![](https://csdnimg.cn/release/download_crawler_static/10616180/bg10.jpg)
We’ll learn more about testing in our discussion on testing. Start the application and
manipulate the database through the HAL-encoded hypermedia REST API on
http://locahost:8080/cats. We’ll learn more about data manipulation in Spring
in ??? and we’ll learn more about processing data in ???. We’ll learn more about REST
and web applications in the ??? chapter. If you run the test, it should be green! We’ll
learn more about testing in the chapter on ???.
Thus far we’ve done everything using a text editor, but most developers today use an
IDE. There are many fine choices out there and Spring Boot works well with any of
them. If you don’t already have a Java IDE, you might consider the Spring Tool Suite
(STS). The Spring Tool Suite is an Eclipse-based IDE that packages up common eco‐
system tooling to deliver a smoother Eclipse experience than what you’d get out of the
box if you were to download the base Eclipse platform from Eclipse. STS is freely-
available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License.
STS provides an in-IDE experience for the Spring Initializr. Indeed, the functionality
in Spring Tool Suite, IntelliJ Ultimate edition, NetBeans and the Spring Initializr web
application itself all delegate to the Spring Initializr’s REST API, so you get a common
result no matter where you start.
Let’s build a new project in the Spring Tool Suite.
Getting Started with the Spring Tool Suite
You do not need to use any particular IDE to develop Spring or Spring Boot applica‐
tions. The authors have built Spring applications in emacs, plain Eclipse, Apache Net‐
beans (with and without the excellent Spring Boot plugin support that engineers from
no less than Oracle have contributed) and IntelliJ IDEA Community edition and
IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate edition with no problems. Spring Boot 1.x, in particular, needs
Java 6 or better and support for editing plain .properties files as well as support for
working with Maven or Gradle-based builds. Any IDE from 2010 or later will do a
good job here.
If you use Eclipse, the Spring Tool Suite has a lot of nice features that make working
with Spring Boot-based projects even nicer:
•
you can access all of the Spring guides in the STS IDE
• you can generate new projects with the Spring Initializr in the IDE.
• If you attempt to access a type that doesn’t exist on the CLASSPATH, but can be
discovered within one of Spring Boot’s -starter dependencies, then STS will
automatically add that type for you.
• The Boot Dashboard makes it seamless to edit local Spring Boot applications
and have them synchronized with a Cloud Foundry deployment. You can further
debug and live-reload deployed Cloud Foundry applications, all within the IDE.
16 | Chapter 1: Bootcamp: Introducing Spring Boot and Cloud Foundry