Essential Skills Before Diving into Spring Boot

Spring Boot is a popular framework for building robust and scalable web applications. However, before you start with Spring Boot, there are certain skills and foundational knowledge that you should have. In this article, we will discuss what you need to know if your primary knowledge is in Core Java.

Prerequisites for Learning Spring Boot

While Spring Boot specifically requires a solid foundation in Java (or Kotlin), there are additional skills that will make your journey smoother and more effective:

1. Advanced Java Programming

Having a deep understanding of Java is crucial. This includes advanced topics such as:

Advanced object-oriented programming principles Exception handling and error management Multi-threading and concurrency Design patterns, particularly SOLID principles Dependency injection with Spring DI and without Spring Boot

Understanding these concepts will help you leverage Spring Boot more effectively and avoid common pitfalls.

2. Build Tools

Spring Boot projects typically use build tools like Maven or Gradle. Familiarity with these tools is essential for managing your project’s dependencies and building your application:

Maven: Understand its project object model (POM) and life cycle Gradle: Learn its build scripts and dependency management

Knowing how to use either of these tools will streamline your development process and make your project more maintainable.

3. Web Development Basics

Creating web applications with Spring Boot requires a bit of web development knowledge:

HTML and CSS for frontend development JavaScript (basically for frontend interactivity)

Although Spring Boot abstracts much of the heavy lifting, understanding these technologies will help you integrate Spring Boot into a complete web application.

4. Database Concepts

Most applications will need to interact with databases. Therefore, having a good grasp of SQL and popular RDBMSs like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle is essential:

SQL: Understand data manipulation and querying Popular RDBMSs: Learn how to use SQL with these databases

This knowledge will be particularly useful if you want to use Spring Boot with a database and need to implement data access using JPA (Java Persistence API).

My Journey: From Core Java to Spring Boot

Like many developers, I started with Core Java and eventually transitioned into Spring Boot. Here are the steps I followed to bridge the gap and gain the necessary skills:

Master the Collection Framework: This is a crucial part of Java. Get comfortable with ArrayList, LinkedList, HashMap, and other collection classes. Simple JDBC Connections: Start by connecting your Java code with any database using simple JDBC connections. Servlets and JSPs: Try CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations using Servlets and JSPs. You can build a small application using these skills. Hibernate ORM: Hibernate is a popular ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) framework. Learning Hibernate will help you understand how to map Java objects to database tables. Spring MVC: Take a small step towards Spring Boot by building a small application using Spring MVC. This will give you a feel for Spring’s MVC framework and how it works. Spring Boot: Finally, dive into Spring Boot. Use it to build applications with JPA for database access, Spring Security for security, and other Spring Boot features.

Conclusion

Spring Boot simplifies many aspects of web development, but having a strong foundation in Java, web development basics, and database concepts will significantly enhance your ability to create robust and scalable applications. If you're looking to take the plunge into Spring Boot with a solid plan, this article should provide a clear roadmap.