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In this quick article, we will discuss installing Spring Boot with build tools that is maven and gradle.

As we know that Spring boot requires Java 1.8 or higher. Before you begin, you should check your current Java installation by using the following command:

$ java -version

Spring boot provides beautiful Spring Boot CLI feature to quickly experiment with Spring Boot. If you are new to Java development or if you want to experiment with Spring Boot, you might want to try this Spring Boot CLI (Command Line Interface) first.

Installation Instructions for the Java Developer

We can use Spring Boot in the same way as any standard Java library. To do so, include the appropriate spring-boot-*.jar files on your classpath. Spring Boot does not require any special tools integration so you can use any IDE or text editor. Also, there is nothing special about a Spring Boot application, so you can run and debug a Spring Boot application as you would any other Java program.

Although you could copy Spring Boot jars, Spring boot team generally recommend that we use a build tool that supports dependency management (such as Maven or Gradle).

Let's discuss how to use or install Spring Boot with Maven and Gradle.

Maven Installation

Spring Boot is compatible with Apache Maven 3.3 or above. If you do not already have Maven installed, you can follow the instructions at maven.apache.org.

If you are new to maven then learn maven on Maven Tutorial

Spring Boot dependencies use the org.springframework.boot groupId. Typically, your Maven POM file inherits from the spring-boot-starter-parent project and declares dependencies to one or more “Starters”. Spring Boot also provides an optional Maven plugin to create executable jars.

The following listing shows a typical pom.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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</groupId>
    <artifactId>myproject</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <!-- Inherit defaults from Spring Boot -->
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.5.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>

    <!-- Add typical dependencies for a web application -->
    <dependencies>
       <dependency>
          <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
          <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
       </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <!-- Package as an executable jar -->
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
 </build>

</project>

spring-boot-starter-parent

All Spring Boot projects typically use spring-boot-starter-parent as the parent in pom.xml.

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.4.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>

spring-boot-starter-parent allows us to manage the following things for multiple child projects and modules:

Configuration - Java Version and Other Properties
Dependency Management - Version of dependencies
Default Plugin Configuration

We should need to specify only the Spring Boot version number on this dependency. If you import additional starters, you can safely omit the version number.

Not everyone likes inheriting from the spring-boot-starter-parent POM. You may have your own corporate standard parent that you need to use or you may prefer to explicitly declare all your Maven configuration. If you do not want to use the spring-boot-starter-parent, you can still keep the benefit of the dependency management (but not the plugin management) by using a scope=import dependency.

Read more about spring-boot-starter-parent on Overview of Spring Boot Starter Parent

Spring Boot Maven plugin

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

The Spring Boot Maven plugin provides many convenient features:

It collects all the jars on the classpath and builds a single, runnable "über-jar", which makes it more convenient to execute and transport your service.
It searches for the public static void main() method to flag as a runnable class.
It provides a built-in dependency resolver that sets the version number to match Spring Boot dependencies. You can override any version you wish, but it will default to Boot’s chosen set of versions.

Learn how to create a Spring boot application with maven on Spring Boot 2 Hibernate 5 MySQL CRUD REST API Tutorial

Gradle Installation

Spring Boot is compatible with Gradle 4. If you do not already have Gradle installed, you can follow the instructions at gradle.org.

Spring Boot dependencies can be declared by using the org.springframework.boot group. Typically, your project declares dependencies to one or more “Starters”. Spring Boot provides a useful Gradle plugin that can be used to simplify dependency declarations and to create executable jars.

Gradle Wrapper

The Gradle Wrapper provides a nice way of “obtaining” Gradle when you need to build a project. It is a small script and library that you commit alongside your code to bootstrap the build process. See docs.gradle.org/4.2.1/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html for details.

The following example shows a typical build.gradle file:

plugins {
 id 'org.springframework.boot' version '2.0.5.RELEASE'
 id 'java'
}


jar {
 baseName = 'myproject'
 version =  '0.0.1-SNAPSHOT'
}

repositories {
 jcenter()
}

dependencies {
 compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web")
 testCompile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test")
}