Spring Boot & Kotlin: Pain or Gain?

Urs Peter - Xebia

Spring Boot has been the No. 1 framework for Java developers ever since. With its first-class support for Kotlin, a new frontier of possibilities opens up. Can Kotlin propel Spring Boot to new heights of efficiency and simplicity beyond what Java offers?

Join me on an enlightening journey as we explore the potential advantages and pitfalls of integrating Kotlin into the Spring Boot ecosystem. We’ll begin by dissecting Spring Boot’s support for Kotlin features such as extensions, data classes, nullability, and more. Can they live up to their promise of improved code safety, conciseness, and readability compared to their Java counterparts?

In the second part, we will venture into more advanced territory by investigating how reactive Spring Boot Webflux - highly efficient yet notorious for its complexity and steep learning curve - might be simplified using Coroutines, Kotlin’s built-in asynchronous language feature. Are the potential benefits worth the hassle of learning Coroutines? And yes, we’ll take a look at the role Virtual Threads can play in that regard!

Finally, we’ll dive into the practical realm, transforming a Spring Boot application written in Java to Kotlin on the spot using live coding to explore tooling support and possible conversion strategies, accompanied by intriguing stories from real-world use cases.

At the end of the journey, you have gained a nuanced understanding of the benefits and drawbacks Spring Boot offers when used with Kotlin compared to Java. Will the pain of adoption be worth the potential gain? Let’s find out together!