Spring Boot Annotations

1. @SpringBootApplication

- This is the most commonly used annotation in Spring Boot. It is a combination of the following annotations:

It marks the main class of a Spring Boot application.


import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

2. @RestController

- A convenience annotation that combines @Controller and @ResponseBody. It is typically used in RESTful web services.


import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class HelloController {

    @GetMapping("/hello")
    public String sayHello() {
        return "Hello, World!";
    }
}

3. @RequestMapping

- This annotation is used to map web requests to specific handler methods or classes. It can map HTTP requests like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.


import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class MyController {

    @RequestMapping("/home")
    public String home() {
        return "Welcome to Home Page";
    }
}

4. @GetMapping, @PostMapping, @PutMapping, @DeleteMapping

- These are specialized variants of @RequestMapping for common HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.


import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

@RestController
public class CRUDController {

    @GetMapping("/get")
    public String getMethod() {
        return "GET Method";
    }

    @PostMapping("/post")
    public String postMethod() {
        return "POST Method";
    }

    @PutMapping("/put")
    public String putMethod() {
        return "PUT Method";
    }

    @DeleteMapping("/delete")
    public String deleteMethod() {
        return "DELETE Method";
    }
}

5. @Autowired

- This annotation is used for automatic dependency injection. It can be applied on constructors, methods, and fields.


import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class UserService {

    private final UserRepository userRepository;

    @Autowired
    public UserService(UserRepository userRepository) {
        this.userRepository = userRepository;
    }

    public User getUserById(Long id) {
        return userRepository.findById(id).orElse(null);
    }
}

6. @Component, @Service, @Repository

- These annotations are used to define Spring beans. They are automatically detected during classpath scanning and instantiated by Spring's container.


import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

@Component
public class GenericComponent {
    // Generic component logic
}

@Service
public class UserService {
    // Service layer logic
}

@Repository
public class UserRepository {
    // Data Access logic
}

7. @Configuration

- Used to define configuration classes in Spring. It allows for the declaration of beans using the @Bean annotation.


import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    public MyService myService() {
        return new MyService();
    }
}

8. @Bean

- Marks a method as a bean provider method, meaning that it will return an object that Spring will register as a bean in the application context.


import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class BeanConfig {

    @Bean
    public MyBean myBean() {
        return new MyBean();
    }
}

9. @EnableAutoConfiguration

- This annotation enables Spring Boot's auto-configuration mechanism, which automatically configures the application based on the dependencies present in the classpath.


import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;

@EnableAutoConfiguration
@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
    }
}

10. @ConditionalOnProperty

- Used to conditionally enable a bean based on a configuration property.


import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.condition.ConditionalOnProperty;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class ConditionalConfig {

    @Bean
    @ConditionalOnProperty(name = "feature.enabled", havingValue = "true")
    public MyFeature myFeature() {
        return new MyFeature();
    }
}

11. @Transactional

- This annotation is used to define the scope of a database transaction. It can be applied to classes or methods.


import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class TransactionalService {

    @Transactional
    public void performTransaction() {
        // Transactional logic
    }
}

12. @Value

- This annotation is used to inject property values from the application.properties or application.yml file.


import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class MyComponent {

    @Value("${app.name}")
    private String appName;

    public void printAppName() {
        System.out.println(appName);
    }
}

13. @PathVariable

- Used to extract values from URI templates.


import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

@RestController
public class PathVariableController {

    @GetMapping("/user/{id}")
    public String getUserById(@PathVariable("id") String id) {
        return "User ID: " + id;
    }
}

14. @RequestParam

- Used to extract query parameters from the URL.


import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

@RestController
public class RequestParamController {

    @GetMapping("/search")
    public String search(@RequestParam("q") String query) {
        return "Search query: " + query;
    }
}

List of other useful Annotations


- @Entity
- @Table
- @Id
- @GeneratedValue
- @Column
- @Transient
- @EntityListeners
- @PrePersist 
- @PostPersist 
- @PreUpdate 
- @PostUpdate 
- @PreRemove 
- @PostRemove

- @OneToOne
- @OneToMany
- @ManyToMany
- @Query
- @Param
- @Transactional