Boost Spring Boot Productivity with DevTools, Lombok, and Config Processor

Spring Boot DevTools

Spring Boot DevTools is a tool that enables hot deployment for Spring Boot applications.

You can enable it either by selecting the option when creating a new project or by adding the following Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
    <optional>true</optional>
</dependency>

In IntelliJ IDEA, after modifying code press Ctrl+F9 to recompile and achieve hot‑deployment.

In Eclipse, simply saving the file ( Ctrl+S) triggers automatic compilation.

To enable automatic recompilation without manual shortcuts, configure the following settings in IDEA (see images):

Lombok

Lombok is a tool that simplifies JavaBean development by automatically generating constructors, getters, and setters.

Enable Lombok by selecting the option during project initialization or by adding the following Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
    <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
    <optional>true</optional>
</dependency>

After adding the dependency, install the Lombok plugin in IDEA (see image) and use Lombok annotations as shown:

@AllArgsConstructor // all‑args constructor
@NoArgsConstructor // no‑args constructor
@Data // generates getters, setters, toString, etc.
public class User {
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private Integer age;
    private String email;
}

Spring Configuration Processor

The Spring Configuration Processor provides metadata for @ConfigurationProperties classes, enabling IDE assistance for property binding.

Add the optional dependency to your project:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
    <optional>true</optional>
</dependency>

To reduce the final JAR size, exclude the processor from the packaged artifact by adding the following configuration to the Maven build plugins:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <excludes>
                    <exclude>
                        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                        <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
                    </exclude>
                </excludes>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

After adding the processor, annotate your POJOs with @ConfigurationProperties to enable property binding and IDE hints, for example:

@Component
@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "mypet")
public class Pet {
    private String nickName;
    private String strain;
    // getters and setters
}