Spring Boot Backend Development Course, Development Environment, Installing IntelliJ on macOS

Spring Boot is a Java-based framework that helps you build RESTful web services quickly and easily. In this course, you will learn backend development using Spring Boot and how to install IntelliJ IDEA for development in a macOS environment. This course covers content from basics to advanced topics.

1. Understanding Spring Boot

Spring Boot is built on top of the Spring framework, and it helps to set up and configure your projects more quickly than traditional Spring projects. This allows developers to write only the code they need, reducing the time spent on repetitive configurations. Spring Boot can flexibly respond to various deployment structures, such as cloud environments and microservices architectures.

1.1 Features of Spring Boot

  • Auto Configuration: Automatically handles common configurations, allowing developers to focus on business logic.
  • Starter Dependency Management: Easily manages necessary libraries through Maven or Gradle.
  • Executor Support: Facilitates asynchronous processing to enhance performance and scalability.
  • Prebuilt Aspects: Quickly develop using pre-made templates.

2. Setting Up the Development Environment

Now we will set up the environment needed to develop a Spring Boot project. Follow the steps below to install IntelliJ IDEA on macOS and set up the JDK.

2.1 Installing the JDK

To develop with Spring Boot, you need the Java Development Kit (JDK). On macOS, you can easily install the JDK via Homebrew.

brew install openjdk@11

Once the installation is complete, set the system environment variables. This will allow the system to recognize the path to the JDK.

echo 'export JAVA_HOME="$(brew --prefix openjdk@11)"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

2.2 Installing IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is one of the most popular Java IDEs. Install it on macOS following the steps below.

2.2.1 Installing via Homebrew

If you already use Homebrew, you can install IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition with the following command.

brew install --cask intellij-idea-community

2.2.2 Direct Download

You can also download and install it directly. Download the IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition from JetBrains’ official website and install it. Once installed, run the program and follow the setup wizard to configure the basic environment.

2.3 Configuring IntelliJ IDEA

When you first start IntelliJ IDEA, you need to install the required plugins and configure the environment. The plugin for Spring Boot is built into the IDE, but you can also install additional plugins if needed.

  1. Run IntelliJ IDEA.
  2. In the main menu, select File > Settings (for macOS, IntelliJ IDEA > Preferences).
  3. Navigate to the Plugins tab and search for and install any necessary additional plugins.

3. Creating a Spring Boot Project

Now let’s create a Spring Boot project in IntelliJ IDEA. This will enable you to start backend development in earnest.

3.1 Creating a New Project

  1. Click New Project in IntelliJ IDEA.
  2. Select Spring Initializr from the left menu.
  3. Set the Project SDK to JDK 11.
  4. Click the Next button to proceed to the next step.
  5. Configure the Group and Artifact. For example, set Group to com.example and Artifact to demo.
  6. Select the necessary libraries under Dependencies. For example, you can choose Spring Web, Spring Data JPA, etc.
  7. Click Finish to create the project.

3.2 Understanding Project Structure

Once the project is created, you need to understand the basic structure of Spring Boot. Typically, the generated project has the following directory structure:

  • src/main/java: The directory where the Java code resides.
  • src/main/resources: The directory containing configuration files (yml, properties) and static resources.
  • src/test/java: The directory where the test code resides.

3.3 Modifying Basic Configuration Files

You can adjust basic settings by modifying the application.properties or application.yml file in the project root directory. Configure database connection information, server ports, etc.

4. Creating Your First Controller

Now let’s create a simple RESTful API to verify that the Spring Boot application is functioning.

4.1 Creating a Hello Controller

package com.example.demo.controller;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class HelloController {

    @GetMapping("/hello")
    public String hello() {
        return "Hello, Spring Boot!";
    }
}

4.2 Running the Application

After writing the controller, start the application by running the main application class. You can build and run the project by executing the following command in the terminal.

./mvnw spring-boot:run

In your web browser, enter http://localhost:8080/hello to see the message “Hello, Spring Boot!”.

5. Conclusion

Through this course, you learned the basic concepts of Spring Boot, how to install IntelliJ IDEA on macOS, and how to build a simple RESTful API. You gained an understanding of the advantages and strengths of Spring Boot, laying the groundwork for using it in real projects. The next steps should include learning about database integration, security and authentication, testing, and deployment methodologies.

6. References

Please explore the resources below for more in-depth study.