access rules can be overridden by adding a custom SecurityFilterChain or
WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter bean. Spring Boot provides convenience methods that can be used to
override access rules for actuator endpoints and static resources. EndpointRequest can be used to
create a RequestMatcher that is based on the management.endpoints.web.base-path property.
PathRequest can be used to create a RequestMatcher for resources in commonly used locations.

8.4.2. WebFlux Security

Similar to Spring MVC applications, you can secure your WebFlux applications by adding the
spring-boot-starter-security dependency. The default security configuration is implemented in
ReactiveSecurityAutoConfiguration and UserDetailsServiceAutoConfiguration.
ReactiveSecurityAutoConfiguration imports WebFluxSecurityConfiguration for web security and
UserDetailsServiceAutoConfiguration configures authentication, which is also relevant in non-web
applications. To switch off the default web application security configuration completely, you can
add a bean of type WebFilterChainProxy (doing so does not disable the UserDetailsService
configuration or Actuator’s security).

To also switch off the UserDetailsService configuration, you can add a bean of type
ReactiveUserDetailsService or ReactiveAuthenticationManager.

Access rules and the use of multiple Spring Security components such as OAuth 2 Client and
Resource Server can be configured by adding a custom SecurityWebFilterChain bean. Spring Boot
provides convenience methods that can be used to override access rules for actuator endpoints and
static resources. EndpointRequest can be used to create a ServerWebExchangeMatcher that is based on
the management.endpoints.web.base-path property.

PathRequest can be used to create a ServerWebExchangeMatcher for resources in commonly used

locations.

For example, you can customize your security configuration by adding something like:

281
Java

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.security.reactive.PathRequest;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.security.config.web.server.ServerHttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.web.server.SecurityWebFilterChain;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyWebFluxSecurityConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
  http.authorizeExchange((spec) -> {
 
spec.matchers(PathRequest.toStaticResources().atCommonLocations()).permitAll();
  spec.pathMatchers("/foo", "/bar").authenticated();
  });
  http.formLogin();
  return http.build();
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.security.reactive.PathRequest
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.security.config.web.server.ServerHttpSecurity
import org.springframework.security.web.server.SecurityWebFilterChain

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyWebFluxSecurityConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
  http.authorizeExchange { spec ->
 
spec.matchers(PathRequest.toStaticResources().atCommonLocations()).permitAll()
  spec.pathMatchers("/foo", "/bar").authenticated()
  }
  http.formLogin()
  return http.build()
  }

282
8.4.3. OAuth2

OAuth2 is a widely used authorization framework that is supported by Spring.

Client

If you have spring-security-oauth2-client on your classpath, you can take advantage of some auto-
configuration to set up an OAuth2/Open ID Connect clients. This configuration makes use of the
properties under OAuth2ClientProperties. The same properties are applicable to both servlet and
reactive applications.

You can register multiple OAuth2 clients and providers under the spring.security.oauth2.client
prefix, as shown in the following example:

283
Properties

spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.client-id=abcd
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.client-secret=password
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.client-name=Client for user
scope
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.provider=my-oauth-provider
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.scope=user
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.redirect-uri=https://my-
redirect-uri.com
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.client-authentication-
method=basic
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-1.authorization-grant-
type=authorization-code

spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.client-id=abcd
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.client-secret=password
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.client-name=Client for email
scope
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.provider=my-oauth-provider
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.scope=email
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.redirect-uri=https://my-
redirect-uri.com
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.client-authentication-
method=basic
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client-2.authorization-grant-
type=authorization_code

spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.authorization-uri=https://my-
auth-server/oauth/authorize
spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.token-uri=https://my-auth-
server/oauth/token
spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.user-info-uri=https://my-
auth-server/userinfo
spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.user-info-authentication-
method=header
spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.jwk-set-uri=https://my-auth-
server/token_keys
spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.my-oauth-provider.user-name-attribute=name

284
Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  client:
  registration:
  my-client-1:
  client-id: "abcd"
  client-secret: "password"
  client-name: "Client for user scope"
  provider: "my-oauth-provider"
  scope: "user"
  redirect-uri: "https://my-redirect-uri.com"
  client-authentication-method: "basic"
  authorization-grant-type: "authorization-code"

  my-client-2:
  client-id: "abcd"
  client-secret: "password"
  client-name: "Client for email scope"
  provider: "my-oauth-provider"
  scope: "email"
  redirect-uri: "https://my-redirect-uri.com"
  client-authentication-method: "basic"
  authorization-grant-type: "authorization_code"

  provider:
  my-oauth-provider:
  authorization-uri: "https://my-auth-server/oauth/authorize"
  token-uri: "https://my-auth-server/oauth/token"
  user-info-uri: "https://my-auth-server/userinfo"
  user-info-authentication-method: "header"
  jwk-set-uri: "https://my-auth-server/token_keys"
  user-name-attribute: "name"

For OpenID Connect providers that support OpenID Connect discovery, the configuration can be
further simplified. The provider needs to be configured with an issuer-uri which is the URI that the
it asserts as its Issuer Identifier. For example, if the issuer-uri provided is "https://example.com",
then an OpenID Provider Configuration Request will be made to "https://example.com/.well-
known/openid-configuration". The result is expected to be an OpenID Provider Configuration
Response. The following example shows how an OpenID Connect Provider can be configured with
the issuer-uri:

Properties

spring.security.oauth2.client.provider.oidc-provider.issuer-uri=https://dev-
123456.oktapreview.com/oauth2/default/

285
Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  client:
  provider:
  oidc-provider:
  issuer-uri: "https://dev-123456.oktapreview.com/oauth2/default/"

By default, Spring Security’s OAuth2LoginAuthenticationFilter only processes URLs matching

/login/oauth2/code/*. If you want to customize the redirect-uri to use a different pattern, you need
to provide configuration to process that custom pattern. For example, for servlet applications, you
can add your own SecurityFilterChain that resembles the following:

Java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.web.SecurityFilterChain;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MyOAuthClientConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception
{
  http.authorizeRequests().anyRequest().authenticated();
  http.oauth2Login().redirectionEndpoint().baseUri("custom-callback");
  return http.build();
  }

286
Kotlin

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity
import org.springframework.security.web.SecurityFilterChain

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
class MyOAuthClientConfiguration {

  @Bean
  fun securityFilterChain(http: HttpSecurity): SecurityFilterChain {
  http.authorizeRequests().anyRequest().authenticated()
  http.oauth2Login().redirectionEndpoint().baseUri("custom-callback")
  return http.build()
  }

Spring Boot auto-configures an InMemoryOAuth2AuthorizedClientService which is used

by Spring Security for the management of client registrations. The
InMemoryOAuth2AuthorizedClientService has limited capabilities and we recommend
TIP
using it only for development environments. For production environments, consider
using a JdbcOAuth2AuthorizedClientService or creating your own implementation of
OAuth2AuthorizedClientService.

OAuth2 client registration for common providers

For common OAuth2 and OpenID providers, including Google, Github, Facebook, and Okta, we
provide a set of provider defaults (google, github, facebook, and okta, respectively).

If you do not need to customize these providers, you can set the provider attribute to the one for
which you need to infer defaults. Also, if the key for the client registration matches a default
supported provider, Spring Boot infers that as well.

In other words, the two configurations in the following example use the Google provider:

Properties

spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client.client-id=abcd
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client.client-secret=password
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.my-client.provider=google
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.google.client-id=abcd
spring.security.oauth2.client.registration.google.client-secret=password

287
Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  client:
  registration:
  my-client:
  client-id: "abcd"
  client-secret: "password"
  provider: "google"
  google:
  client-id: "abcd"
  client-secret: "password"

Resource Server

If you have spring-security-oauth2-resource-server on your classpath, Spring Boot can set up an

OAuth2 Resource Server. For JWT configuration, a JWK Set URI or OIDC Issuer URI needs to be
specified, as shown in the following examples:

Properties

spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.jwt.jwk-set-
uri=https://example.com/oauth2/default/v1/keys

Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  resourceserver:
  jwt:
  jwk-set-uri: "https://example.com/oauth2/default/v1/keys"

Properties

spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.jwt.issuer-uri=https://dev-
123456.oktapreview.com/oauth2/default/

Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  resourceserver:
  jwt:
  issuer-uri: "https://dev-123456.oktapreview.com/oauth2/default/"

288
 If the authorization server does not support a JWK Set URI, you can configure the
resource server with the Public Key used for verifying the signature of the JWT. This
NOTE can be done using the spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.jwt.public-key-
location property, where the value needs to point to a file containing the public key
in the PEM-encoded x509 format.

The same properties are applicable for both servlet and reactive applications.

Alternatively, you can define your own JwtDecoder bean for servlet applications or a
ReactiveJwtDecoder for reactive applications.

In cases where opaque tokens are used instead of JWTs, you can configure the following properties
to validate tokens through introspection:

Properties

spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.opaquetoken.introspection-
uri=https://example.com/check-token
spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.opaquetoken.client-id=my-client-id
spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.opaquetoken.client-secret=my-client-secret

Yaml

spring:
  security:
  oauth2:
  resourceserver:
  opaquetoken:
  introspection-uri: "https://example.com/check-token"
  client-id: "my-client-id"
  client-secret: "my-client-secret"

Again, the same properties are applicable for both servlet and reactive applications.

Alternatively, you can define your own OpaqueTokenIntrospector bean for servlet applications or a
ReactiveOpaqueTokenIntrospector for reactive applications.

Authorization Server

Currently, Spring Security does not provide support for implementing an OAuth 2.0 Authorization
Server. However, this functionality is available from the Spring Security OAuth project, which will
eventually be superseded by Spring Security completely. Until then, you can use the spring-
security-oauth2-autoconfigure module to easily set up an OAuth 2.0 authorization server; see its
documentation for instructions.

8.4.4. SAML 2.0

289
Relying Party

If you have spring-security-saml2-service-provider on your classpath, you can take advantage of

some auto-configuration to set up a SAML 2.0 Relying Party. This configuration makes use of the
properties under Saml2RelyingPartyProperties.

A relying party registration represents a paired configuration between an Identity Provider, IDP,
and a Service Provider, SP. You can register multiple relying parties under the
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty prefix, as shown in the following example:

290
Properties

spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.signing.credentials[0].private-key-location=path-to-private-key
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.signing.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-certificate
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.decryption.credentials[0].private-key-location=path-to-private-key
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.decryption.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-certificate
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.singlelogout.url=https://myapp/logout/saml2/slo
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.singlelogout.reponse-url=https://remoteidp2.slo.url
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.singlelogout.binding=POST
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.assertingparty.verification.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-
verification-cert
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party1.assertingparty.entity-id=remote-idp-entity-id1
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-party1.assertingparty.sso-
url=https://remoteidp1.sso.url

spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.signing.credentials[0].private-key-location=path-to-private-key
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.signing.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-certificate
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.decryption.credentials[0].private-key-location=path-to-private-key
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.decryption.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-certificate
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.assertingparty.verification.credentials[0].certificate-location=path-to-other-
verification-cert
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.assertingparty.entity-id=remote-idp-entity-id2
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-party2.assertingparty.sso-
url=https://remoteidp2.sso.url
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.assertingparty.singlelogout.url=https://remoteidp2.slo.url
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.assertingparty.singlelogout.reponse-url=https://myapp/logout/saml2/slo
spring.security.saml2.relyingparty.registration.my-relying-
party2.assertingparty.singlelogout.binding=POST

291
Yaml

spring:
  security:
  saml2:
  relyingparty:
  registration:
  my-relying-party1:
  signing:
  credentials:
  - private-key-location: "path-to-private-key"
  certificate-location: "path-to-certificate"
  decryption:
  credentials:
  - private-key-location: "path-to-private-key"
  certificate-location: "path-to-certificate"
  singlelogout:
  url: "https://myapp/logout/saml2/slo"
  reponse-url: "https://remoteidp2.slo.url"
  binding: "POST"
  assertingparty:
  verification:
  credentials:
  - certificate-location: "path-to-verification-cert"
  entity-id: "remote-idp-entity-id1"
  sso-url: "https://remoteidp1.sso.url"

  my-relying-party2:
  signing:
  credentials:
  - private-key-location: "path-to-private-key"
  certificate-location: "path-to-certificate"
  decryption:
  credentials:
  - private-key-location: "path-to-private-key"
  certificate-location: "path-to-certificate"
  assertingparty:
  verification:
  credentials:
  - certificate-location: "path-to-other-verification-cert"
  entity-id: "remote-idp-entity-id2"
  sso-url: "https://remoteidp2.sso.url"
  singlelogout:
  url: "https://remoteidp2.slo.url"
  reponse-url: "https://myapp/logout/saml2/slo"
  binding: "POST"

For SAML2 logout, by default, Spring Security’s Saml2LogoutRequestFilter and

Saml2LogoutResponseFilter only process URLs matching /logout/saml2/slo. If you want to customize
the url to which AP-initiated logout requests get sent to or the response-url to which an AP sends

292
logout responses to, to use a different pattern, you need to provide configuration to process that
custom pattern. For example, for servlet applications, you can add your own SecurityFilterChain
that resembles the following:

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.web.SecurityFilterChain;

@Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MySamlRelyingPartyConfiguration {

  @Bean
  public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception
{
  http.authorizeRequests().anyRequest().authenticated();
  http.saml2Login();
  http.saml2Logout((saml2) -> saml2.logoutRequest((request) ->
request.logoutUrl("/SLOService.saml2"))
  .logoutResponse((response) ->
response.logoutUrl("/SLOService.saml2")));
  return http.build();
  }

8.5. Spring Session

Spring Boot provides Spring Session auto-configuration for a wide range of data stores. When
building a servlet web application, the following stores can be auto-configured:

• JDBC

• Redis

• Hazelcast

• MongoDB

Additionally, Spring Boot for Apache Geode provides auto-configuration for using Apache Geode as
a session store.

The servlet auto-configuration replaces the need to use @Enable*HttpSession.

When building a reactive web application, the following stores can be auto-configured:

• Redis

• MongoDB

The reactive auto-configuration replaces the need to use @Enable*WebSession.

293
If a single Spring Session module is present on the classpath, Spring Boot uses that store
implementation automatically. If you have more than one implementation, you must choose the
StoreType that you wish to use to store the sessions. For instance, to use JDBC as the back-end store,
you can configure your application as follows:

Properties

spring.session.store-type=jdbc

Yaml

spring:
  session:
  store-type: "jdbc"

TIP You can disable Spring Session by setting the store-type to none.

Each store has specific additional settings. For instance, it is possible to customize the name of the
table for the JDBC store, as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.session.jdbc.table-name=SESSIONS

Yaml

spring:
  session:
  jdbc:
  table-name: "SESSIONS"

For setting the timeout of the session you can use the spring.session.timeout property. If that
property is not set with a servlet web application, the auto-configuration falls back to the value of
server.servlet.session.timeout.

You can take control over Spring Session’s configuration using @Enable*HttpSession (servlet) or
@Enable*WebSession (reactive). This will cause the auto-configuration to back off. Spring Session can
then be configured using the annotation’s attributes rather than the previously described
configuration properties.

8.6. Spring for GraphQL

If you want to build GraphQL applications, you can take advantage of Spring Boot’s auto-
configuration for Spring for GraphQL. The Spring for GraphQL project is based on GraphQL Java.
You’ll need the spring-boot-starter-graphql starter at a minimum. Because GraphQL is transport-
agnostic, you’ll also need to have one or more additional starters in your application to expose your
GraphQL API over the web:

294
Starter Transport Implementation
spring-boot-starter-web HTTP Spring MVC
spring-boot-starter-websocket WebSocket WebSocket for Servlet apps
spring-boot-starter-webflux HTTP, WebSocket Spring WebFlux
spring-boot-starter-rsocket TCP, WebSocket Spring WebFlux on Reactor
Netty

8.6.1. GraphQL Schema

A Spring GraphQL application requires a defined schema at startup. By default, you can write
".graphqls" or ".gqls" schema files under src/main/resources/graphql/** and Spring Boot will pick
them up automatically. You can customize the locations with spring.graphql.schema.locations and
the file extensions with spring.graphql.schema.file-extensions.

In the following sections, we’ll consider this sample GraphQL schema, defining two types and two
queries:

type Query {
  greeting(name: String! = "Spring"): String!
  project(slug: ID!): Project
}

""" A Project in the Spring portfolio """

type Project {
  """ Unique string id used in URLs """
  slug: ID!
  """ Project name """
  name: String!
  """ URL of the git repository """
  repositoryUrl: String!
  """ Current support status """
  status: ProjectStatus!
}

enum ProjectStatus {
  """ Actively supported by the Spring team """
  ACTIVE
  """ Supported by the community """
  COMMUNITY
  """ Prototype, not officially supported yet """
  INCUBATING
  """ Project being retired, in maintenance mode """
  ATTIC
  """ End-Of-Lifed """
  EOL
}

295
 By default, field introspection will be allowed on the schema as it is required for
tools such as GraphiQL. If you wish to not expose information about the schema,
NOTE
you can disable introspection by setting
spring.graphql.schema.introspection.enabled to false.

8.6.2. GraphQL RuntimeWiring

The GraphQL Java RuntimeWiring.Builder can be used to register custom scalar types, directives,
type resolvers, DataFetcher`s, and more. You can declare `RuntimeWiringConfigurer beans in your
Spring config to get access to the RuntimeWiring.Builder. Spring Boot detects such beans and adds
them to the GraphQlSource builder.

Typically, however, applications will not implement DataFetcher directly and will instead create
annotated controllers. Spring Boot will automatically detect @Controller classes with annotated
handler methods and register those as DataFetcher`s. Here’s a sample implementation for our
greeting query with a `@Controller class:

Java

import org.springframework.graphql.data.method.annotation.Argument;
import org.springframework.graphql.data.method.annotation.QueryMapping;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;

@Controller
public class GreetingController {

  @QueryMapping
  public String greeting(@Argument String name) {
  return "Hello, " + name + "!";
  }

296
Kotlin

import org.springframework.graphql.data.method.annotation.Argument
import org.springframework.graphql.data.method.annotation.QueryMapping
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller

@Controller
class GreetingController {

  @QueryMapping
  fun greeting(@Argument name: String): String {
  return "Hello, $name!"
  }

8.6.3. Querydsl and QueryByExample Repositories support

Spring Data offers support for both Querydsl and QueryByExample repositories. Spring GraphQL
can configure Querydsl and QueryByExample repositories as DataFetcher.

Spring Data repositories annotated with @GraphQlRepository and extending one of:

• QuerydslPredicateExecutor

• ReactiveQuerydslPredicateExecutor

• QueryByExampleExecutor

• ReactiveQueryByExampleExecutor

are detected by Spring Boot and considered as candidates for DataFetcher for matching top-level
queries.

8.6.4. Transports

HTTP and WebSocket

The GraphQL HTTP endpoint is at HTTP POST "/graphql" by default. The path can be customized
with spring.graphql.path.

The GraphQL WebSocket endpoint is off by default. To enable it:

• For a Servlet application, add the WebSocket starter spring-boot-starter-websocket

• For a WebFlux application, no additional dependency is required

• For both, the spring.graphql.websocket.path application property must be set

Spring GraphQL provides a Web Interception model. This is quite useful for retrieving information
from an HTTP request header and set it in the GraphQL context or fetching information from the

297
same context and writing it to a response header. With Spring Boot, you can declare a
WebInterceptor bean to have it registered with the web transport.

Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux support CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) requests. CORS is a
critical part of the web config for GraphQL applications that are accessed from browsers using
different domains.

Spring Boot supports many configuration properties under the spring.graphql.cors.* namespace;
here’s a short configuration sample:

Properties

spring.graphql.cors.allowed-origins=https://example.org
spring.graphql.cors.allowed-methods=GET,POST
spring.graphql.cors.max-age=1800s

Yaml

spring:
  graphql:
  cors:
  allowed-origins: "https://example.org"
  allowed-methods: GET,POST
  max-age: 1800s

RSocket

RSocket is also supported as a transport, on top of WebSocket or TCP. Once the RSocket server is
configured, we can configure our GraphQL handler on a particular route using
spring.graphql.rsocket.mapping. For example, configuring that mapping as "graphql" means we can
use that as a route when sending requests with the RSocketGraphQlClient.

Spring Boot auto-configures a RSocketGraphQlClient.Builder<?> bean that you can inject in your
components:

Java

@Component
public class RSocketGraphQlClientExample {

  private final RSocketGraphQlClient graphQlClient;

  public RSocketGraphQlClientExample(RSocketGraphQlClient.Builder<?> builder) {

  this.graphQlClient = builder.tcp("example.spring.io",
8181).route("graphql").build();
  }

298
Kotlin

@Component
class RSocketGraphQlClientExample(private val builder:
RSocketGraphQlClient.Builder<*>) {

And then send a request:

Java

Mono<Book> book = this.graphQlClient.document("{ bookById(id: \"book-1\"){ id name

pageCount author } }")
  .retrieve("bookById").toEntity(Book.class);

Kotlin

val book = graphQlClient.document(

  """
  {
  bookById(id: "book-1"){
  id
  name
  pageCount
  author
  }
  }
  """
)
  .retrieve("bookById").toEntity(Book::class.java)

8.6.5. Exceptions Handling

Spring GraphQL enables applications to register one or more Spring DataFetcherExceptionResolver

components that are invoked sequentially. The Exception must be resolved to a list of
graphql.GraphQLError objects, see Spring GraphQL exception handling documentation. Spring Boot
will automatically detect DataFetcherExceptionResolver beans and register them with the
GraphQlSource.Builder.

8.6.6. GraphiQL and Schema printer

Spring GraphQL offers infrastructure for helping developers when consuming or developing a
GraphQL API.

Spring GraphQL ships with a default GraphiQL page that is exposed at "/graphiql" by default. This
page is disabled by default and can be turned on with the spring.graphql.graphiql.enabled
property. Many applications exposing such a page will prefer a custom build. A default
implementation is very useful during development, this is why it is exposed automatically with
spring-boot-devtools during development.

299
You can also choose to expose the GraphQL schema in text format at /graphql/schema when the
spring.graphql.schema.printer.enabled property is enabled.

8.7. Spring HATEOAS

If you develop a RESTful API that makes use of hypermedia, Spring Boot provides auto-
configuration for Spring HATEOAS that works well with most applications. The auto-configuration
replaces the need to use @EnableHypermediaSupport and registers a number of beans to ease building
hypermedia-based applications, including a LinkDiscoverers (for client side support) and an
ObjectMapper configured to correctly marshal responses into the desired representation. The
ObjectMapper is customized by setting the various spring.jackson.* properties or, if one exists, by a
Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder bean.

You can take control of Spring HATEOAS’s configuration by using @EnableHypermediaSupport. Note
that doing so disables the ObjectMapper customization described earlier.

spring-boot-starter-hateoas is specific to Spring MVC and should not be

combined with Spring WebFlux. In order to use Spring HATEOAS with Spring
WARNING WebFlux, you can add a direct dependency on
org.springframework.hateoas:spring-hateoas along with spring-boot-starter-
webflux.

8.8. What to Read Next

You should now have a good understanding of how to develop web applications with Spring Boot.
The next few sections describe how Spring Boot integrates with various data technologies,
messaging systems, and other IO capabilities. You can pick any of these based on your application’s
needs.

300
Chapter 9. Data
Spring Boot integrates with a number of data technologies, both SQL and NoSQL.

9.1. SQL Databases

The Spring Framework provides extensive support for working with SQL databases, from direct
JDBC access using JdbcTemplate to complete “object relational mapping” technologies such as
Hibernate. Spring Data provides an additional level of functionality: creating Repository
implementations directly from interfaces and using conventions to generate queries from your
method names.

9.1.1. Configure a DataSource

Java’s javax.sql.DataSource interface provides a standard method of working with database

connections. Traditionally, a 'DataSource' uses a URL along with some credentials to establish a
database connection.

See the “How-to” section for more advanced examples, typically to take full control
TIP
over the configuration of the DataSource.

Embedded Database Support

It is often convenient to develop applications by using an in-memory embedded database.

Obviously, in-memory databases do not provide persistent storage. You need to populate your
database when your application starts and be prepared to throw away data when your application
ends.

TIP The “How-to” section includes a section on how to initialize a database.

Spring Boot can auto-configure embedded H2, HSQL, and Derby databases. You need not provide
any connection URLs. You need only include a build dependency to the embedded database that
you want to use. If there are multiple embedded databases on the classpath, set the
spring.datasource.embedded-database-connection configuration property to control which one is
used. Setting the property to none disables auto-configuration of an embedded database.

If you are using this feature in your tests, you may notice that the same database is
reused by your whole test suite regardless of the number of application contexts
NOTE
that you use. If you want to make sure that each context has a separate embedded
database, you should set spring.datasource.generate-unique-name to true.

For example, the typical POM dependencies would be as follows:

301
 <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
  <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

You need a dependency on spring-jdbc for an embedded database to be auto-

NOTE configured. In this example, it is pulled in transitively through spring-boot-starter-
data-jpa.

If, for whatever reason, you do configure the connection URL for an embedded
database, take care to ensure that the database’s automatic shutdown is disabled. If
you use H2, you should use DB_CLOSE_ON_EXIT=FALSE to do so. If you use HSQLDB, you
TIP
should ensure that shutdown=true is not used. Disabling the database’s automatic
shutdown lets Spring Boot control when the database is closed, thereby ensuring that
it happens once access to the database is no longer needed.

Connection to a Production Database

Production database connections can also be auto-configured by using a pooling DataSource.

DataSource Configuration

DataSource configuration is controlled by external configuration properties in spring.datasource.*.

For example, you might declare the following section in application.properties:

Properties

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/test
spring.datasource.username=dbuser
spring.datasource.password=dbpass

Yaml

spring:
  datasource:
  url: "jdbc:mysql://localhost/test"
  username: "dbuser"
  password: "dbpass"

You should at least specify the URL by setting the spring.datasource.url property.
NOTE
Otherwise, Spring Boot tries to auto-configure an embedded database.

302
 Spring Boot can deduce the JDBC driver class for most databases from the URL. If you
TIP need to specify a specific class, you can use the spring.datasource.driver-class-name
property.

For a pooling DataSource to be created, we need to be able to verify that a valid

Driver class is available, so we check for that before doing anything. In other words,
NOTE
if you set spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver, then that
class has to be loadable.

See DataSourceProperties for more of the supported options. These are the standard options that
work regardless of the actual implementation. It is also possible to fine-tune implementation-
specific settings by using their respective prefix (spring.datasource.hikari.*,
spring.datasource.tomcat.*, spring.datasource.dbcp2.*, and spring.datasource.oracleucp.*). See the
documentation of the connection pool implementation you are using for more details.

For instance, if you use the Tomcat connection pool, you could customize many additional settings,
as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.datasource.tomcat.max-wait=10000
spring.datasource.tomcat.max-active=50
spring.datasource.tomcat.test-on-borrow=true

Yaml

spring:
  datasource:
  tomcat:
  max-wait: 10000
  max-active: 50
  test-on-borrow: true

This will set the pool to wait 10000ms before throwing an exception if no connection is available,
limit the maximum number of connections to 50 and validate the connection before borrowing it
from the pool.

Supported Connection Pools

Spring Boot uses the following algorithm for choosing a specific implementation:

1. We prefer HikariCP for its performance and concurrency. If HikariCP is available, we always
choose it.

2. Otherwise, if the Tomcat pooling DataSource is available, we use it.

3. Otherwise, if Commons DBCP2 is available, we use it.

4. If none of HikariCP, Tomcat, and DBCP2 are available and if Oracle UCP is available, we use it.

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 If you use the spring-boot-starter-jdbc or spring-boot-starter-data-jpa “starters”,
NOTE
you automatically get a dependency to HikariCP.

You can bypass that algorithm completely and specify the connection pool to use by setting the
spring.datasource.type property. This is especially important if you run your application in a
Tomcat container, as tomcat-jdbc is provided by default.

Additional connection pools can always be configured manually, using DataSourceBuilder. If you
define your own DataSource bean, auto-configuration does not occur. The following connection
pools are supported by DataSourceBuilder:

• HikariCP

• Tomcat pooling Datasource

• Commons DBCP2

• Oracle UCP & OracleDataSource

• Spring Framework’s SimpleDriverDataSource

• H2 JdbcDataSource

• PostgreSQL PGSimpleDataSource

Connection to a JNDI DataSource

If you deploy your Spring Boot application to an Application Server, you might want to configure
and manage your DataSource by using your Application Server’s built-in features and access it by
using JNDI.

The spring.datasource.jndi-name property can be used as an alternative to the

spring.datasource.url, spring.datasource.username, and spring.datasource.password properties to
access the DataSource from a specific JNDI location. For example, the following section in
application.properties shows how you can access a JBoss AS defined DataSource:

Properties

spring.datasource.jndi-name=java:jboss/datasources/customers

Yaml

spring:
  datasource:
  jndi-name: "java:jboss/datasources/customers"

9.1.2. Using JdbcTemplate

Spring’s JdbcTemplate and NamedParameterJdbcTemplate classes are auto-configured, and you can
@Autowire them directly into your own beans, as shown in the following example:

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Java

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyBean {

  private final JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

  public MyBean(JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate) {

  this.jdbcTemplate = jdbcTemplate;
  }

  public void doSomething() {

  this.jdbcTemplate ...
  }

Kotlin

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component

@Component
class MyBean(private val jdbcTemplate: JdbcTemplate) {

  fun doSomething() {
  jdbcTemplate.execute("delete from customer")
  }

You can customize some properties of the template by using the spring.jdbc.template.* properties,
as shown in the following example:

Properties

spring.jdbc.template.max-rows=500

Yaml

spring:
  jdbc:
  template:
  max-rows: 500

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 The NamedParameterJdbcTemplate reuses the same JdbcTemplate instance behind the
NOTE scenes. If more than one JdbcTemplate is defined and no primary candidate exists,
the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate is not auto-configured.

9.1.3. JPA and Spring Data JPA

The Java Persistence API is a standard technology that lets you “map” objects to relational
databases. The spring-boot-starter-data-jpa POM provides a quick way to get started. It provides
the following key dependencies:

• Hibernate: One of the most popular JPA implementations.

• Spring Data JPA: Helps you to implement JPA-based repositories.

• Spring ORM: Core ORM support from the Spring Framework.

We do not go into too many details of JPA or Spring Data here. You can follow the
TIP “Accessing Data with JPA” guide from spring.io and read the Spring Data JPA and
Hibernate reference documentation.

Entity Classes

Traditionally, JPA “Entity” classes are specified in a persistence.xml file. With Spring Boot, this file is
not necessary and “Entity Scanning” is used instead. By default, all packages below your main
configuration class (the one annotated with @EnableAutoConfiguration or @SpringBootApplication)
are searched.

Any classes annotated with @Entity, @Embeddable, or @MappedSuperclass are considered. A typical
entity class resembles the following example:

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Java

import java.io.Serializable;

import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.Id;

@Entity
public class City implements Serializable {

  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private Long id;

  @Column(nullable = false)
  private String name;

  @Column(nullable = false)
  private String state;

  // ... additional members, often include @OneToMany mappings

  protected City() {
  // no-args constructor required by JPA spec
  // this one is protected since it should not be used directly
  }

  public City(String name, String state) {

  this.name = name;
  this.state = state;
  }

  public String getName() {

  return this.name;
  }

  public String getState() {

  return this.state;
  }

  // ... etc

307
Kotlin

import java.io.Serializable
import javax.persistence.Column
import javax.persistence.Entity
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue
import javax.persistence.Id

@Entity
class City : Serializable {

  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private val id: Long? = null

  @Column(nullable = false)
  var name: String? = null
  private set

  // ... etc
  @Column(nullable = false)
  var state: String? = null
  private set

  // ... additional members, often include @OneToMany mappings

  protected constructor() {
  // no-args constructor required by JPA spec
  // this one is protected since it should not be used directly
  }

  constructor(name: String?, state: String?) {

  this.name = name
  this.state = state
  }

You can customize entity scanning locations by using the @EntityScan annotation. See
TIP
the “Separate @Entity Definitions from Spring Configuration” how-to.

Spring Data JPA Repositories

Spring Data JPA repositories are interfaces that you can define to access data. JPA queries are
created automatically from your method names. For example, a CityRepository interface might
declare a findAllByState(String state) method to find all the cities in a given state.

For more complex queries, you can annotate your method with Spring Data’s Query annotation.

Spring Data repositories usually extend from the Repository or CrudRepository interfaces. If you use

308
auto-configuration, repositories are searched from the package containing your main configuration
class (the one annotated with @EnableAutoConfiguration or @SpringBootApplication) down.

The following example shows a typical Spring Data repository interface definition:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.docs.data.sql.jpaandspringdata.entityclasses.City;
import org.springframework.data.domain.Page;
import org.springframework.data.domain.Pageable;
import org.springframework.data.repository.Repository;

public interface CityRepository extends Repository<City, Long> {

  Page<City> findAll(Pageable pageable);

  City findByNameAndStateAllIgnoringCase(String name, String state);

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.docs.data.sql.jpaandspringdata.entityclasses.City
import org.springframework.data.domain.Page
import org.springframework.data.domain.Pageable
import org.springframework.data.repository.Repository

interface CityRepository : Repository<City?, Long?> {

  fun findAll(pageable: Pageable?): Page<City?>?

  fun findByNameAndStateAllIgnoringCase(name: String?, state: String?): City?

Spring Data JPA repositories support three different modes of bootstrapping: default, deferred, and
lazy. To enable deferred or lazy bootstrapping, set the spring.data.jpa.repositories.bootstrap-mode
property to deferred or lazy respectively. When using deferred or lazy bootstrapping, the auto-
configured EntityManagerFactoryBuilder will use the context’s AsyncTaskExecutor, if any, as the
bootstrap executor. If more than one exists, the one named applicationTaskExecutor will be used.

When using deferred or lazy bootstrapping, make sure to defer any access to the JPA
infrastructure after the application context bootstrap phase. You can use
NOTE SmartInitializingSingleton to invoke any initialization that requires the JPA
infrastructure. For JPA components (such as converters) that are created as Spring
beans, use ObjectProvider to delay the resolution of dependencies, if any.

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 We have barely scratched the surface of Spring Data JPA. For complete details, see the
TIP
Spring Data JPA reference documentation.

Spring Data Envers Repositories

If Spring Data Envers is available, JPA repositories are auto-configured to support typical Envers
queries.

To use Spring Data Envers, make sure your repository extends from RevisionRepository as show in
the following example:

Java

import org.springframework.boot.docs.data.sql.jpaandspringdata.entityclasses.Country;
import org.springframework.data.domain.Page;
import org.springframework.data.domain.Pageable;
import org.springframework.data.repository.Repository;
import org.springframework.data.repository.history.RevisionRepository;

public interface CountryRepository extends RevisionRepository<Country, Long, Integer>,

Repository<Country, Long> {

  Page<Country> findAll(Pageable pageable);

Kotlin

import org.springframework.boot.docs.data.sql.jpaandspringdata.entityclasses.Country
import org.springframework.data.domain.Page
import org.springframework.data.domain.Pageable
import org.springframework.data.repository.Repository
import org.springframework.data.repository.history.RevisionRepository

interface CountryRepository :
  RevisionRepository<Country?, Long?, Int>,
  Repository<Country?, Long?> {

  fun findAll(pageable: Pageable?): Page<Country?>?

NOTE For more details, check the Spring Data Envers reference documentation.

Creating and Dropping JPA Databases

By default, JPA databases are automatically created only if you use an embedded database (H2,
HSQL, or Derby). You can explicitly configure JPA settings by using spring.jpa.* properties. For
example, to create and drop tables you can add the following line to your application.properties:

310
Properties

spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create-drop

Yaml

spring:
  jpa:
  hibernate.ddl-auto: "create-drop"

Hibernate’s own internal property name for this (if you happen to remember it
better) is hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto. You can set it, along with other Hibernate native
NOTE properties, by using spring.jpa.properties.* (the prefix is stripped before adding
them to the entity manager). The following line shows an example of setting JPA
properties for Hibernate:

Properties

spring.jpa.properties.hibernate[globally_quoted_identifiers]=true

Yaml

spring:
  jpa:
  properties:
  hibernate:
  "globally_quoted_identifiers": "true"

The line in the preceding example passes a value of true for the
hibernate.globally_quoted_identifiers property to the Hibernate entity manager.

By default, the DDL execution (or validation) is deferred until the ApplicationContext has started.
There is also a spring.jpa.generate-ddl flag, but it is not used if Hibernate auto-configuration is
active, because the ddl-auto settings are more fine-grained.

Open EntityManager in View

If you are running a web application, Spring Boot by default registers

OpenEntityManagerInViewInterceptor to apply the “Open EntityManager in View” pattern, to allow
for lazy loading in web views. If you do not want this behavior, you should set spring.jpa.open-in-
view to false in your application.properties.

9.1.4. Spring Data JDBC

Spring Data includes repository support for JDBC and will automatically generate SQL for the
methods on CrudRepository. For more advanced queries, a @Query annotation is provided.

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Spring Boot will auto-configure Spring Data’s J