Introduction to Spring REST and Spring Boot 3

Spring Boot is a widely used framework for building enterprise applications, particularly RESTful web services. Spring REST leverages Spring Boot to create scalable and maintainable REST APIs efficiently. Let's explore each aspect in detail.

1. Overview of RESTful Architecture

What is REST?

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style that defines a set of constraints for creating scalable web services. It was introduced by Roy Fielding in 2000 and is based on standard HTTP methods.

Key Principles of REST

1. Client-Server Architecture
   • The client and server are separate, promoting a decoupled system.
2. Statelessness
   • Each request from a client must contain all necessary information; the server does not store client state.
3. Cacheability
   • Responses should indicate whether they can be cached for efficiency.
4. Layered System
   • Services can be composed of multiple layers (e.g., security, logging, load balancing).
5. Uniform Interface
   • Resources are identified using URIs, and standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH) are used.
6. Code on Demand (Optional)
   • Servers can send executable code (e.g., JavaScript) to clients.

2. Introduction to Spring REST

What is Spring REST?

Spring REST is part of the Spring Framework that provides a simple way to build RESTful web services. It integrates with Spring MVC and leverages the capabilities of the framework to handle HTTP requests and responses.

Core Components of Spring REST

1. Spring MVC
   • Spring REST builds upon Spring MVC, which provides features like request mapping, exception handling, and data binding.
2. REST Controllers
   • Controllers annotated with @RestController handle HTTP requests.