From June's resume: Spring Boot is the “magic” Java framework

Imagine that you have completed your JavaRush training and started looking for your first job. In job descriptions, you come across frameworks and tools that you haven’t tried. We're launching a series of articles to help you understand which Java tools are used in which projects, and at what stage in your developer's career you should learn them. In the second article we will talk about the Spring Boot framework.

Spring Boot: what is it?

In the previous article we talked about the Spring Framework. Spring Boot is a set of pre-configured modules that run on the Spring Framework. These modules simplify the configuration of an application written in Spring. Many IT specialists call Spring Boot a magic wand because it “magically” simplifies the developer’s work. Not magical at all, of course. This is made possible by the principle of dependency management: by choosing one version of Spring Boot, we implicitly select dozens of dependencies that, without the framework, would have to be reconciled manually. If we use the same analogy as earlier , where borscht is a web application, and the Spring Framework is a borscht set, then Spring Boot is the same “multi-cooker” that will help you cook quickly. Spring Boot has its own documentation and many ready-made solutions that you can copy and use in your projects.

How popular is Spring Boot?

According to research from JetBrains, a Java tool company, Spring Boot became the most popular Java web framework in 2019 , up 14% from last year. 56% of respondents chose it as their main development framework. The demand for the framework has been growing since its creation. 2% of all UK developer vacancies require knowledge of this framework, according to statistics from ITJobsWatch . The average salary of developers who own Spring Boot is about 60 thousand pounds per year. On the resource for developers Stack Overflow, salaries vary from 45 to 100 thousand dollars per year for different positions that require Spring Boot.

What projects will it be needed for?

Almost everyone. Previously, developers were required to know Java EE technology, but now Java developers almost everywhere must know the Spring framework, including Spring Boot.

When and how to teach?

Before going to interviews, it is better for a junior to gain basic knowledge of the Spring Boot framework. And before that you still need to learn:

1. Maven is a tool for automating project builds.
2. Servlets are a Java interface whose implementation extends the functionality of the server.
3. Protocols for transmitting information over the network.
4. Databases (basic knowledge).
5. JSON/XML serialization protocols.

Here's what the developers themselves say about Spring Boot on Quora:

• “One of the biggest nightmares for Spring developers is maintaining the huge number of configurations required for applications. Spring Boot fills this gap by eliminating any effort required to configure applications."
• “Spring is a powerful framework that helps you understand not only Spring, but other frameworks as well. Spring Boot is simply a tool that makes it easy to configure and use Spring. Additionally, it continues to be widely used in enterprise applications and will therefore be around longer than we anticipate.”