Let’s Develop an E-Commerce Application from Scratch Using Java and Spring

    <dependency>

      <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>

      <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>

    </dependency>

We also have to modify our application.properties file by adding the lines

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:testdb

spring.datasource.driverClassName=org.h2.Driver

spring.datasource.username=sa

spring.datasource.password=password

spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect

Now, run the code and open [http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html](http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html) page. We will see this screen

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*DmVIKGkSSW14pNJOcLe9-g.png)

## Demo

Let’s create a category watch, with this request body. (Note: we do not need to pass id here, it will be auto created.)

    {
      "categoryName": "watches",
      "description": "best watches",
      "imageUrl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1524805444758-089113d48a6d?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=634&q=80"
    }

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*RRebmprvGLgUnrr53Fqr8g.png)

You will get the response as below-

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*w91nIxx7X0dIU_g5QQPibA.png)

Now, let us hit the get API

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2018/1*7rtYwUNeqt37NzAr-CyRYQ.png)

We will get the following response-

    [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "categoryName": "watches",
        "description": "best watches",
        "imageUrl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1524805444758-089113d48a6d?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=634&q=80"
      }
    ]




## Enable CORS

We will add the webconfig.java file, so that our [front end](https://medium.com/javarevisited/6-best-frontend-development-courses-for-beginners-to-learn-in-2021-f2772157864) can hit the API.

  


Hurray! We can now play with the APIs and can create some new category, update and fetch all the categories.

  
  
  Designing the Product API


Now we have some categories, it is time to make the products APIs. First, we will create the model, then we will create the repository, then we will make the service and at the end, we will create the controller and test it.



  
  
  Model


Product will have id, name, imageURL, price, description as well as a foreign key to category, as every product belong to a category.

@Entity
@Table(name = "products")
public class Product {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Integer id;

    private @NotNull String name;
    private @NotNull String imageURL;
    private @NotNull double price;
    private @NotNull String description;

    @JsonIgnore
    @ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY, optional = false)
    @JoinColumn(name = "category_id", nullable = false)
    Category category;


    public Product(String name, String imageURL, double price, String description, Category category) {
        super();
        this.name = name;
        this.imageURL = imageURL;
        this.price = price;
        this.description = description;
        this.category = category;
    }
// setters and getters
}



    

    





  
  
  Repository


Next, we will create a file, ProductRepository.java in repository package, which will just extend JpaRepository. If we need some methods, we will add it later

package com.educative.ecommerce.repository;

import com.educative.ecommerce.model.Product;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

@Repository
public interface ProductRepository extends JpaRepository<Product, Integer> {

}



    

    





  
  
  Service


Now we are ready to create the service class. Create a file ProductService.java in service directory. It will have an autowired ProductRepository.

@Service
public class ProductService {

@Autowired
    private ProductRepository productRepository;
}



    

    





  
  
  DTO concept#


Before creating a product, we need to understand, what is a DTO (data transfer object)

Martin Fowler introduced the concept of a Data Transfer Object (DTO) as an object that carries data between processes.

In category controller, we directly used the model as request body, but that is not practical in many cases. We need to create a different object because


sometimes we might have to change the model, and we do not want to change the API for backward compatibility
We can’t use the model as request body if it has relationship with another model.


So quickly, we will create a package dto and inside the package we will create another package product, and there we will create our ProductDto.java class, which will have the following attributes

private Integer id;
private @NotNull String name;
private @NotNull String imageURL;
private @NotNull double price;
private @NotNull String description;
private @NotNull Integer categoryId;



    

    




We are also passing categoryId, because we need this to link a product with a category.

  
  
  Controller


Now as we have the productDto ready, now time to create ProductController.java class

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/product")
public class ProductController {

@Autowired
    ProductService productService;
    @Autowired
    CategoryService categoryService;
}



    

    




It will autowire ProductService and CategoryService

  
  
  Create a new product API


@PostMapping("/add")
    public ResponseEntity<ApiResponse> addProduct(@RequestBody ProductDto productDto) {
        Optional<Category> optionalCategory = categoryService.readCategory(productDto.getCategoryId());
        if (!optionalCategory.isPresent()) {
            return new ResponseEntity<ApiResponse>(new ApiResponse(false, "category is invalid"), HttpStatus.CONFLICT);
        }
        Category category = optionalCategory.get();
        productService.addProduct(productDto, category);
        return new ResponseEntity<>(new ApiResponse(true, "Product has been added"), HttpStatus.CREATED);
    }



    

    




We will receive categoryId and product details from the request body.

First, we will check if the categoryId is valid or return “category is invalid” error.

Then we will create a product by calling method, productService.addProduct which takes productDto and category as arguments.

public void addProduct(ProductDto productDto, Category category) {
        Product product = getProductFromDto(productDto, category);
        productRepository.save(product);
    }

public static Product getProductFromDto(ProductDto productDto, Category category) {
        Product product = new Product();
        product.setCategory(category);
        product.setDescription(productDto.getDescription());
        product.setImageURL(productDto.getImageURL());
        product.setPrice(productDto.getPrice());
        product.setName(productDto.getName());
        return product;
    }



    

    




The complete code can be found in the GitHub repository given below-

GitHub — webtutsplus/ecommerce at product-apis

And this marks the end of this tutorial. But wait! The tutorial series will continue for building the UI using Vue.js for the above-developed backend application. Till that, stay tuned!

Happy Learning

Continue to the next tutorial, where we will use the API to make a frontend using vue.js

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/lets-develop-an-e-commerce-application-from-scratch-using-spring-boot-and-vue-js-aca33bd76517