Spring Annotations

Here’s a comprehensive, categorized summary table of key Spring annotations used across all major areas of the Spring ecosystem — including core, dependency injection, web, data (JPA), AOP, configuration, security, testing, and bootstrapping.

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✅ Spring Annotations Summary Table (All Areas)

Category	Annotation	Purpose
🔧 Core / Component Scanning	@Component	Generic Spring-managed component
	@Service	Business/service layer component
	@Repository	DAO component; translates exceptions
	@Controller	Web controller (MVC, returns views)
	@RestController	REST API controller (@Controller + @ResponseBody)
	@ComponentScan	Scans packages for annotated components

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Category	Dependency Injection
	@Autowired	Automatically injects dependencies
	@Qualifier	Resolves ambiguity when multiple beans of the same type exist
	@Inject	JSR-330 alternative to @Autowired
	@Value("${property}")	Injects value from properties/yaml
	@Required	Ensures a bean property is injected (legacy use)

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Category	Configuration / Bootstrapping
	@Configuration	Declares a class that defines Spring beans
	@Bean	Defines a Spring bean method inside @Configuration
	@Import	Imports other configuration classes
	@PropertySource	Loads external .properties files
	@EnableAutoConfiguration	Enables Spring Boot auto-config (used by @SpringBootApplication)
	@SpringBootApplication	Combines @Configuration, @EnableAutoConfiguration, and @ComponentScan

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Category	Spring MVC / Web
	@RequestMapping	Maps HTTP requests to methods (can use method attribute)
	@GetMapping, @PostMapping, etc.	Shorthand for HTTP verbs
	@PathVariable	Binds URI template variable
	@RequestParam	Binds query parameters
	@RequestBody	Binds request body to a method parameter
	@ResponseBody	Returns value as response body
	@ModelAttribute	Binds form data to a model
	@SessionAttributes	Stores attributes in session

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Category	JPA / Data
	@Entity	Marks a class as a JPA entity (DB table)
	@Table(name = "...")	Specifies table name
	@Id	Primary key field
	@GeneratedValue(...)	Auto-generates IDs
	@Column(...)	Maps field to DB column
	@OneToMany, @ManyToOne, etc.	Define entity relationships
	@JoinColumn	Specifies the foreign key
	@Repository	DAO layer marker
	@EnableJpaRepositories	Enables Spring Data JPA

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Category	AOP (Aspect-Oriented Programming)
	@Aspect	Marks a class as an aspect (cross-cutting logic)
	@Before, @After, @Around	Define when advice runs relative to join points
	@Pointcut	Defines reusable pointcut expressions
	@EnableAspectJAutoProxy	Enables support for handling components marked with @Aspect

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Category	Spring Security
	@EnableWebSecurity	Enables Spring Security web integration
	@PreAuthorize	Method-level access control (SpEL support)
	@Secured	Restricts method access to certain roles
	@WithMockUser	Mocks a user in tests

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Category	Testing
	@SpringBootTest	Loads full application context
	@WebMvcTest	Tests only web layer (controllers)
	@DataJpaTest	Tests JPA repositories
	@MockBean	Mocks a Spring bean in the context
	@Autowired	Injects real or mocked bean into test
	@TestConfiguration	Defines custom test configuration class
	@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)	Integrates Spring TestContext with JUnit 5

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