Overview
This step-by-step tutorial guides you through the process of building a customer management app using webforJ and Spring Boot. It teaches you how to create a modern, user-friendly interface for viewing, adding, and editing customer data.
Each step introduces new concepts and results in a runnable Spring Boot app (JAR). You can launch your app locally using Maven and interact with it in a web browser. With this setup, you get a fast development cycle and a production-ready deployment model, using Spring Boot’s embedded server.
No prior Spring Boot or webforJ experience is needed, but you should have a basic understanding of Java and Maven to get the most out of this tutorial. This tutorial will cover Spring concepts as they come up, but those interested in an in-depth understanding of Spring can go to Spring's main documentation and Spring's documentation about Spring Boot.
Tutorial concepts
The first part of the tutorial is dedicated to project setup to prepare your Spring Boot + webforJ environment. Then, the following steps introduce new features and advance your project. By following along, you’ll gain a clear understanding of how an app evolves as you implement features.
Each step has a corresponding runnable app available on GitHub:
Prerequisites
You should have the following tools/resources on your development machine:
- Java 17 or 21
- Maven
- A Java IDE
- Git (recommended but not required)
Check the prerequisites article for a more detailed overview of the required tools for your development environment.
📄️ Project Setup
Discover where to download the tutorial project, how to navigate it, and run the apps within.
📄️ Creating a Basic App
Step 1 - Add components to an app.
📄️ Working with Data
Step 2 - Use Spring to work with data.
📄️ Routing and Composites
Step 3 - Make your app navigable.
📄️ Observers and Route Parameters
Step 4 - Use route parameters to control what content loads.
📄️ Validating and Binding Data
Step 5 - Add validation checks and bind data to the UI.