Create a Java Microservice Using Spring Boot in Minutes with Maven

1. Introduction

In this post, we'll create a minimal Java microservice using Spring Boot and Maven. We'll use Maven's archetype to bootstrap our project and add a simple REST endpoint using the embedded Tomcat server that comes with Spring Boot.

2. Generate Project Using Maven

You can use Spring Boot's official archetype or simply use the spring-boot-starter-parent and manually add dependencies.

Option 1: Use Maven Archetype (Manually Add Dependencies)
There’s no built-in official archetype for Spring Boot like there is for other frameworks, but you can generate a skeleton project like this:

mvn archetype:generate \
-DgroupId=com.example.micro \
-DartifactId=simple-microservice \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart \
-DinteractiveMode=false

Then, modify the pom.xml to convert it into a Spring Boot project

3. Update pom.xml for Spring Boot

Replace the contents of pom.xml with:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
         http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.example.micro</groupId>
  <artifactId>simple-microservice</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.2</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
  </parent>

  <dependencies>
    <!-- Web starter includes embedded Tomcat -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

</project>

4. Create Main Application Class

package com.example.micro;

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

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

5. Add a REST Controller

package com.example.micro.controller;

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

@RestController
public class HelloController {
    @GetMapping("/hello")
    public String hello() {
        return "Hello from Spring Boot Microservice!";
    }
}

6. Run the Application

mvn spring-boot:run

7. Wrap-up

And that’s it! You now have a working microservice with a REST endpoint running on embedded Tomcat, created entirely from the command line using Maven.