Java Spring Boot (Part 2)

Neil Haddley • October 26, 2023

Generating a Spring Boot project with start.spring.io, running it locally, and deploying it to Azure App Service with GitHub Actions

Java Azure Spring Bootspring-bootspring-data-jpajpa

I used https://start.spring.io, Visual Studio Code, GitHub and Microsoft Azure to generate an Spring application, to run the Spring application on my laptop and to deploy the Spring application to Microsoft Azure

I created a new GitHub repository (haddley-java)

I clicked the Open with GitHub Desktop menu item

I used the Open in Visual Studio Code (Insiders) button to open the repository in Visual Studio Code

I needed some sample code

https://spring.io/quickstart explains how to create a sample project

I logged into the Azure Portal to see what versions of Java were supported

I clicked the Web App Create link

The latest version of Java supported was 17

I navigated to https://start.spring.io/ and updated Group to "com.haddley" and added the Spring Web dependency

I clicked the GENERATE button

I copied the generated file to my local copy of the haddley-java repository

I updated the code to include support for the /hello path and ran using ./mvnw spring-boot:run

Tomcat initialized with port 8080

I navigated to http://localhost:8080/hello

I checked my changes

I clicked Push origin to upload my changes to GitHub

The changes were uploaded

I added an Azure Resource Group (haddley-java-rg)

I selected the Java 17 runtime

I changed the Pricing plan to "Free" and clicked the Next: Deployment button

The Continuous deployment option was disabled so I clicked the Previous button

I selected the Basic B1 pricing plan

I enabled Continuous deployment and clicked the Authorize button

I clicked the Authorize AzureAppService button

I entered an Authorization code

I selected organization Haddley. I selected the haddley-java repository

I selected the main branch

I reviewed the GitHub Actions configuration

I clicked the Create button

I waited

When deployment was complete I clicked the Go to resource button

I reviewed the Web App overview and clicked on the https://haddley-java.azurewebsites.net link

I reviewed the Azure deployed application

I returned to the GitHub repository and reviewed the GitHub Actions workflow history

I reviewed the workflow summary

I reviewed the workflow file

Under the hood: What the workflow file does

Azure added a GitHub Actions workflow file to my repository, and the screenshot shows it. It runs when I push to the main branch, and it can also be started by hand. A build job checks out the code, sets up Java 17, runs mvn clean install, and uploads the JAR file. A deploy job waits for the build job, downloads the JAR file, and sends it to the haddley-java Web App using a publish profile that GitHub keeps as a secret. That is why pushing a commit later in this post redeployed the site.

I updated the source code adding a home page

I ran the updated code locally

I accessed the home page at http://localhost:8080

I commited the update (to the main branch)

I pulled changes from the GitHub repository

I pushed my change to GitHub

There were no conflicts/issues

I returned to GitHub and saw that the Merge branch workflow had started

The Merge branch workflow completed with no errors

I navigated to https://haddley-java.azurewebsites.net to view the new home page

References

How to deploy your Spring Boot app to Azure App Service with GitHub Actions

Part of the Java Spring Boot series

← Previous in series

Java Spring Boot (Part 1)

Creating a REST API with Spring Boot and Spring Tool Suite: a books controller, annotations, and a React client served from the same project

Next in series →

Java Spring Boot (Part 3)

Using Spring Data JPA with an in-memory H2 database to store and list todo items, and deploying the application to Azure