What is Spring Data REST? (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 23 Apr, 2026

Spring Data REST automatically exposes Spring Data repositories as REST APIs, eliminating the need for controller code. By defining repositories (like CrudRepository), endpoints are generated automatically, with options for customization using annotations and configuration.

**Real-world example: In an e-commerce application, product and customer repositories can be directly exposed as REST APIs using Spring Data REST, allowing frontend applications to perform operations like viewing products, adding items, or updating customer details without needing custom controller logic.

Architecture of Spring Data REST

Spring Data REST follows a layered architecture where repositories act as the data access layer, and it automatically exposes them as RESTful endpoints using Spring MVC.

Data-REST-Arch

Architecture of Spring Data REST

The Spring Data REST architecture diagram you sent shows the following components:

Spring Data REST architecture works as follows:

  1. A client sends an HTTP request to the Spring Data REST server.
  2. The Spring Data REST server receives the HTTP request and routes it to the appropriate repository.
  3. The repository interacts with the underlying data store to perform the requested operation.
  4. The repository returns the results of the operation to the Spring Data REST server.
  5. The Spring Data REST server returns the results of the operation to the client.

How Spring Data REST follows HATEOAS

{
"_links": {
"self": { "href": "https://api.example.com/users/1" },
"profile": { "href": "https://api.example.com/users/1/profile" },
"orders": { "href": "https://api.example.com/users/1/orders" }
}
}

Getting Started with Spring Data REST

Follow these steps to set up and start using Spring Data REST to expose repositories as RESTful APIs with minimal configuration.

Step 1: Setting up a Spring Boot project

Create a Spring Boot project and add typical Spring Boot dependencies like Spring Web, Spring Data JPA etc.

Step 2: Adding dependencies

Add the spring-boot-starter-data-rest dependency and other required dependencies.

Step 3: Creating data models (JPA entities)

Step 4: Creating JPA repositories

Step 5: Running the Spring Boot application

Step 6: Accessing the generated API endpoints

Example Project of Student Management System

Step 1: Create Spring Boot Project

Step 2: Add required dependencies

Below is the code for pom.xml file

XML `

4.0.0 org.springframework.boot spring-boot-starter-parent 3.1.4 com.spring Spring_Data_Rest 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT Spring_Data_Rest Demo project for Spring_Data_Rest <java.version>17</java.version> org.springframework.boot spring-boot-starter-data-jpa org.springframework.boot spring-boot-starter-data-rest org.springframework.boot spring-boot-starter-web 

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

`

Step 3: Create JPA Entity

Create a package entities and define Student class. Use JPA annotations:

package com.spring.entities;

import jakarta.persistence.Entity; import jakarta.persistence.GeneratedValue; import jakarta.persistence.GenerationType; import jakarta.persistence.Id; import jakarta.persistence.Table;

@Entity @Table(name = "students") public class Student { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO) private int id;

private String first_name;
private String last_name;
private String marks;

public Student()
{
    super();
    // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
}

public Student(int id, String first_name,
               String last_name, String marks)
{
    super();
    this.id = id;
    this.first_name = first_name;
    this.last_name = last_name;
    this.marks = marks;
}

public int getId() { return id; }

public void setId(int id) { this.id = id; }

public String getFirst_name() { return first_name; }

public void setFirst_name(String first_name)
{
    this.first_name = first_name;
}

public String getLast_name() { return last_name; }

public void setLast_name(String last_name)
{
    this.last_name = last_name;
}

public String getMarks() { return marks; }

public void setMarks(String marks)
{
    this.marks = marks;
}

}

Java

package com.spring;

import com.spring.entities.Student; import com.spring.repositories.StudentRepository; import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired; import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner; import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication; import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication public class SpringDataRestApplication implements CommandLineRunner { @Autowired private StudentRepository studentRepository;

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    SpringApplication.run(
        SpringDataRestApplication.class, args);
}

@Override
public void run(String... args) throws Exception
{
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    Student student = new Student();
    student.setFirst_name("John");
    student.setLast_name("Mark");
    student.setMarks("89");
    this.studentRepository.save(student);

    Student student1 = new Student();
    student1.setFirst_name("SPR");
    student1.setLast_name("XYZ");
    student1.setMarks("88");
    this.studentRepository.save(student1);
}

}

`

Step 4: Create Spring Data JPA Repository

package com.spring.repositories;

import com.spring.entities.Student; import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository; import org.springframework.data.rest.core.annotation.RepositoryRestResource;

@RepositoryRestResource(path = "students", collectionResourceRel = "stu") public interface StudentRepository extends JpaRepository<Student, Integer> { }

`

Step 5: Configure Database Connection

In your application.properties or application.yml file, configure the database connection details.

spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/student_management
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=admin
spring.datasource.dbcp2.driver-class-name=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
spring.data.rest.base-path=api/

Step 6: Run Your Application

We can run your Spring Boot application from your IDE or by using the command-line tool provided by Spring Boot.

mvn spring-boot:run

Step 7: Access Your RESTful Endpoints

Your Spring Data REST API is now available. You can access it via HTTP, using tools like cURL, Postman, or your web browser.

To a Post specific student, you can use: http://localhost:8080/api/students

**To get all students, you can use: http://localhost:8080/api/students