Spring Boot Backend Development Course, Blog Creation Example, Preparing for a Project

This course guides you through the process of creating a simple blog using Spring Boot. Spring Boot is a framework developed in Java that helps you build web applications easily and quickly. In this course, you will cover project setup, database configuration, RESTful API implementation, authentication and authorization, and client integration step by step. Through this article, you can learn a wide range of topics from the basics to advanced concepts of Spring Boot.

1. Preparing the Project

1.1 Introduction to Spring Boot

Spring Boot is one of the projects of the Spring framework that allows you to develop applications quickly without complex configurations. The main advantages of Spring Boot are as follows:

  • Reduced complexity related to changes
  • Increased productivity through automatic configuration
  • Suitable for microservices architecture
  • Uses an embedded WAS (Web Application Server)

1.2 Setting Up the Development Environment

Before starting the project, you need to set up the development environment. Install the following tools:

  • Java Development Kit (JDK) – Java 11 or higher recommended
  • IDE – IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, or Spring Tool Suite
  • Gradle or Maven – build tools for dependency management
  • Database – MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.

1.3 Creating a Spring Boot Project

You can use Spring Initializr to create a Spring Boot project. Use the following settings to generate it:

  • Project: Maven Project
  • Language: Java
  • Spring Boot: 2.5.x (or latest version)
  • Group: com.example
  • Artifact: blog
  • Dependencies: Spring Web, Spring Data JPA, MySQL Driver, Spring Security

When you open the generated project in your IDE, you will see that the basic directory structure has been created.

2. Database Configuration

2.1 Installing MySQL

Install MySQL and create a database. Let’s create a database with the following command:

CREATE DATABASE blogdb;

2.2 Configuring application.properties

Open the src/main/resources/application.properties file and set the database connection information:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/blogdb
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=yourpassword
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.show-sql=true

2.3 Creating JPA Entities

Next, create an entity class to store the blog’s data. For example, the Post entity can be written as follows:

package com.example.blog.model;

import javax.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "posts")
public class Post {
    
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String title;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private String content;

    // Getters and Setters
}

3. Implementing RESTful API

3.1 Defining the Controller Class

To manage blog posts, create the PostController class:

package com.example.blog.controller;

import com.example.blog.model.Post;
import com.example.blog.repository.PostRepository;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

import java.util.List;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/posts")
public class PostController {

    @Autowired
    private PostRepository postRepository;

    @GetMapping
    public List getAllPosts() {
        return postRepository.findAll();
    }

    @PostMapping
    public Post createPost(@RequestBody Post post) {
        return postRepository.save(post);
    }

    @GetMapping("/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity getPostById(@PathVariable Long id) {
        Post post = postRepository.findById(id)
                .orElseThrow(() -> new ResourceNotFoundException("Post not found with id " + id));
        return ResponseEntity.ok(post);
    }

    @PutMapping("/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity updatePost(@PathVariable Long id, @RequestBody Post postDetails) {
        Post post = postRepository.findById(id)
                .orElseThrow(() -> new ResourceNotFoundException("Post not found with id " + id));
        
        post.setTitle(postDetails.getTitle());
        post.setContent(postDetails.getContent());
        Post updatedPost = postRepository.save(post);
        return ResponseEntity.ok(updatedPost);
    }

    @DeleteMapping("/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity deletePost(@PathVariable Long id) {
        Post post = postRepository.findById(id)
                .orElseThrow(() -> new ResourceNotFoundException("Post not found with id " + id));
        
        postRepository.delete(post);
        return ResponseEntity.noContent().build();
    }
}

3.2 Creating Repository

Create a repository to access the database using Spring Data JPA:

package com.example.blog.repository;

import com.example.blog.model.Post;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;

public interface PostRepository extends JpaRepository {
}

4. Authentication and Authorization

4.1 Configuring Spring Security

To add basic authentication features to the blog application, configure Spring Security. Create the WebSecurityConfig class and set it up as follows:

package com.example.blog.config;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.EnableWebSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter;
import org.springframework.security.crypto.bcrypt.BCryptPasswordEncoder;
import org.springframework.security.crypto.password.PasswordEncoder;

@EnableWebSecurity
public class WebSecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {
    
    @Override
    protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        http.csrf().disable()
            .authorizeRequests()
            .antMatchers("/api/posts/**").authenticated()
            .and()
            .httpBasic();
    }
    
    @Bean
    public PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder() {
        return new BCryptPasswordEncoder();
    }
}

5. Client Integration

Integrate the backend API with the client application to complete the blog application. You can use various frontend frameworks such as React, Vue, Angular to communicate with the API and exchange data. Here is an example of calling the backend API from the frontend using Axios:

import axios from 'axios';

const API_URL = 'http://localhost:8080/api/posts';

export const fetchPosts = async () => {
    const response = await axios.get(API_URL, {
        auth: {
            username: 'user',
            password: 'password'
        }
    });
    return response.data;
};

// Implement other CRUD functions

6. Conclusion

In this course, we covered the process of creating a basic blog application using Spring Boot. We addressed various topics from project preparation, database configuration, RESTful API implementation, authentication and authorization, to client integration. We hope you gain experience to create your own blog using various technologies.

Additionally, it is recommended to utilize various materials and communities related to Spring Boot to gain more knowledge and improve your skills. We hope this course serves as your first step in Spring Boot development!