Manual Setup

Maven Manual Setup

1. Create New Maven Project: Open your preferred IDE and create a new Maven project.

2. Edit POM.xml: Open the pom.xml file and add the Spring Boot parent dependency to enable Spring Boot features.

   <parent>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
       <version>2.5.5</version>
   </parent>

3. Add Dependencies: Add the Spring Boot starter dependencies you need for your project. For example, for a web application:

   <dependencies>
       <dependency>
           <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
           <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
       </dependency>
   </dependencies>

4. Build Project: Run the Maven build command to download the dependencies and compile the project.

   mvn clean install

5. Run Application: Execute the main class containing the SpringApplication.run() method to start your Spring Boot application.

Gradle Manual Setup

1. Create New Gradle Project: Open your IDE and create a new Gradle project.

2. Edit build.gradle: Add the Spring Boot Gradle plugin and the required dependencies in the build.gradle file.

   plugins {
       id 'org.springframework.boot' version '2.5.5'
   }
    
   dependencies {
       implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
   }

3. Refresh Dependencies: In your IDE, refresh the Gradle project to download the necessary dependencies.

4. Run Application: Locate the main class with the SpringApplication.run() method and execute it to start your Spring Boot application.

Manually setting up a Spring Boot project offers the advantage of understanding the underlying configuration and dependencies. It's a good approach if you want to dig deep into the Spring Boot framework and customize it to fit your specific needs.