A simple starter template application integrating Spring 5.2.4, Spring Boot 2.2.5, Thymeleaf templates, React, and Webpack 4

Goal

Create a starter template that incorporates the major tools necessary to build a modern web application.

• Java
• Thymeleaf
• Spring MVC
• Spring Boot
• Webpack
• Gulp
• Bootstrap
• React

I was trying to bring all of these tools together and ran into a few pitfalls along the way. Figured it was worthwhile writing it up so that others could avoid the mistakes that I made.

Build Requirements

• Java 11 sdk
• Apache Maven 3.1.0 or later.

Building

Build the application.

mvn clean package

This may take a few minutes the first time as it will pull down a local copy of node/npm and necessary modules.

Start the spring boot application.

./generic-site/target/generic-site.jar --spring.profiles.active=prod

View the application in your browser.

http://localhost:8100

Dev Build

Build the application

mvn clean package

Start the spring boot application with the dev profile active.

./generic-site/target/generic-site.jar --spring.profiles.active=dev

Then in a second terminal window

cd generic-site/src/main/javascript

Start the webpack dev server.

gulp

This will run the webpack dev server. This way when you make changes to the javascript code they'll be reflected in the browser quickly.

View the application in your browser.

http://localhost:8080