Spring Boot vs Spring MVC | Differences and Which Should You Learn?

• In this article you will learn:
• 1. What is Spring MVC?
• 2. Spring Web Model-View-Controller.
• 3. The Benefits of Using the Spring MVC Framework.
• 4. Spring boot.
• 5. The Architecture of Spring Boot.
• 6. Difference between Spring boot and Spring MVC.
• 7.Conclusion.

What is Spring MVC?

Spring MVC is a popular framework for developing scalable applications that is based on Spring. Spring supplies the Spring MVC framework, which is a commonly used module of spring that is used to construct scalable web applications. This framework is used for web application development. The Spring MVC framework provides the separation of modules, namely Model View and Controller, and it also manages the integration of the application in a fluid manner. Because of this, the programmer is able to construct complicated programmes that just use standard Java classes. Through the use of maps, the model object may be communicated between the view and the controller. In this tutorial, we will learn how to construct apps and explore how to set up a Spring MVC application using the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). The following is a list of the components that make up the Spring MVC framework:

Model: A model may either be a single object or a collection of objects, and its primary purpose is to store the application’s data.

Front Controller: This component continues to be in charge of controlling the flow of the online application. Within Spring MVC, the Dispatcher Servlet fulfils the role of the front controller.

Spring Web Model-View-Controller:

The application’s data are stored in the model, which is also known as the “model.” A single item or a group of things may both be referred to as data.

Controller: A controller is a component of an application that stores the program’s business logic. In this case, the class that will act as the controller is designated using the @Controller annotation.A view is a representation of the information that has been delivered in a specific manner. The creation of a view page often involves the usage of JSP and JSTL. Despite the fact that Spring also supports other view technologies such Apache Velocity, Thymeleaf, and FreeMarker.

Front Controller: The DispatcherServlet class serves as the front controller in the Spring Web MVC framework. The flow of the Spring MVC application is under its control, which is the responsibility of this component.

• Having a solid knowledge of the flow of Spring Web MVC.
• As shown in the image, the DispatcherServlet, which functions as the front controller, is responsible for intercepting any and all requests that are sent its way.
• The request is then sent on to the controller when the DispatcherServlet obtains an entry of handler mapping from the XML file and sends it.
• A ModelAndView object is what the controller gives back to you.
• The DispatcherServlet makes sure that the XML file has an entry for the view resolver, and then it calls the view component that was requested.

The Benefits of Using the Spring MVC Framework:

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits offered by the Spring MVC Framework:

• Separate roles – The Spring MVC architecture partitions each role such that a specialised object, such as a model object, controller, command object, view resolver, DispatcherServlet, or validator, may be used to perform its responsibilities.
• A lightweight servlet container is used throughout the development and deployment of your application using this tool.
• It offers a powerful configuration for both the framework and the application classes, which enables simple referencing between contexts. For example, web controllers may easily reference business objects and validators.
• Rapid development The Spring MVC enables developers to work in parallel and achieve rapid development.
• Code for the company that can be reused enables us to make use of the items that are already in existence, rather than having to create new ones.
• Simple to test – When working with Spring, we often develop JavaBeans classes that, by utilising the setter methods, provide you the ability to insert test data.
• The page may be simply redirected thanks to the Flexible Mapping feature, which gives precise annotations.

Spring boot:

The typical spring framework is used as the base for the Spring Boot structure, which is then developed on top of that. Therefore, it offers all of the benefits that spring does, and yet it is far simpler to utilise than spring. Spring Boot is a framework that is built on microservices and can create an application that is ready for production in a relatively short amount of time. Everything is automatically setup while using Spring Boot. To make advantage of a certain capability, all that is required of us is to configure things correctly. When it comes to the development of REST API, Spring Boot is an extremely helpful tool. The capability to transform our project into war or jar files is made available to us by Spring Boot. Additionally, an instance of Tomcat may even be operated on the cloud if one so chooses. The Spring Boot consists of the following four primary layers:

• The Presentation Layer is exactly what its name implies: it is made up of views (i.e. frontend part).CRUD activities on the database, which stand for create, retrieve, update, and delete, fall within the umbrella of this layer’s responsibilities.
• Service Layer: This layer makes use of the services that are supplied by lower data access layers. It is composed of service classes.
• Integration Layer: It is made up of several online services on the internet (any service available over the internet and uses XML messaging system).

The Architecture of Spring Boot:

• The Spring Framework includes a component known as Spring Boot. It is used to construct Spring-based applications that are stand-alone and production-grade with as little work as possible. The fundamental Spring Framework serves as the basis for its development.
• The architecture of Spring Boot is tiered, and each layer interacts with either the one immediately below or the layer directly above it in the hierarchical structure.
• Before we can have a handle on the Spring Boot Architecture, we need to have a solid grasp of the many layers and classes that make up the framework. The following describes each of the four layers that make up Spring Boot.
• The layers in this stack are as follows: Presentation Layer Business Layer Persistence Layer Database Layer.

Presentation: The presentation layer is responsible for handling HTTP requests, converting JSON parameters into objects, authenticating the request, and then passing it on to the business layer. In a nutshell, it is made up of views, which are considered to be part of the frontend.

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Business Layer: The business layer is responsible for managing all of the business logic. It makes advantage of the services offered by the underlying data access layers and is made up of service classes. Additionally, authorisation and validation are carried out via it.

Layer of Persistence: The persistence layer is responsible for translating business objects from and to database rows. It also stores all of the logic for storing data.

Database Layer: Operations known as create, retrieve, update, and delete (CRUD) are carried out in this layer of the database.

Difference between Spring boot and Spring MVC:

Property	Description
Spring Boot is a module of Spring that is used for packaging applications that are based on Spring with sane default settings.	Under the scope of the Spring framework, Spring MVC is a web framework that is built on a model view controller.
It offers predefined settings that may be used to construct a Spring-powered framework.	It offers pre-assembled components that may be used immediately in the process of developing a web application.
There is no need to manually construct the setup.	It is necessary to manually construct the setup.
There is no necessity for a deployment description.	A Deployment descriptor is needed.
It eliminates repetitive coding and packages dependencies into a single unit for easier management.	It provides individual specifications for each dependency.
It shortens the amount of time needed for development while simultaneously raising production.	It takes a longer period of time to do the same thing.

Conclusion:

If you look at the comparison section, you will see that Spring Boot is more helpful than Spring MVC. This is because Spring Boot comes with numerous built-in features and perks, which make it more trustworthy to use than Spring MVC does. Using Boot, the majority of the settings are set up automatically. Like Tomcat, Boot includes a war file as part of its server runtime distribution. Because of this, the deployment and distribution of web apps is made more simpler.Spring Boot is a very helpful tool for container-based deployments, which are becoming more popular as the industry moves in that direction. Even though Spring MVC is the oldest and most widely used JVM web framework, and even though it has a large community of followers who are quite helpful and have provided numerous answers, the popularity of Spring Boot is growing at a rapid pace, and the reasons are mentioned clearly in the section that was just above this one.