Looking for a Spring Boot Microservices Reference Similar to eshopOnContainers?

Below is a summary of some reference applications and approaches you can consider when looking for a Spring Boot–based, microservices-oriented sample that covers many aspects of the eshopOnContainers architecture:

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1. Spring PetClinic Microservices

• Description:
  Originally the Spring PetClinic is a monolithic reference app, but there’s an official Spring PetClinic Microservices version that splits the application into multiple services.
• Highlights:
  • Demonstrates microservices architecture using Spring Boot.
  • Uses Spring Cloud components (e.g., Eureka for service discovery, Spring Cloud Config).
  • Shows how to decompose a traditional app into services.

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2. JHipster Microservices Architecture

• Description:
  JHipster is a code generation tool that can generate full microservices-based applications using a Spring Boot backend.
• Highlights:
  • Offers a complete, customizable microservices architecture.
  • Can bootstrap a gateway, multiple backend services, and even integrates with Docker/Kubernetes.
  • Although it is a generator and not a single reference app like eshopOnContainers, the samples it produces include many of the same patterns, making it a good starting point.

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3. Spring Cloud Sample Applications

• Description:
  The Spring Cloud ecosystem provides several samples and guides focusing on distributed systems best practices.
• Highlights:
  • These samples combine Spring Boot with Spring Cloud components such as config, circuit breakers, service registries, and more.
  • They’re useful to learn how to build resilient, scalable microservices.
  • While they might not be a one-stop complete suite, they illustrate how various pieces come together to form a robust microservices environment.

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Considerations

• Polyglot vs. Homogeneous Stack:
  The eshopOnContainers application is designed to showcase a polyglot approach (multiple technology stacks), whereas Spring Boot and its associated projects are focused on the Java ecosystem. This means that while similar patterns (like service separation, API Gateway, distributed configuration, etc.) are present, certain cross-technology aspects might need to be adapted or modeled differently.

• Customization for Specific Needs:
  You might not find an out-of-the-box, drop-in replacement that exactly mirrors all features of eshopOnContainers using only Spring Boot. However, combining the above samples and tools (e.g., Spring Cloud configurations, JHipster-generated apps) can help you build a system that meets your requirements.

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Conclusion

While there’s no single reference application in the Spring Boot ecosystem that is an exact parallel to eshopOnContainers, the Spring PetClinic Microservices example, JHipster-generated applications, and the various Spring Cloud sample projects offer a strong foundation. They showcase many of the same design patterns—service decomposition, API gateway, centralized configuration, and resilience techniques—that you’d expect in a microservices architecture.

Feel free to dive into these projects to evaluate which one best aligns with your architectural needs.