Integrating Dubbo with Nacos in Spring Boot: A Step‑by‑Step Example

In this tutorial, we walk through a complete example of integrating dubbo with nacos using Spring Boot, focusing on practical implementation rather than theory.

Environment Preparation

Dubbo Overview

Dubbo’s core nodes communicate as follows: the service container starts and loads providers, providers register with the registry, consumers subscribe to services, the registry returns provider addresses, and consumers invoke services using load‑balancing and report metrics.

Nacos Setup

Start Nacos (version 1.4.3) and open its control panel.

Project Management Guidelines

Define version compatibility between Spring Boot, Spring Cloud Alibaba, Dubbo, and Nacos. Use a parent Maven project to manage dependencies.

Parent POM (dubbo‑nacos‑example)

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-alibaba-example</artifactId>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <version>2.3.12.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>
    <groupId>ah.wideth</groupId>
    <artifactId>dubbo-nacos-example</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
        <dubbo.version>2.7.13</dubbo.version>
        <nacos.version>1.4.1</nacos.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>Hoxton.SR12</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-alibaba-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>2.2.7.RELEASE</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-alibaba-nacos-discovery</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.alibaba.nacos</groupId>
                    <artifactId>nacos-client</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
            <artifactId>dubbo-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
            <version>${dubbo.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
            <artifactId>dubbo-registry-nacos</artifactId>
            <version>${dubbo.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.alibaba.nacos</groupId>
            <artifactId>nacos-client</artifactId>
            <version>${nacos.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.alibaba.spring</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.11</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.dubbo</groupId>
            <artifactId>dubbo</artifactId>
            <version>${dubbo.version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                    <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>log4j</groupId>
                    <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Module: public‑api

This module defines a simple interface that both provider and consumer will use.

package ah.wideth.api;
/**
 * Allows provider and consumer to share this contract.
 */
public interface InfoService {
    String getInfo();
}

Module: dubbo‑provider

POM adds Spring Boot web starter and depends on the public‑api module.

<project ...>
    <parent>...</parent>
    <artifactId>dubbo-provider</artifactId>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
            <artifactId>public-api</artifactId>
            <version>${project.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Configuration application.yml registers the service with Nacos and sets Dubbo protocol.

server:
  port: 8180
spring:
  application:
    name: dubbo-provider
dubbo:
  registry:
    address: nacos://127.0.0.1:8848
  application:
    name: dubbo-provider
  protocol:
    name: dubbo
    port: 20880
  scan:
    base-packages: ah.wideth.impl
  provider:
    timeout: 30000

Implementation of the service:

package ah.wideth.impl;
import ah.wideth.api.InfoService;
import org.apache.dubbo.config.annotation.DubboService;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
@Component
@DubboService
public class InfoServiceImpl implements InfoService {
    @Override
    public String getInfo() {
        return "hello，这里是dubbo-provider模块！";
    }
}

Provider application entry point:

package ah.wideth;
import org.apache.dubbo.config.spring.context.annotation.EnableDubbo;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.discovery.EnableDiscoveryClient;
@EnableDubbo
@EnableDiscoveryClient
@SpringBootApplication
public class DubboProviderApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(DubboProviderApplication.class, args);
        System.out.println("dubbo服务提供者8180启动了");
    }
}

Module: dubbo‑consumer

POM mirrors the provider and also depends on public-api.

<project ...>
    <parent>...</parent>
    <artifactId>dubbo-consumer</artifactId>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
            <artifactId>public-api</artifactId>
            <version>${project.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Consumer application.yml points to the same Nacos registry.

server:
  port: 8181
spring:
  application:
    name: dubbo-consumer
dubbo:
  registry:
    address: nacos://127.0.0.1:8848
  application:
    name: dubbo-consumer
  consumer:
    timeout: 30000

Controller that references the remote service:

package ah.wideth.controller;
import ah.wideth.api.InfoService;
import org.apache.dubbo.config.annotation.DubboReference;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
@RestController
public class InfoController {
    @DubboReference(check = false)
    private InfoService infoService;
    @GetMapping("/getInfo")
    public String getInfo() {
        return infoService.getInfo();
    }
}

Consumer application entry point:

package ah.wideth;
import org.apache.dubbo.config.spring.context.annotation.EnableDubbo;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.client.discovery.EnableDiscoveryClient;
@EnableDubbo
@EnableDiscoveryClient
@SpringBootApplication
public class DubboConsumerApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(DubboConsumerApplication.class, args);
        System.out.println("dubbo服务消费者8181启动了");
    }
}

Testing the Integration

Start Nacos, then run the provider and consumer applications. Access http://localhost:8181/getInfo – the consumer calls the remote Dubbo service and receives the string returned by the provider. Verify the service appears in the Nacos console.

Conclusion

The example demonstrates a minimal yet complete Dubbo‑Nacos integration with Spring Boot, emphasizing proper Maven module structure, version alignment, and configuration to avoid common jar‑conflict issues.