Activating Spring Boot profiles in IntelliJ: A step-by-step guide

Spring Boot is a powerful framework that makes it easy to build web applications with minimal configuration. One of its key features is the ability to manage different environments and configurations using profiles. In this tutorial, we will show you how to activate a Spring Boot profile when running your application from IntelliJ IDEA.



Step 1: Create a Spring Boot project

To get started, you will need to create a Spring Boot project. You can use the Spring Initializer website (https://start.spring.io/) to generate a basic project with the web and actuator dependencies.



Step 2: Add profile-specific properties

Once you have your project created, you can add two application.properties files in the src/main/resources directory, one for each profile. For example, application-dev.properties and application-prod.properties. In these files, you can add properties specific to each profile, such as the server port or the database connection details.



Step 3: Configure IntelliJ

Open your project in IntelliJ and navigate to the Run configuration for your application. If you don’t have one yet, you can create one by clicking on the Run button in the top right corner of the window and selecting “Edit Configurations”.

In the Run Configuration window, you will see a section called “Spring Boot”. In this section, you can find the “Active profiles” field. This is where you can specify which profiles you want to activate when running the application.



Step 4: Activate the profile

To activate the “dev” profile, for example, you can add “dev” (without quotes) to the Active profiles field. This will make sure that the application uses the properties defined in the application-dev.properties file when starting up.

If you want to activate multiple profiles, you can do so by separating them with commas, like “dev,prod”.



Step 5: Run the application

Finally, you can save your Run Configuration and click the Run button to start your application with the specified profile(s) activated.

By following these simple steps, you can easily activate a Spring Boot profile when running your application from IntelliJ IDEA. With profiles, you can manage different environments and configurations for your application, keeping your codebase organized and avoiding hardcoding environment-specific properties.



Tips and Tricks for activating Spring Boot profiles in IntelliJ

Managing different environments and configurations is an essential aspect of developing web applications. With Spring Boot, you can easily do this using profiles. In this article, we will show you some tips and tricks for activating Spring Boot profiles when running your application from IntelliJ IDEA.

  1. Use the Spring Boot Dashboard: IntelliJ IDEA has a built-in Spring Boot dashboard that allows you to easily manage your Spring Boot applications. You can access it by clicking on the Spring Boot icon in the toolbar or by going to the “View” menu and selecting “Tool Windows” and “Spring Boot”. From there, you can activate profiles, view logs, and perform other tasks related to your application.
  2. Use the command line: You can also activate profiles from the command line by using the -Dspring.profiles.active=dev option when running your application. This can be useful if you want to automate the process of activating profiles using scripts or continuous integration tools.
  3. Use environment variables: Another way to activate profiles is by using environment variables. You can set the SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE environment variable to the profile you want to activate, and Spring Boot will automatically use that profile when starting your application.
  4. Use the Spring Boot Maven Plugin: If you’re using Maven to build your Spring Boot application, you can use the Spring Boot Maven Plugin to activate profiles. You can do this by adding the following to your pom.xml file:
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <profiles>
                    <profile>dev</profile>
                </profiles>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

This will automatically activate the “dev” profile when building and running your application with Maven.

  1. Use the Spring Boot CLI: The Spring Boot CLI (Command Line Interface) is a powerful tool that allows you to run Spring Boot applications from the command line. You can use it to activate profiles by using the –spring.profiles.active=dev option when running your application.

By following these tips and tricks, you can easily activate Spring Boot profiles when running your application from IntelliJ IDEA. With the right tools and techniques, you can manage different environments and configurations with ease, keeping your codebase organized and avoiding hardcoding environment-specific properties.



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