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How to Create a Spring Boot Project with IntelliJ IDEA?

IntelliJ IDEA provides first-class support for Spring Boot, which makes it straightforward to create and manage Spring Boot applications. Here's a step-by-step guide to create a Spring Boot project with IntelliJ IDEA:

  1. Open IntelliJ IDEA:

    Start IntelliJ IDEA. If you don't have it installed, you can download it. For Spring Boot development, you'd ideally want the Ultimate edition because it offers enhanced support for Spring, but the Community edition can also work for basic projects.

  2. Start a New Project:

    • Click on File > New > Project....
    • In the left pane, select Spring Initializr. This is a built-in interface to the same Spring Initializr web-based tool that developers use to bootstrap new Spring Boot projects.
    • Choose your desired Project SDK (Java version). Make sure you have the necessary JDK installed.
    • Click Next.
  3. Set Project Metadata:

    • Fill in the Group and Artifact fields. These are often used to identify your project in a Maven or Gradle repository.
    • Define other options if needed (like packaging type, Java version, etc.).
    • Click Next.
  4. Select Dependencies:

    • You'll be presented with a categorized list of dependencies that you can add to your project. This is one of the most powerful features of Spring Boot, allowing you to add functionalities like web capabilities, data access, cloud integrations, and more.
    • For a basic web application, you can expand the Web category and select Spring Web. This will add Spring MVC and embedded Tomcat to your project.
    • After selecting the desired dependencies, click Next.
  5. Project Name and Location:

    • Choose a name for your project and set its location on your filesystem.
    • Click Finish.
  6. Explore Your Project:

    IntelliJ IDEA will generate a new Spring Boot project and open it. In the src/main/java directory, you'll find the main application class, which you can run as a regular Java application. The src/main/resources directory will contain the application.properties (or application.yml) file, where you can specify configuration properties for your app.

  7. Run Your Project:

    • Locate the main application class in the Project Explorer pane. It's the class annotated with @SpringBootApplication.
    • Right-click on it and choose Run.

If your project includes the Spring Web dependency, once the application is running, you can navigate to http://localhost:8080 in your browser to see the default page or any endpoint you create.

Remember, IntelliJ IDEA offers many tools to aid in Spring Boot development, from autocompletion for properties files to integrated Spring Boot Actuator endpoints and much more, especially in the Ultimate edition.