EnglishETL (extract, transform, load) processes, data processing, exporting data from one business system (ERP, CRM, accounting etc.) and importing it into another are common requirements in enterprise IT. So much so that the ability to export and import data often is the key feature of enterprise software.
Spring Batch is a toolkit in the context of the widely used Spring framework that allows you to define and run batch jobs and data processing pipelines. Spring Batch provides features such as:
- data export / import job management
- batch processing
- reading from and writing to CSV files, XML streams and SQL databases
- transaction management
- chunk-based processing
- declarative I/O
- logic for managing / retrying / skipping jobs
As with any even moderately useful toolkit the common use cases are easy to implement while more specific and less common requirements such as reading from and writing to custom data sources tend to demand more complex solutions. This is why resources, tutorials and guides by people who’ve been through similar problems are very useful.
In this blog post I’ve compiled a list of such resources I have found useful with both implementing solutions and teaching others about how to use Spring Batch to accomplish their goals.
Quite likely the most accessible and comprehensive tutorial for beginners is the one by the comprehensive Java development website Mkyong.com (which also provides a huge amount of other valuable tutorials and resources for other Java technologies and frameworks):
Other tutorials (for both general and specific use cases) include:
- Spring Batch Tutorial – The ULTIMATE Guide (PDF Download)
- Spring Batch Tutorial: Introduction
- Spring Batch Tutorial with Spring Boot and Java Configuration
- Spring Batch Tutorial: Reading Information From a REST API
- Creating a Batch Service
- Spring Batch as a framework for system integration
Some Spring Batch example source code is available here:
langmi/spring-batch-tutorials
codecentric/spring-boot-starter-batch-web
If you need to read Microsoft Excel files with Spring Batch the spring-batch-excel extension might come in handy:
mdeinum/spring-batch-extensions
There’s also plenty of expedient information available on Stack Overflow that can help you with solving not-so-common problems such as how to read from a REST API or writing to a SOAP WebService with Spring Batch:
I need to write a spring batch to call the web service is there any example
Spring batch Item reader to iterate over a rest api call
how to best approach to use spring batch annotation or xml files ?
Finally, as part of Spring Cloud Data Flow there’s a dashboard by the Spring creators themselves that allows you to manage Spring Batch jobs:
Spring Cloud Data Flow Dashboard
If you’d like to learn more about Spring Boot you can register here for my upcoming Spring Boot workshop in December 2021 (German-language, held remotely) at a 10% discount: Spring Boot Intensiv-Schulung (01/12/2021 – 08/12/2021, 6 days, 9 a.m till noon each day)
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