What do you think?
Rate this book
Spring Boot in Action
Spring Boot in Action is a developer-focused guide to writing applications using Spring Boot. In it, you’ll learn how to bypass configuration steps so you can focus on your application’s behavior. Spring expert Craig Walls uses interesting and practical examples to teach you both how to use the default settings effectively and how to override and customize Spring Boot for your unique environment. Along the way, you’ll pick up insights from Craig’s years of Spring development experience.
264 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2015
46 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 27, 2019
I THINK it's a good read. I found it practical and easy to understand, even though I'm not a big fan of computer books, I'm more into docuemntation and technical manuals.
September 16, 2016
A good book for any developer who didn't have a chance to work with spring-boot before. If you've already worked with spring-boot and gather your knowledge from Spring IO or other online tutorials, then reading this book would be rather a waste of time. However what I've learned with it, is that it always can get better and that IT industry will always try to abstract everything what is used in present time.
September 15, 2018
Good for the basics.. But a bit outdated now that Spring Boot 2.1 is available.
September 23, 2016
You can be pretty sure of what you’re going to get with a Manning ‘In Action� book and Spring Boot in Action is no exception. It’s clear, friendly while not being over familiar and above all a pleasure to read. In fact I struggled to put it down. I’ve got back into reading recently, but this is the first technical book I have fully read for quite a while.
The thing is I’m a huge fan of Java. This brings me into a lot of ridicule. There are lots of other software development technologies such as Ruby on Rails and Node.js which are arguably more productive because they do a lot of the standard web application boilerplate for you. The Spring library provides the Java developer with a lot of web application boilerplate as well, but there is no getting away the fact that Java is more verbose than some of the other options and you need a lot more code and configuration to wire the boilerplate together.
Enter Spring Boot. Spring Boot is about taking away a lot of the pain of developing Java web applications with Spring. Spring Boot automatically configures most of a Spring Web application for you. It takes care of most of the dependency management and servlet configuration and creates and injects commonly used beans into the application context as, when, and if they are needed. This drastically reduces the amount of code and configuration you need to write and it’s clever enough to work out which dependencies you need and employs tested configurations to make sure they play nicely together. Plus you can reduce the amount of code further by writing your application in Groovy or a combination of Groovy and Java. You can even take advantage of Grails.
Suddenly Java becomes a lot more competitive in terms of productivity with Ruby on Rails and Node.js, with the added advantage of a statically type, non-interpreted language running on the JVM. I’ve frequently seen Java Spring web applications outperforming similar Ruby on Rails applications. These are very exciting times indeed for Java.
Spring Boot in Action clearly explains all of this and more including running an embedded tomcat and testing with Selenium. It’s not a long book and the last 35% or so is appendices, but it’s the sort of useful information you need as a Spring Boot developer. Being short also means that Spring Boot does feel like a massive mountain to climb and conquer. If I had one criticism of the book, it would be that the chapter on deployment should be near the beginning, not right at the end.
The thing is I’m a huge fan of Java. This brings me into a lot of ridicule. There are lots of other software development technologies such as Ruby on Rails and Node.js which are arguably more productive because they do a lot of the standard web application boilerplate for you. The Spring library provides the Java developer with a lot of web application boilerplate as well, but there is no getting away the fact that Java is more verbose than some of the other options and you need a lot more code and configuration to wire the boilerplate together.
Enter Spring Boot. Spring Boot is about taking away a lot of the pain of developing Java web applications with Spring. Spring Boot automatically configures most of a Spring Web application for you. It takes care of most of the dependency management and servlet configuration and creates and injects commonly used beans into the application context as, when, and if they are needed. This drastically reduces the amount of code and configuration you need to write and it’s clever enough to work out which dependencies you need and employs tested configurations to make sure they play nicely together. Plus you can reduce the amount of code further by writing your application in Groovy or a combination of Groovy and Java. You can even take advantage of Grails.
Suddenly Java becomes a lot more competitive in terms of productivity with Ruby on Rails and Node.js, with the added advantage of a statically type, non-interpreted language running on the JVM. I’ve frequently seen Java Spring web applications outperforming similar Ruby on Rails applications. These are very exciting times indeed for Java.
Spring Boot in Action clearly explains all of this and more including running an embedded tomcat and testing with Selenium. It’s not a long book and the last 35% or so is appendices, but it’s the sort of useful information you need as a Spring Boot developer. Being short also means that Spring Boot does feel like a massive mountain to climb and conquer. If I had one criticism of the book, it would be that the chapter on deployment should be near the beginning, not right at the end.
September 1, 2020
The book was easy to read and yet it explained major Spring Boot features. I really liked learning not only about Spring Boot but as well about some other things while I was reading this book. For example, I learned few stuff about Gradle how it resolves dependencies comparing to Maven. Yet again I was surprised with how sdkman is an awesome tool.
The book itself has some parts that personally I wasn't interested too much such as: Getting Groovy with the Spring Boot CLI, Applying Grails in Spring Boot and Pushing to the cloud. While I found appendix B (Spring Boot starters) useful I definitely didn't see the point in having 45 pages of appendix C and D altogether - what's the point in listing all configuration properties and even worse why listing all dependencies since they will change anyway and not event to mention warning from the book itself it's better not to override any of these. :)
It would be good to see in this book how we can create and configure our own starters - what are best practices etc.
All in all, the book is worth reading. It made me to think (again) about how Spring (Boot) annotations magically works, how they are inspected and put into action, how Spring Data generates implementations for repository interfaces "on the fly" etc.
The book itself has some parts that personally I wasn't interested too much such as: Getting Groovy with the Spring Boot CLI, Applying Grails in Spring Boot and Pushing to the cloud. While I found appendix B (Spring Boot starters) useful I definitely didn't see the point in having 45 pages of appendix C and D altogether - what's the point in listing all configuration properties and even worse why listing all dependencies since they will change anyway and not event to mention warning from the book itself it's better not to override any of these. :)
It would be good to see in this book how we can create and configure our own starters - what are best practices etc.
All in all, the book is worth reading. It made me to think (again) about how Spring (Boot) annotations magically works, how they are inspected and put into action, how Spring Data generates implementations for repository interfaces "on the fly" etc.
September 3, 2017
Craig Walls know how to write, we know that since a long time. This book is no exception. Also, the author makes it short, which means the author is going to the essential. On the other hand, it also leads to editorial choices, such as focus on Spring MVC application, letting the rest uncovered. I was particulary frustrated to not have the REST shaped application not really covered indeed.
Except this very point, the book do the job, going from project creation to deployment on the cloud. Well done, but I'm waiting for Spring Microservices in Action...
Ma note de lecture en Français ici
Except this very point, the book do the job, going from project creation to deployment on the cloud. Well done, but I'm waiting for Spring Microservices in Action...
Ma note de lecture en Français ici
January 23, 2020
An excellent introduction to Spring Boot; although I've been working with Spring Boot for over a year now, there were still some gaps that this book covered neatly. Also, I've always preferred books that introduce a technology by building an app throughout its examples - which were simple though not so much so to be considered simplistic.
June 27, 2019
Лучшая Кинга по спрингу, после "spring in action", показывается как в связке все использовать, сокращать время , избавляться от boilerplate
March 2, 2020
Tl; dr: If you want to get familiar with spring boot, I’d recommend reading the official documentation and trying some tutorials online. The documentation is really well detailed, up-to-date and, most of all, not opinionated.
In general, the Spring Boot in Action book reads well and is okay for beginners slightly familiar with the Spring framework.
I especially dislike the fact that chapter 5 and 6 are mainly dedicated to groovy and its “elegancy�. To my way of thinking, those chapters belong to the appendices section and are improperly placed ahead of the actuator and deployment.
One last thing: there is no paragraph explaining what groovy is really good for (not for production-ready application logic, fwiw). The part of the book that really lost me was declaring that access modifiers are code noise developers should generally want to get rid of.
In general, the Spring Boot in Action book reads well and is okay for beginners slightly familiar with the Spring framework.
I especially dislike the fact that chapter 5 and 6 are mainly dedicated to groovy and its “elegancy�. To my way of thinking, those chapters belong to the appendices section and are improperly placed ahead of the actuator and deployment.
One last thing: there is no paragraph explaining what groovy is really good for (not for production-ready application logic, fwiw). The part of the book that really lost me was declaring that access modifiers are code noise developers should generally want to get rid of.
March 17, 2020
I think it is a very introductory book with some features to the magical world of Spring Boot. There is a bunch of automagic happening behind the scenes that tries to be explained in this book but lacks of details. The best two chapters are Customising your configuration (Chap 3), and Deploying the app (Chap 8). Sadly the last mentioned chapter does not go deep enough, although is understandable given the fact that it is not the intention of the book.
Think you can get the same value, even deeper practical understanding, using the official Spring guidelines and tutorials online.
Think you can get the same value, even deeper practical understanding, using the official Spring guidelines and tutorials online.
May 4, 2016
Spring Boot in Action will be a good fit for you if you have a solid experience working with Spring, and you want to take a quick look at the new and improved way of developing Spring applications. However, if you don’t have a good understanding of the framework’s internals, I’d advice you to start with the far better Spring in Action.
April 20, 2017
прикольна книжка, можна взнати на high-level дещо нове. Структуровано +-, і все швидко читається. З нею можна розібратися за один день.
Цікаві є тіпси. Якщо спєц в спрінгу, то її обов'язково потрібно прочитати.
Цікаві є тіпси. Якщо спєц в спрінгу, то її обов'язково потрібно прочитати.
May 28, 2017
Отличная книга для тех, кто только начинает работать с Spring Boot.
Да, 2/3 книги посвящены связке Groovy & Grails, что сделало её obsolete примерно за два года до издания. Тем не менее, читается книга легко и именно в качестве затравки для дальнейшего изучения фреймворка � идеальна.
Да, 2/3 книги посвящены связке Groovy & Grails, что сделало её obsolete примерно за два года до издания. Тем не менее, читается книга легко и именно в качестве затравки для дальнейшего изучения фреймворка � идеальна.
May 7, 2021
Expected more. I previously read Spring In Action by the same author that was awesome and detailed.
This is a good but unfinished introduction.
This is a good but unfinished introduction.
March 20, 2018
The book is of course really nice and concise .. it covers all the important parts you need to know when you work with spring boot .. if you have a practical experience with spring boot then this book will be so nice as it will help you discover very interesting tricks you can do to make your life easier .. if you have never worked with spring boot before then it will convince you that you gotta start using it.
June 11, 2019
This book provide fast and simple way to begin writing Spring Boot applications for complete novices.
The book covers essential Spring Boot topics: auto-configurations, Maven (and Gradle) starters definitions, Spring Boot Actuator and applications deployment. This is the basis. Also present less common and, IMHO, less useful topics like Spring Boot CLI usage with Groovy and Gradle.
I would say the next helpful manual after this book for reading might be only official Spring Boot reference only.
The book covers essential Spring Boot topics: auto-configurations, Maven (and Gradle) starters definitions, Spring Boot Actuator and applications deployment. This is the basis. Also present less common and, IMHO, less useful topics like Spring Boot CLI usage with Groovy and Gradle.
I would say the next helpful manual after this book for reading might be only official Spring Boot reference only.
January 15, 2022
Not sure what this book was about really. Apart from constantly repeated auto-configuration. Haven't really learn much. Not sure whether I knew that much already. I think there were many topics and many that I actually didn't need at all.
Also, there was a promise for learning with an app... I can hardly call 3 classes and a properties file to be "learning with an app"
Also, there was a promise for learning with an app... I can hardly call 3 classes and a properties file to be "learning with an app"
May 28, 2017
Decent. But after looking at it Spring Boot isn't all that complex and it's probably just better to read the documentation online.
July 12, 2020
То что надо, чтобы приоткрыть занавес "магии" спринг бут. Легко следить за происходящим
August 2, 2021
Good one. Slightly outdated as for 2021, but still explains the ideas and approaches.
Read
November 5, 2021informative
December 3, 2023
The book is pretty good and teaching for someone who has prior experience in Spring and Spring Boot and looking to revisit the essential concepts. Recommended.
February 12, 2024
Good read for Spring Boot understanding
Good read for Spring Boot understanding. I recommend this book to gain better understanding of Spring Boot Application. Loved it.
Good read for Spring Boot understanding. I recommend this book to gain better understanding of Spring Boot Application. Loved it.
Read
February 7, 2016Another review without star rating - sorry for that. What's the reason? SBinA is built upon the assumption that reader's up-to-date on "full" Spring, so it covers just the additional "magic" provided by Spring Boot. TBH my Spring is rusty like hell (I think I didn't touch it since 1.x or sthng ...), so even if I had no problems with comprehending the content of the book (& its applicability in RL), I cannot confirm that the book content (+prior String knowledge) is enough to fully utilize the potential in Spring Boot (& that's supposed to be the goal of book, right?).
So, about the book itself:
* clear, not overbloated with useless docs copy'n'pastes - I had no problems with understanding the idea (& benefits) of starter, Actuator, etc.
* code samples are "digestible" easily, but ... they focus on specific features of SB, so don't expect many end-to-end full-scope samples
To summarize - *quite likely* this book is good choice for someone well acknowledged with Spring , who'd like to know what's the fuss about :)
So, about the book itself:
* clear, not overbloated with useless docs copy'n'pastes - I had no problems with understanding the idea (& benefits) of starter, Actuator, etc.
* code samples are "digestible" easily, but ... they focus on specific features of SB, so don't expect many end-to-end full-scope samples
To summarize - *quite likely* this book is good choice for someone well acknowledged with Spring , who'd like to know what's the fuss about :)
July 11, 2017
I really had high expectations for this book given the fact that Craig is the author of the excellent Spring in Action book, but this was such a huge letdown. It pains me to say this, but you're better off studying the official documentation which is actually very approachable and has much more depth and breath than this book.
May 25, 2016
A good introduction to spring boot. It describes the steps to develop an application from setting up spring boot to deploying our application. I miss more details about how spring boot works.
February 28, 2016
Great book to start using spring boot.
March 4, 2016
Great to start with Spring Boot.
April 24, 2016
Really nice book to start learning Spring Boot!
December 17, 2019
Makes Spring so much easier to use. Read it again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.