📘 Why Java Annotations Are Essential
for Modern Development
🔹Clean, Fast, Scalable
🌿 A Practical Guide from
@Component to @SpringBootTest
🧑💻 Aman Kalabay
📌 Component Scanning & Dependency Injection
@Component: Marks a Java class as a Spring-
managed component.
@Service: Specialized @Component for
service layer.
@Repository: Specialized @Component for
persistence layer with exception translation.
@Controller: Specialized @Component for
MVC controller.
@RestController: Combines @Controller and
@ResponseBody.
@ComponentScan: Enables component
scanning in specified packages.
@Autowired: Injects dependencies
automatically.
@Qualifier: Specifies which bean to inject
when multiple candidates exist.
@Primary: Indicates the default bean to
inject when multiple candidates are present.
📌 Configuration & Bean Management
@Configuration: Indicates that the class contains Spring
bean definitions.
@Bean: Declares a bean to be managed by Spring.
@Lazy: Creates the bean only when it's first requested.
@DependsOn: Specifies dependent beans that must be
initialized first.
@Scope: Defines the scope of a bean (singleton,
prototype, etc.).
📌 Scheduling & Async Execution
@EnableScheduling: Enables Spring’s scheduled task
execution capability.
@Scheduled: Declares a method to be scheduled (e.g.,
cron or fixedDelay).
@EnableAsync: Enables asynchronous method
execution.
@Async: Marks a method to run asynchronously in a
separate thread.
📌 Spring AOP (Aspect-Oriented
Programming)
@EnableAspectJAutoProxy: Enables support
for handling components marked with
@Aspect.
@Aspect: Marks a class as an aspect.
@Before: Executes before a matched method.
@After: Executes after a matched method.
@AfterReturning: Executes after a method
returns successfully.
@AfterThrowing: Executes if a matched method
throws an exception.
@Around: Wraps method execution (before and
after).
📌 Spring Boot Annotations
@SpringBootApplication: Combines
@Configuration, @EnableAutoConfiguration,
and @ComponentScan.
@EnableAutoConfiguration: Tells Spring Boot
to start adding beans based on classpath
settings.
@ConfigurationProperties: Binds external
config to a Java object.
@Value: Injects values from properties files.
@Profile: Activates beans only for specific
profiles.
@ConditionalOnProperty: Loads a bean only
if a specific property exists.
📌 Spring MVC & REST
@RequestMapping: Maps HTTP requests to
handler methods.
@GetMapping,@PostMapping, @PutMapping,
@DeleteMapping: Shorthand for
@RequestMapping with HTTP methods.
@RequestParam: Binds HTTP query
parameters to method arguments.
@PathVariable: Binds URI template variables
to method parameters.
@RequestBody: Binds HTTP request body to a
method parameter.
@ResponseBody: Indicates the return value
should be serialized to the HTTP response
body.
📌 Exception Handling
@ControllerAdvice: Handles exceptions
across multiple controllers.
@ExceptionHandler: Defines method to
handle specific exceptions.
@ResponseStatus: Sets the HTTP status for a
method or exception.
📌 Spring Cloud & Microservices
@EnableDiscoveryClient: Enables service
registration and discovery.
@FeignClient: Declarative REST client for
calling other services.
@LoadBalanced: Adds client-side load
balancing to RestTemplate.
@RefreshScope: Refreshes bean values on
config changes.
@EnableConfigServer: Starts a Spring Cloud
Config server.
📌 Spring Kafka
@EnableKafka: Enables Kafka-related
annotations.
@KafkaListener: Listens for Kafka messages.
@KafkaHandler: Used with class-level
@KafkaListener for multiple methods.
📌 Messaging & WebSockets
@EnableWebSocket: Enables WebSocket
configuration.
@MessageMapping: Maps incoming messages
to methods (used in STOMP).
@SendTo: Sends response message to a
specific topic.
@SubscribeMapping: Handles subscription
requests.
@JmsListener: Listens to JMS messages.
@RabbitListener: Listens to RabbitMQ
messages.
📌 Caching
@EnableCaching: Enables Spring's annotation-
driven cache management.
@Cacheable: Caches the result of a method.
@CachePut: Updates the cache with the
method result.
@CacheEvict: Removes an entry from the
cache.
📌 Spring Security
@EnableWebSecurity: Enables Spring
Security configuration.
@PreAuthorize: Method-level
security using expressions.
@Secured: Defines security
constraints on methods.
@WithMockUser: Mocks a user for
testing purposes.
📌 Spring Data MongoDB
@Document: Marks a class as a
MongoDB document.
@Field: Maps a field to a specific
MongoDB field name.
@Id: Marks the primary key of the
document.
@DBRef: References another
document.
📌 Spring Data Cassandra
@Table: Marks a class as a Cassandra table.
@PrimaryKey: Marks the primary key field.
@Column: Maps a field to a Cassandra column.
@CassandraType: Defines the Cassandra-
specific data type.
📌 Spring Testing
@SpringBootTest: Loads a full application
context for integration testing.
@DataJpaTest: Configures an in-memory
database and tests only JPA components.
@WebMvcTest: Loads only web layer
(controllers) for testing.
@MockBean: Adds Mockito mock into the
Spring ApplicationContext.
@TestConfiguration: Provides test-specific
bean configurations.
📌 JPA & Transactions
@Entity: Marks a class as a JPA entity.
@Table: Maps the entity to a database table.
@Column: Maps a field to a database
column.
@Id: Marks a field as a primary key.
@GeneratedValue: Defines primary key
generation strategy.
@OneToMany, @ManyToOne: Defines
relationships between entities.
@Transactional: Declares a method or class
as transactional.
@EnableTransactionManagement: Enables
annotation-driven transaction
management.
📌 Spring Repository & Query
@Repository: Indicates a data access
component.
@EnableJpaRepositories: Enables JPA
repository scanning.
@Query: Defines a custom JPQL/SQL
query.
@Modifying: Marks a modifying query
(update/delete).
📌 Validation
@Valid: Triggers validation on method
arguments.
@NotNull: Validates that a value is not
null.
@Size: Validates size constraints (length or
collection size).
@Email: Validates that a field contains a
valid email address.
@Pattern: Validates a string against a
regex.
@Min, @Max: Validates numeric
boundaries.
