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Overview

The Ecommerce API is a production-ready RESTful web service built with Spring Boot 4.0.1 that provides comprehensive functionality for managing online retail operations. This API implements HATEOAS principles, offering hypermedia-driven interactions that make navigation and resource discovery intuitive for client applications. Designed for scalability and maintainability, the API handles everything from product catalog management and user authentication to shopping cart operations and category organization.

Quickstart

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API Reference

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Authentication

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Data Models

Browse data structures and entity relationships

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What Can You Build?

The Ecommerce API provides the backend infrastructure for a wide range of online retail applications:
  • Product Catalogs - Manage products with detailed information including pricing, descriptions, stock levels, and multi-category classification
  • User Management - Handle customer accounts with secure authentication and role-based access control
  • Shopping Carts - Enable customers to add items, calculate totals with automatic discount application, and manage quantities
  • Category Management - Organize products into flexible category structures with many-to-many relationships
  • Inventory Tracking - Monitor stock quantities and availability in real-time

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Key Features

Every resource response includes hypermedia links that guide API consumers to related resources and available actions. This self-documenting approach reduces coupling between client and server.Implemented using Spring HATEOAS with EntityModel and CollectionModel wrappers that automatically generate relevant links based on controller methods.
Leverages Spring Data JPA with Hibernate as the ORM provider for seamless database operations. Supports both PostgreSQL for production and H2 for development/testing.Features include:
  • Automatic schema generation
  • Entity relationships with cascading operations
  • Auditing with @CreatedDate and @UpdateTimestamp
  • Transaction management
Built-in pagination for large result sets using Spring Data’s Pageable interface. Default page size of 20 items with a maximum of 50 items per page.Product listings return PagedModel responses containing navigation metadata (page number, total pages, total elements) and HATEOAS links for next/previous pages.
Implements authentication and authorization with password encryption using BCrypt. User entities support role-based access control with Role.CUSTOMER and extensible role definitions.Security configuration can be customized via SecurityConfig class.
Uses Jakarta Bean Validation annotations (@Min, @NotNull, etc.) to ensure data integrity. Validation occurs automatically at the controller layer with descriptive error messages.Cart totals must be non-negative, stock quantities are validated, and required fields are enforced at the database level.
Products can belong to multiple categories through a many-to-many relationship implemented with the join entity ProductCategory. Categories are created dynamically during product creation if they don’t exist.This architecture supports complex catalog structures like products appearing in both “Electronics” and “Sale Items” categories simultaneously.

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Technology Stack

The API is built on a modern, proven technology foundation:

Spring Boot

Version 4.0.1 with auto-configuration and embedded Tomcat server

Java

Java 17 with modern language features

Maven

Dependency management and build automation

PostgreSQL

Production-grade relational database

H2 Database

In-memory database for development

Hibernate

JPA implementation for ORM

Lombok

Reduces boilerplate with annotations

Spring HATEOAS

Hypermedia support for REST APIs

Spring Security

Authentication and authorization

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Architecture Highlights

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Entity Structure

The API uses a well-designed domain model with proper relationships:
  • Product - Core entity with id, name, description, price, stockQuantity, discount, and timestamps
  • User - Customer accounts with email, password (encrypted), role, and creation date
  • Category - Product classification with name and relationships
  • ProductCategory - Join entity enabling many-to-many product-category relationships
  • Cart - Shopping cart with automatic total/discount calculation
  • CartItems - Individual items within a cart

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Resource Representation

Controllers expose resources following REST conventions:
  • GET /products - Paginated product listing with HATEOAS links
  • GET /products/{id} - Individual product details
  • POST /products - Create new products with category assignment
  • PUT/PATCH /products/{id} - Update existing products
  • DELETE /products/{id} - Remove products
  • GET /users - User collection
  • GET /categories - Category listing

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Data Preloading

The DatabasePreLoader component initializes the database with sample data on startup:
  • Two user accounts for testing
  • Sample products (Laptop, Smartphone) in the Electronics category
  • Proper entity relationships established
The preloader runs automatically via Spring’s CommandLineRunner interface, making it easy to get started with test data.

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Next Steps

Get Started

Follow our quickstart guide to run your first API request

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