Does Spring Boot Have a Web Server?
If you’re new to Spring Boot development, you might be wondering if it comes with a built-in web server. The short answer is yes!
Spring Boot does indeed have a web server that allows you to easily run and deploy your web applications.
Which Web Server Does Spring Boot Use?
By default, Spring Boot uses Apache Tomcat as its embedded web server. Tomcat is a popular choice for Java web applications due to its simplicity and robustness.
It provides a lightweight and efficient container for hosting your Spring Boot applications.
However, if you prefer to use a different web server, such as Jetty or Undertow, Spring Boot allows you to easily switch between them by including the corresponding dependency in your project’s build file.
How Does the Embedded Web Server Work?
When you start your Spring Boot application, the embedded web server automatically starts and listens for incoming HTTP requests on a specified port (typically port 8080). It then routes these requests to the appropriate controller methods based on the configured URL mappings.
The embedded web server also takes care of serving static resources like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files from the classpath or file system. This means that you can easily include static content in your Spring Boot application without worrying about setting up a separate web server or configuring complex deployment processes.
Configuring the Embedded Web Server
While Spring Boot provides sensible defaults for configuring the embedded web server, you can customize its behavior by modifying the application.properties or application.yml file in your project’s resources directory.
For example, you can change the default port by setting the server.port property. You can also enable SSL by specifying the necessary properties like server.ssl.key-store and server.key-password.
Deploying Spring Boot Applications with an External Web Server
In some cases, you might want to deploy your Spring Boot application to a standalone web server instead of using the embedded one. This could be due to specific requirements or existing infrastructure constraints.
Spring Boot supports this scenario by providing an option to generate a traditional WAR (Web Application Archive) file that can be deployed to external web servers such as Apache Tomcat or Jetty. You can then package your application as a WAR file using tools like Maven or Gradle and deploy it as you would with any other Java web application.
In Conclusion
Spring Boot comes with an embedded web server, by default Apache Tomcat, that allows you to easily run and deploy your web applications. It simplifies the process of developing web applications by providing sensible defaults and easy customization options for configuring the embedded web server.
Whether you choose to use the embedded web server or deploy your application to an external one, Spring Boot makes it seamless for you to develop robust and scalable web applications using the power of Java.