Last updated: 2024-09-20
Migrate a project to Spring Boot
Spring Boot is a modern, popular framework that receives regular updates. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of all languages and frameworks, which is why older projects sometimes have to be migrated to Spring Boot. What do we need to consider and how can Bootify support this process?
Reasons for the migration
There can be various reasons for migrating a project to Spring Boot.
- the development team has a new focus (e.g. from PHP to Java)
- the previous technology is no longer state-of-the-art (e.g. Dropwizard or pure Spring)
- the code base is a big ball of mud, so that the effort for necessary updates and refactoring is equal to a greenfield project
- the use of Java is required in an enterprise environment
In the long term, it is beneficial for the company to commit to a single technology stack, so that knowledge and maintenance efforts are centralized. Spring Boot is always a good choice for new applications - it convinces with a quick entry for developers, countless libraries, a huge community and technology stability for the future.
Process of the migration
Depending on the size of the application and other requirements, extensive planning and development work may be necessary. For large projects, all steps must therefore be planned in detail.
Bootify can be used to create the first prototype of the migrated application - in the current Spring Boot version 3.3.4. Numerous settings are available in order to generate exactly the desired setup. Angular or Thymeleaf is optionally available for the frontend. The option for integrating spring-boot-docker-compose makes it particularly easy for new developers to set up the environment for local development.
Part of the general settings of the migrated app
Usually, a database schema of the old application is already present. The SQL import in the Entities tab may be used to quickly create all tables and relations for Spring Data / Hiberate.
The migrated database schema
The schema generation should be set to validate only so that Hibernate does not make changes to the tables independently. Instead, deviations are displayed early on when the application is started and can be adjusted if, for example, a data type does not match.
With Bootify, the generated code of the new application can be reviewed at any time. This allows the team to agree on the concept first and focus on migrating the business logic directly after the download.
Final notes
The overall application setup should remain close to the standards and rely on proven libraries such as Spring Data or Spring Security. An alternative should only be used if there are compelling reasons to do so.
The same principle applies to following best practices. There are articles on Best Practices for Thymeleaf, Best Practices for Angular or Best Practices for Multi-Module Projects. The multi-module approach can be an excellent way to divide complex projects into smaller sections.
In the Professional plan, Bootify offers advanced features such as the configuration of Spring Security. With the automatic Git integration, the application can be exported to a separate branch once a month. This supports frequent updates of backend and frontend libraries - making your migration a long-term success.
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