Spring CRUD Generator: a YAML/JSON-driven Spring Boot backend generator (version update + stability improvements)

If you saw my initial post about Spring CRUD Generator v1.0.0, this is a follow-up with a version update and a more complete overview of what the project is aiming to solve.

Spring CRUD Generator is an open-source Maven plugin that generates a Spring Boot backend from a single YAML/JSON spec. The main goal is to reduce repetitive CRUD boilerplate and keep a consistent baseline across projects.

Version update: 1.0.2

Why I built this

In most Spring Boot projects, the first few hours (or days) often look the same:

• CRUD layers (entity/repo/service/controller)


• DTO mapping / mappers


• consistent error responses


• database migrations (and keeping them in sync)


• Docker bits


• OpenAPI and resource structures


• tests and test data setup

Spring CRUD Generator tries to make that “baseline” reproducible from a spec, so you can focus on domain logic instead of wasting your time and concentration writing the same code again and again.

What it can generate

Depending on the configuration, it can generate:

• CRUD stack: entities, repositories, services, mappers, REST controllers


• Flyway migrations (incremental change detection)


• OpenAPI specs + optional resource generation


• Dockerfile + docker-compose


• Unit tests + test data generation (Instancio/Podam)


• Caching (Redis/Caffeine)


• GraphQL

What improved since v1.0.0

The initial version proved the concept, but real usage quickly exposed edge cases. Recent releases focus on stability and correctness, especially around:

• OpenAPI generation and schema handling (including optional fields)


• ID naming consistency across endpoints and DTOs


• improved equals/hashCode generation depending on whether the model is JSON-centric or a table entity


• stricter validation so misconfigurations fail fast

Example spec (YAML)

Here is a small example showing the overall idea:

configuration:

  database: postgresql

  migrationScripts: true

  errorResponse: MINIMAL

  openApi:

    apiSpec: true

    generateResources: true

  docker:

    dockerfile: true

    dockerCompose: true

  tests:

    unit: true

    dataGenerator: instancio



entities:

  - name: Product

    storageName: product_table

    audit:

      enabled: true

      type: LocalDate

    fields:

      - name: id

        type: Long

        id:

          strategy: IDENTITY

      - name: name

        type: String

      - name: tags

        type: List<String>

Quick start

• Create your spec file, for example:
  

src/main/resources/crud-generator.yml

• Configure the Maven plugin (see the repository README)


• Run generation
  

mvn clean install -DskipTests -Pgenerate-resources

This should generate the backend sources and related resources based on your YAML/JSON spec.

Links

• Github repo:
  

https://github.com/mzivkovicdev/spring-crud-generator

• Maven Central artifact:
  

dev.markozivkovic:spring-crud-generator:1.0.2

Feedback welcome

If you have a few minutes, I’d love feedback on:

• the spec design (YAML/JSON structure and ergonomics)


• what you expect from generated “production baseline” code


• edge cases you’d test first