Building Your First Cloud-Native REST API with Spring Boot

Introduction

Spring Boot simplifies the process of building production-grade REST APIs. Let’s walk through creating a basic cloud-ready microservice.

Project Setup

• Java 17
• Spring Boot 3.x
• Dependencies: spring-boot-starter-web, spring-boot-starter-actuator, springdoc-openapi

Sample API

javaCopy
@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/products")
public class ProductController {

    @GetMapping
    public List<String> getAll() {
        return List.of("Laptop", "Phone", "Monitor");
    }
}

Add OpenAPI Documentation

xmlCopy
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springdoc</groupId>
  <artifactId>springdoc-openapi-starter-webmvc-ui</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.4</version>
</dependency>

Visit http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html

Enable Actuator for Monitoring

yamlCopy
management:
  endpoints:
    web:
      exposure:
        include: health, info

API Screenshot

Ready for the Cloud

• Dockerize
• Add Health Check
• Push to AWS/GCP/Azure

dockerfileCopy
FROM eclipse-temurin:17-jdk
COPY target/app.jar app.jar
ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "app.jar"]