Spring Boot + React Redux example: Build a CRUD App

In this tutorial, we will learn how to build a full stack Spring Boot + React Redux example with a CRUD App. The back-end server uses Spring Boot with Spring Web MVC for REST APIs and Spring Data JPA for interacting with embedded database (H2 database). Front-end side is made with React, Redux, React Router, Axios & Bootstrap.

Related Posts:
– Spring Boot + React Typescript example
– React + Spring Boot: Pagination example
– Spring Boot + React: Login example with JWT Authentication & Spring Security
– React Upload/Download Files to/from Spring Boot Rest Apis

Run both projects in one place:
How to integrate React.js with Spring Boot

Other Databases:

• Spring JPA + PostgreSQL
• Spring JPA + MySQL
• Spring Data + MongoDB
• Spring JPA + SQL Server
• Spring JPA + Oracle
• Spring Data + Cassandra

Spring Boot React Redux example Overview

We will build a full-stack Spring Boot & React Redux Tutorial Application in that:

• Each Tutorial has id, title, description, published status.
• We can create, retrieve, update, delete Tutorials.
• We can also find Tutorials by title.

The images below shows screenshots of our System.

– Create a Tutorial:

– Retrieve all Tutorials:

– Click on Edit button to retrieve an item:

On this Page, you can:

• change status to Published using Publish button
• remove the Tutorial from Database using Delete button
• update the Tutorial details on Database with Update button

– Search items by title:

Architecture of Spring Boot React Redux example

This is the application architecture we’re gonna build:

– Spring Boot exports REST Apis using Spring Web MVC & interactsrations & finder methods with Spring D
– React Client sends HTTP Requests and retrieves HTTP Responses using Axios, consume data on Redux which provides state to the Components. React Router is used for navigating to pages.

Spring Boot Rest Apis Back-end

Overview

These are APIs that Spring Boot App will export:

– We make CRUD operations & finder methods with Spring Data JPA’s JpaRepository.
– The database will be H2 Database (in memory or on disk) by configuring project dependency & datasource.

Technology

• Java 8
• Spring Boot 2 (with Spring Web MVC, Spring Data JPA)
• H2 Database
• Maven 3.6.1

Project Structure

– Tutorial data model class corresponds to entity and table tutorials.
– TutorialRepository is an interface that extends JpaRepository for CRUD methods and custom finder methods. It will be autowired in TutorialController.
– TutorialController is a RestController which has request mapping methods for RESTful requests such as: getAllTutorials, createTutorial, updateTutorial, deleteTutorial, findByPublished…
– Configuration for Spring Datasource, JPA & Hibernate in application.properties.
– pom.xml contains dependencies for Spring Boot and H2 Database.

Create & Setup Spring Boot project

Use Spring web tool or your development tool (Spring Tool Suite, Eclipse, Intellij) to create a Spring Boot project.

Then open pom.xml and add these dependencies:

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
	<artifactId>h2</artifactId>
	<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Configure Spring Boot, JPA, h2, Hibernate

Under src/main/resources folder, open application.properties and write these lines.

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:testdb
spring.datasource.driverClassName=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.username=sa
spring.datasource.password=
 
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto= update

spring.h2.console.enabled=true
# default path: h2-console
spring.h2.console.path=/h2-ui

• spring.datasource.url: jdbc:h2:mem for In-memory database and jdbc:h2:file for disk-based database.
• spring.datasource.username & spring.datasource.password properties are the same as your database installation.
• Spring Boot uses Hibernate for JPA implementation, we configure H2Dialect for H2 Database
• spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto is used for database initialization. We set the value to update value so that a table will be created in the database automatically corresponding to defined data model. Any change to the model will also trigger an update to the table. For production, this property should be validate.
• spring.h2.console.enabled=true tells the Spring to start H2 Database administration tool and you can access this tool on the browser: http://localhost:8080/h2-console.
• spring.h2.console.path=/h2-ui is for H2 console’s url, so the default url http://localhost:8080/h2-console will change to http://localhost:8080/h2-ui.

Define Data Model

Our Data model is Tutorial with four fields: id, title, description, published.
In model package, we define Tutorial class.

model/Tutorial.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.model;

import javax.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "tutorials")
public class Tutorial {

	@Id
	@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
	private long id;

	@Column(name = "title")
	private String title;

	@Column(name = "description")
	private String description;

	@Column(name = "published")
	private boolean published;

	...
}

– @Entity annotation indicates that the class is a persistent Java class.
– @Table annotation provides the table that maps this entity.
– @Id annotation is for the primary key.
– @GeneratedValue annotation is used to define generation strategy for the primary key. GenerationType.AUTO means Auto Increment field.
– @Column annotation is used to define the column in database that maps annotated field.

Create Repository Interface

Let’s create a repository to interact with Tutorials from the database.
In repository package, create TutorialRepository interface that extends JpaRepository.

repository/TutorialRepository.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.repository;

import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;

import com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.model.Tutorial;

public interface TutorialRepository extends JpaRepository<Tutorial, Long> {
  List<Tutorial> findByPublished(boolean published);

  List<Tutorial> findByTitleContaining(String title);
}

Now we can use JpaRepository’s methods: save(), findOne(), findById(), findAll(), count(), delete(), deleteById()… without implementing these methods.

We also define custom finder methods:
– findByPublished(): returns all Tutorials with published having value as input published.
– findByTitleContaining(): returns all Tutorials which title contains input title.

The implementation is plugged in by Spring Data JPA automatically.

You can modify this Repository:
– to work with Pagination, the instruction can be found at:
Spring Boot Pagination & Filter example | Spring JPA, Pageable
– or to sort/order by multiple fields with the tutorial:
Spring Data JPA Sort/Order by multiple Columns | Spring Boot

You also find way to write Unit Test for this JPA Repository at:
Spring Boot Unit Test for JPA Repositiory with @DataJpaTest

Create Spring Rest APIs Controller

Finally, we create a controller that provides APIs for creating, retrieving, updating, deleting and finding Tutorials.

controller/TutorialController.java

package com.bezkoder.spring.jpa.h2.controller;
...

@CrossOrigin(origins = "http://localhost:8081")
@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api")
public class TutorialController {

  @Autowired
  TutorialRepository tutorialRepository;

  @GetMapping("/tutorials")
  public ResponseEntity<List<Tutorial>> getAllTutorials(@RequestParam(required = false) String title) {
    ...
  }

  @GetMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
  public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> getTutorialById(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
    ...
  }

  @PostMapping("/tutorials")
  public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> createTutorial(@RequestBody Tutorial tutorial) {
    ...
  }

  @PutMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
  public ResponseEntity<Tutorial> updateTutorial(@PathVariable("id") long id, @RequestBody Tutorial tutorial) {
    ...
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/tutorials/{id}")
  public ResponseEntity<HttpStatus> deleteTutorial(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
    ...
  }

  @DeleteMapping("/tutorials")
  public ResponseEntity<HttpStatus> deleteAllTutorials() {
    ...
  }

  @GetMapping("/tutorials/published")
  public ResponseEntity<List<Tutorial>> findByPublished() {
    ...
  }
}

– @CrossOrigin is for configuring allowed origins.
– @RestController annotation is used to define a controller and to indicate that the return value of the methods should be be bound to the web response body.
– @RequestMapping("/api") declares that all Apis’ url in the controller will start with /api.
– We use @Autowired to inject TutorialRepository bean to local variable.

You can continue with step by step to implement this Spring Boot Server in the post:
Spring Boot JPA + H2 example: Build a CRUD Rest APIs

Or using Reactive Rest API:
Spring Boot R2DBC + H2 example: Build a CRUD Rest APIs

Run the Spring Boot Server

Run Spring Boot application with command: mvn spring-boot:run.

React Redux Front-end

Overview

This is React components that we’re gonna implement:

– The App component is a container with React Router. It has navbar that links to routes paths.

– Three components that dispatch actions to Redux Thunk Middleware which uses TutorialDataService to call Rest API.

• TutorialsList component gets and displays Tutorials.
• Tutorial component has form for editing Tutorial’s details based on :id.
• AddTutorial component has form for submission new Tutorial.

– TutorialDataService uses axios to make HTTP requests and receive responses.

This diagram shows how Redux elements work in our React Application:

We’re gonna create Redux store for storing tutorials data. Other React Components will work with the Store via dispatching an action.

The reducer will take the action and return new state.

Technology

• React 17/16
• react-redux 7.2.3
• redux 4.0.5
• redux-thunk 2.3.0
• react-router-dom 5.2.0
• axios 0.21.1
• bootstrap 4

Project Structure

– package.json contains main modules: react, react-router-dom, react-redux, redux, redux-thunk, axios & bootstrap.
– App is the container that has Router & navbar.
– There are 3 components: TutorialsList, Tutorial, AddTutorial.
– http-common.js initializes axios with HTTP base Url and headers.
– TutorialDataService has methods for sending HTTP requests to the Apis.
– .env configures port for this React CRUD App.

About Redux elements that we’re gonna use:
– actions folder contains the action creator (tutorials.js for CRUD operations and searching).
– reducers folder contains the reducer (tutorials.js) which updates the application state corresponding to dispatched action.

If you want to work with React Hooks instead, please visit:
React Hooks + Redux: CRUD example with Axios and Rest API

Setup React Redux Project

Open cmd at the folder you want to save Project folder, run command:
npx create-react-app react-redux-crud-example

After the process is done. We create additional folders and files like the following tree:

---

public

src

actions

types.js

tutorials.js (create/retrieve/update/delete actions)

reducers

index.js

tutorials.js

components

add-tutorial.component.js

tutorial.component.js

tutorials-list.component.js

services

tutorial.service.js

App.css

App.js

index.js

store.js

package.json

---

Import Bootstrap to React Redux App

Run command: npm install bootstrap.

Open src/App.js and modify the code inside it as following-

import React, { Component } from "react";
import "bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css";

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    // ...
  }
}

export default App;

Add React Router to React Redux App

– Run the command: npm install react-router-dom.
– Open src/App.js and wrap all UI elements by BrowserRouter object.

...
import { BrowserRouter as Router } from "react-router-dom";

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Router>
        ...
      </Router>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

Add Navbar to React Redux App

The App component is the root container for our application, it will contain a navbar inside <Router> above, and also, a Switch object with several Route. Each Route points to a React Component.

Now App.js looks like:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Switch, Route, Link } from "react-router-dom";
import "bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css";
import "./App.css";

import AddTutorial from "./components/add-tutorial.component";
import Tutorial from "./components/tutorial.component";
import TutorialsList from "./components/tutorials-list.component";

class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Router>
        <nav className="navbar navbar-expand navbar-dark bg-dark">
          <Link to={"/tutorials"} className="navbar-brand">
            bezKoder
          </Link>
          <div className="navbar-nav mr-auto">
            <li className="nav-item">
              <Link to={"/tutorials"} className="nav-link">
                Tutorials
              </Link>
            </li>
            <li className="nav-item">
              <Link to={"/add"} className="nav-link">
                Add
              </Link>
            </li>
          </div>
        </nav>

        <div className="container mt-3">
          <Switch>
            <Route exact path={["/", "/tutorials"]} component={TutorialsList} />
            <Route exact path="/add" component={AddTutorial} />
            <Route path="/tutorials/:id" component={Tutorial} />
          </Switch>
        </div>
      </Router>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

Initialize Axios for React Redux with API calls

Let’s install axios with command: npm install axios.
Under src folder, we create http-common.js file with following code:

import axios from "axios";

export default axios.create({
  baseURL: "http://localhost:8080/api",
  headers: {
    "Content-type": "application/json"
  }
});

You can change the baseURL that depends on REST APIs url that your Server configures.

Create Data Service

In this step, we’re gonna create a service that uses axios object above to send HTTP requests or make API calls.

services/tutorial.service.js

import http from "../http-common";

class TutorialDataService {
  getAll() {
    return http.get("/tutorials");
  }

  get(id) {
    return http.get(`/tutorials/${id}`);
  }

  create(data) {
    return http.post("/tutorials", data);
  }

  update(id, data) {
    return http.put(`/tutorials/${id}`, data);
  }

  delete(id) {
    return http.delete(`/tutorials/${id}`);
  }

  deleteAll() {
    return http.delete(`/tutorials`);
  }

  findByTitle(title) {
    return http.get(`/tutorials?title=${title}`);
  }
}

export default new TutorialDataService();

We call axios get, post, put, delete method corresponding to HTTP Requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE to make CRUD Operations.

Create Redux Actions

We’re gonna create actions in src/actions folder:

---

actions

types.js

tutorials.js (create/retrieve/update/delete actions)

---

First we defined some string constant that indicates the type of action being performed.

actions/type.js

export const CREATE_TUTORIAL = "CREATE_TUTORIAL";
export const RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS = "RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS";
export const UPDATE_TUTORIAL = "UPDATE_TUTORIAL";
export const DELETE_TUTORIAL = "DELETE_TUTORIAL";
export const DELETE_ALL_TUTORIALS = "DELETE_ALL_TUTORIALS";

Next we make creators for actions related to tutorials. We’re gonna import TutorialDataService to make asynchronous HTTP requests with trigger dispatch on the result.

– createTutorial()

• calls the TutorialDataService.create()
• dispatch CREATE_TUTORIAL

– retrieveTutorials()

• calls the TutorialDataService.getAll()
• dispatch RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS

– updateTutorial()

• calls the TutorialDataService.update()
• dispatch UPDATE_TUTORIAL

– deleteTutorial()

• calls the TutorialDataService.delete()
• dispatch DELETE_TUTORIAL

– deleteAllTutorials()

• calls the TutorialDataService.deleteAll()
• dispatch DELETE_ALL_TUTORIALS

– findTutorialsByTitle()

• calls the TutorialDataService.findByTitle()
• dispatch RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS

Some action creators return a Promise for Components using them.

For more details, please visit:
React Redux CRUD example with Rest API

Create Redux Reducer

There will be a reducer in src/reducers folder, the reducer updates the state corresponding to dispatched Redux actions.

---

reducers

index.js

tutorials.js

---

The tutorials reducer will update tutorials state of the Redux store:
reducers/tutorials.js

import {
  CREATE_TUTORIAL,
  RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS,
  UPDATE_TUTORIAL,
  DELETE_TUTORIAL,
  DELETE_ALL_TUTORIALS,
} from "../actions/types";

const initialState = [];

function tutorialReducer(tutorials = initialState, action) {
  const { type, payload } = action;

  switch (type) {
    case CREATE_TUTORIAL:
      return [...tutorials, payload];

    case RETRIEVE_TUTORIALS:
      return payload;

    case UPDATE_TUTORIAL:
      return tutorials.map((tutorial) => {
        if (tutorial.id === payload.id) {
          return {
            ...tutorial,
            ...payload,
          };
        } else {
          return tutorial;
        }
      });

    case DELETE_TUTORIAL:
      return tutorials.filter(({ id }) => id !== payload.id);

    case DELETE_ALL_TUTORIALS:
      return [];

    default:
      return tutorials;
  }
};

export default tutorialReducer;

Because we only have a single store in a Redux application. We use reducer composition instead of many stores to split data handling logic.

reducers/index.js

import { combineReducers } from "redux";
import tutorials from "./tutorials";

export default combineReducers({
  tutorials,
});

Create Redux Store

This Store will bring Actions and Reducers together and hold the Application state.

Now we need to install Redux, Thunk Middleware and Redux Devtool Extension.
Run the command:

npm install redux react-redux redux-thunk
npm install --save-dev redux-devtools-extension

In the previous section, we used combineReducers() to combine 2 reducers into one. Let’s import it, and pass it to createStore():

store.js

import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from 'redux';
import { composeWithDevTools } from "redux-devtools-extension";
import thunk from 'redux-thunk';
import rootReducer from './reducers';

const initialState = {};

const middleware = [thunk];

const store = createStore(
  rootReducer,
  initialState,
  composeWithDevTools(applyMiddleware(...middleware))
);

export default store;

Provide State to React Components

We will use mapStateToProps and mapDispatchToProps to connect Redux state to React Components’ props later using connect() function:

export default connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps)(ReactComponent);

So we need to make the Redux store available to the connect() call in the Components. We will wrap a parent or ancestor Component in Provider.

Provider is an high order component that wraps up React application and makes it aware of the entire Redux store. That is, it provides the store to its child components.

Now we want our entire React App to access the store, just put the App Component within Provider.

Open src/index.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App';
...
import { Provider } from 'react-redux';
import store from './store';

ReactDOM.render(
  <Provider store={store}>
    <App />
  </Provider>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

Create React Components/Pages

Now we’re gonna build 3 components corresponding to 3 Routes defined before.

• Add new Item
• List of items
• Item details

You can continue with step by step to implement this React App in the post:
– React Redux CRUD example with Rest API
– React Hooks + Redux: CRUD example with Rest API

Without Redux:
– React.js CRUD example to consume Web API
– or React Hooks CRUD example to consume Web API

Run React Redux Client

You can run our App with command: npm start.
If the process is successful, open Browser with Url: http://localhost:8081/ and check it.

Source Code

You can find Github source code for this tutorial at: Spring Boot and React Project Github

Conclusion

Today we have an overview of React Redux + Spring Boot example when building a full-stack CRUD Application.

We also take a look at client-server architecture for REST API using Spring Boot and Spring Data JPA with embedded H2 database, as well as React Redux project structure for building a front-end app to make HTTP requests and consume responses.

Next tutorials show you more details about how to implement the system (including source code):
– Back-end / Back-end with Reactive API
– Front-end:

• Using React Components
• Using React Hooks

You will want to know how to run both projects in one place:
How to integrate React.js with Spring Boot

With Pagination:
React Pagination with API using Material-UI

Or Serverless with Firebase:
– React Firebase CRUD with Realtime Database
– React Firestore CRUD App example | Firebase Cloud Firestore

– Front-end without Redux:

• Using React Components
• Using React Hooks
• Using React with Material UI

– Spring Restful Apis for other databases:

• Spring JPA + PostgreSQL / Spring R2DBC + PostgreSQL
• Spring JPA + MySQL / Spring R2DBC + MySQL
• Spring Data + MongoDB
• Spring JPA + SQL Server
• Spring JPA + Oracle
• Spring Data + Cassandra

Happy learning, see you again!