Reactive REST APIs with Spring WebFlux - Step by Step

📑 Table of Contents:

What is Spring WebFlux?
Setting Up the Project
Creating Reactive Domain & Repository
Building the Reactive REST Controller
Handling Errors in Reactive APIs
Testing the Reactive Endpoints
Final Thoughts on Reactive REST APIs with Spring WebFlux

Building Reactive REST APIs with Spring WebFlux

🌐 1. What is Spring WebFlux?

Spring WebFlux is a reactive web framework built on Project Reactor, supporting fully non-blocking, asynchronous communication. It enables efficient handling of concurrent requests by leveraging reactive streams.

Unlike traditional Spring MVC, WebFlux is designed for:

Streaming data
Event-driven architecture
High concurrency systems

⚙️ 2. Setting Up the Project

🧱 Maven Dependencies:

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>

</dependency>

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-mongodb-reactive</artifactId>

</dependency>

🧩 3. Creating Reactive Domain & Repository

📦 Domain Model

package com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.model;

import org.springframework.data.annotation.Id;

import org.springframework.data.mongodb.core.mapping.Document;

@Document

public class Product {

@Id

private String id;

private String name;

private double price;

// Getters and Setters

}

🗂️ Reactive Repository

package com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.repository;

import org.springframework.data.mongodb.repository.ReactiveMongoRepository;

import com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.model.Product;

public interface ProductRepository extends ReactiveMongoRepository<Product, String> {

}

🖥️ 4. Building the Reactive REST Controller

package com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.controller;

import com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.model.Product;

import com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.repository.ProductRepository;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

import reactor.core.publisher.Flux;

import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

@RestController

@RequestMapping("/products")

public class ProductController {

private final ProductRepository repository;

public ProductController(ProductRepository repository) {

this.repository = repository;

}

@GetMapping

public Flux<Product> getAllProducts() {

return repository.findAll();

}

@GetMapping("/{id}")

public Mono<Product> getProductById(@PathVariable String id) {

return repository.findById(id);

}

@PostMapping

public Mono<Product> createProduct(@RequestBody Product product) {

return repository.save(product);

}

@DeleteMapping("/{id}")

public Mono<Void> deleteProduct(@PathVariable String id) {

return repository.deleteById(id);

}

⚠️ 5. Handling Errors in Reactive APIs

Add a Global Error Handler:

package com.kscodes.springboot.reactive.config;

import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;

@ControllerAdvice

public class GlobalExceptionHandler {

@ExceptionHandler(Exception.class)

public Mono<String> handleException(Exception ex) {

return Mono.just("Error: " + ex.getMessage());

}

🧪 6. Testing the Reactive Endpoints

You can use WebTestClient:

@WebFluxTest

class ProductControllerTest {

@Autowired

private WebTestClient webClient;

@Test

void testGetAllProducts() {

webClient.get()

.uri("/products")

.exchange()

.expectStatus().isOk()

.expectBodyList(Product.class);

}

✅ 7. Final Thoughts

Building Reactive REST APIs with Spring WebFlux is ideal for high-throughput and event-driven systems. It reduces resource usage and improves responsiveness under load.

Next up: Using Mono and Flux in Reactive APIs

Reference

Spring WebFlux docs

Reactive REST APIs with Spring WebFlux – Step by Step