Why you should start learning Spring Boot: An interview with Greg Turnquist

If you're not sure what Spring Boot is exactly, or why it's becoming such an important part of the Java development ecosystem you're in the right place. We'll explain: Spring Boot is a micro framework built by the team at Pivotal that has been designed to simplify the bootstrapping and development of new Spring applications. To put it simply, it gets you up and running as quickly as possible.

Greg Turnquist has has significant experience with the Spring team at Pivotal for some time - which means he is in the perfect position to give an insight on the software. We spoke to Greg recently to shed some light on Spring Boot, as well as his latest book Learning Spring Boot 2.0 - Second Edition. Greg on tweets as @gregturn on Twitter.

Why you should use Spring Boot

Packt: Spring Boot is a popular tool for building production-grade enterprise applications in Spring. What do you think are the 3 notable features of Spring Boot that stands apart from the other tools available out there?

Greg Turnquist: The three characteristics I have found interesting are:

Simplicity and ease to build new apps

Boot's ability to back off when you define custom components, and

Boot's ability to respond to community feedback as it constantly adds valued features

Packt: You have a solid track record of developing software. What tools do you use on a day-to-day basis?

GT: As a member of the Spring team, I regularly use IntelliJ IDEA, Slack, Gmail, Homebrew, various CI tools like CircleCI/TravisCI/Bamboo, Maven/Gradle, and Sublime Text 3.

How to start using Spring Boot

Packt: For a newbie developer, would you suggest getting started with Spring first, before trying their hand at Spring Boot? Or is Boot so simple to learn that a Java Developer could pick it up straight away and build applications?

GT: In this day and age, there is no reason to not start with Spring Boot. The programming model is so simple and elegant that you can have a working web app in five minutes or less. And considering Spring Boot IS Spring, the argument is almost false.

Packt: How does the new edition of Learning Spring Boot prepare readers to be industry-ready? For existing Spring and Spring Boot developers, what are the aspects to look forward to in your book?

GT: This book contains a wide range of practical examples covering areas such as Web, Data Access, developer tools, Messaging, WebSockets, and Security. By building a realistic example throughout the book on top of Java's de facto standard toolkit, it should be easy to learn valuable lessons needed in today's industry. Additionally, using Project Reactor throughout, the reader will be ready to build truly scalable apps.

As the Spring portfolio adopts support from Project Reactor, this is the only book in the entire market focused on that paradigm. Casting all these real world problems in light of such a powerful, scalable toolkit should be eagerly received. I truly believe this book helps bend the curve so that people can get operational, faster, and are able to meet their needs.

How well does Spring Boot integrate with JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks?

Packt: You also work a bit on JavaScript. Where do you think Spring and Spring Boot support for full-stack development with JS frameworks is going ahead?

GT: Spring Boot provides first class support for either dropping in WebJars or self-compiled JavaScript modules, such as with Webpack. The fact that many shops are moving off of Ruby on Rails and onto Spring Boot is the evidence that Boot has it all needed to build strong, powerful apps with full blown front ends to meet the needs of development shops.

What does the future hold for Spring Boot?

Packt: Where do you see the future of Spring Boot's development going? What changes or improvements can the community expect in future releases?

GT: Spring Boot has a dedicated team backing its efforts that at the same time is very respectful of community feedback. Adopting support for reactive programming is one such example that has been in motion for over two years. I think core things like the "Spring way" aren't going anywhere since they are all proven approaches. At the same time, support for an increasing number of 3rd party libraries and more cloud providers will be something to keep an eye on. Part of the excitement is not seeing exactly where things are going as well, so I look forward to the future of Spring Boot along with everyone else.