Must know Spring Core Concepts before learnignSpringBoot

I have seen far too many Java enthusiasts fall into the trap of trying to learn Spring Boot immediately after grasping the fundamentals of Java. I, too, was a victim of this, until I quickly realized that a solid understanding of certain Spring concepts is essential before diving into the world of Spring Boot.

Much like attempting to build a complex structure without a strong foundation, embarking on Spring Boot without mastering its underlying principles can lead to confusion and frustration.

In this article, we will explore key Spring concepts that serve as the building blocks for Spring Boot proficiency. By familiarizing yourself with these fundamental concepts, you’ll pave the way for a smoother transition and a more robust grasp of Spring Boot’s powerful capabilities.

Inversion of control (IoC).

IoC is a design principle where the control flow of a program is inverted. In the context of Spring, it means that the framework manages the objects (beans) and their dependencies, rather than the application code managing them.
The Spring IoC container is responsible for creating, initializing, wiring, and managing the lifecycle of objects.

Dependency injection (DI).

DI is a technique in which the dependencies of a class are injected from the outside, rather than being created within the class itself.
Spring uses DI to achieve loose coupling between components, making the code more modular and easier to test.
Spring Beans:

In Spring, a bean is a managed object in the IoC container. It is a Java object that is instantiated, assembled, and managed by the Spring IoC container.
Beans are typically defined in the Spring configuration files (XML or Java-based) or through annotations.

ApplicationContext.

The ApplicationContext is the central interface in Spring for managing beans. It provides mechanisms for retrieving beans, accessing application properties, and more.
ApplicationContext can be configured using XML files, Java-based configurations, or a combination of both.

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP).

AOP is a programming paradigm that enables modularization of cross-cutting concerns (e.g., logging, security, transactions).
Spring AOP provides a way to apply aspects to certain methods or classes, allowing you to separate concerns and improve code modularity.

Data access with spring JDBC and ORM.

Spring provides support for both JDBC and Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) frameworks like Hibernate.
Understanding how to use Spring’s data access features will help you interact with databases efficiently.

Transaction management.

Spring simplifies transaction management in Java applications. Understanding how transactions work and how to configure them using Spring is crucial.

Spring MVC.

Spring MVC is a web module in the Spring Framework for building web applications. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
Learn about controllers, views, and how to handle web requests using Spring MVC.

Security in Spring.

Spring Security is a powerful and customizable authentication and access control framework. Learn how to secure your Spring applications using Spring Security.

Testing with Spring.

Understand how to write unit tests and integration tests for your Spring components.
Learn about the integration of Spring with testing frameworks like JUnit.

Spring Profiles.

Spring profiles allow you to define sets of configurations for different environments (development, production, testing).
This is useful for managing configurations in a modular and environment-specific way.

Internationalization and localization.

Learn how to use Spring for internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) to support applications in multiple languages.