Spring Boot: Up and Running

Chapter 6. Really Digging into Data

Data can be a complex topic, with so much to consider: its structure and relationships with other data; handling, storage, and retrieval options; various applicable standards; database providers and mechanisms; and more. Data may be the most complex aspect of development to which devs are exposed so early in their careers and when learning a new toolchain.

The reason this is often the case is that without data in some form, nearly all applications are meaningless. Very few apps provide any value at all without storing, retrieving, or correlating data.

As something that forms the underpinning for nearly all application value, data has attracted a great deal of innovation from database providers and platform vendors. But in many cases, complexity remains: it is a topic with great depth and breadth, after all.

Enter Spring Data. Spring Data’s stated mission is “to provide a familiar and consistent, Spring-based programming model for data access while still retaining the special traits of the underlying data store.” Regardless of database engine or platform, Spring Data’s goal is to make the developer’s access to data as simple and as powerful as humanly possible.

This chapter demonstrates how to define data storage and retrieval using various industry standards and leading database engines and the Spring Data projects and facilities that enable their use in the most streamlined and powerful ways possible: via Spring Boot.

Defining Entities

In ...