{"id":696,"date":"2025-01-30T10:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/?p=696"},"modified":"2025-02-10T17:35:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:35:41","slug":"converting-an-ejb-application-to-spring-boot-using-github-copilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/converting-an-ejb-application-to-spring-boot-using-github-copilot\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use GitHub Copilot to Convert an EJB Application to Spring Boot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-185\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2.png\" alt=\"All things Azure\" width=\"1920\" height=\"792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2.png 1920w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2-300x124.png 300w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2-1024x422.png 1024w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2-768x317.png 768w, https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2024\/10\/HC0400_MS_AzureDeveloperBlogSeries-Banner_103124_DC_V2-02-2-1536x634.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hello developers!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Continuing our series on GitHub Copilot tips, here&#8217;s another valuable insight to enhance your coding experience:<\/p>\n<p>In today&#8217;s fast-paced development environment, migrating legacy applications to modern frameworks is a common practice. One such migration is converting Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications to Spring Boot. This blog will guide you through the few tips on transforming your EJB application into a Spring Boot application using GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered code completion tool that can assist you in writing code more efficiently.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Step By Step Approach<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Understand the Existing EJB Application:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Identify the EJB components (Session Beans, Message-Driven Beans, etc.).<\/li>\n<li>Understand the business logic, data access layers, and transaction management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot to explain specific EJB components or annotations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot Chat:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; &#8220;Analyze this EJB component and suggest Spring Boot equivalent&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; &#8220;What Spring Boot annotations should replace these EJB annotations?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; &#8220;Generate a component mapping document template&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2025\/01\/mapping.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-789\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2025\/01\/mapping.gif\" alt=\"Image mapping\" width=\"1280\" height=\"827\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Set Up a Spring Boot Project:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Create a new Spring Boot project using Spring Initializr or your IDE.<\/li>\n<li>Add necessary dependencies like\u00a0spring-boot-starter-web,\u00a0spring-boot-starter-data-jpa, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for guidance on setting up a Spring Boot project with specific dependencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Let Copilot assist with:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; Generating pom.xml\/build.gradle<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; Creating application.properties<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">&#8211; Setting up project structure<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Replace EJB Components with Spring Beans:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Convert Stateless and Stateful Session Beans to Spring\u00a0@Service\u00a0or\u00a0@Component\u00a0beans.<\/li>\n<li>Replace Message-Driven Beans with Spring&#8217;s\u00a0@JmsListener\u00a0or other messaging solutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for examples of converting specific EJB components to Spring beans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Transaction Management:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Replace EJB&#8217;s container-managed transactions with Spring&#8217;s\u00a0@Transactional\u00a0annotation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for best practices on using Spring&#8217;s transaction management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Data Access Layer:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li>Replace EJB&#8217;s JPA Entity Managers with Spring Data JPA repositories.<\/li>\n<li>Configure the data source and JPA properties in\u00a0application.properties\u00a0or\u00a0application.yml.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for help with configuring JPA properties in application.properties or application.yml.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Dependency Injection:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li>Replace EJB&#8217;s\u00a0@EJB\u00a0and\u00a0@Inject\u00a0annotations with Spring&#8217;s\u00a0@Autowired.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for examples of dependency injection in Spring Boot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Security:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li>Replace EJB security with Spring Security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for guidance on replacing EJB security with Spring Security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Configuration:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: circle;\">\n<li>Move EJB deployment descriptors to Spring Boot configuration files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for help with specific configuration settings in Spring Boot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Considerations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Dependencies:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure all necessary dependencies are included in the\u00a0pom.xml\u00a0or\u00a0build.gradle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for a list of dependencies required for your Spring Boot application.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Configuration Management:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Use\u00a0application.properties\u00a0or\u00a0application.yml\u00a0for configuration instead of EJB deployment descriptors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot Chat for help with specific configuration properties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Testing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Write unit tests and integration tests to ensure the converted application works as expected.<\/li>\n<li>Use Spring Boot&#8217;s testing support for easier testing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Use Copilot to generate unit tests<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Performance:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Monitor the performance of the converted application and optimize as needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot for tips on monitoring and optimizing Spring Boot applications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Documentation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Document the changes made during the conversion process for future reference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Ask Copilot Chat for help with documenting specific parts of your application.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Common Copilot Prompts for Migration<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;Convert this EJB entity to JPA entity&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Generate Spring Data JPA repository for this entity&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Convert this EJB security configuration to Spring Security&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Generate application.properties for these EJB configurations&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Create integration test for this Spring service<strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: By leveraging GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat, you can streamline the process of converting your EJB application to Spring Boot and get real-time assistance with code generation, explanations, and best practices. <div  class=\"d-flex justify-content-left\"><a class=\"cta_button_link btn-primary mb-24\" href=\"aka.ms\/freetrial\" target=\"_blank\">Try Azure GitHub Copilot<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello developers! Continuing our series on GitHub Copilot tips, here&#8217;s another valuable insight to enhance your coding experience: In today&#8217;s fast-paced development environment, migrating legacy applications to modern frameworks is a common practice. One such migration is converting Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications to Spring Boot. This blog will guide you through the few tips on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172729,"featured_media":1743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azure"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Hello developers! Continuing our series on GitHub Copilot tips, here&#8217;s another valuable insight to enhance your coding experience: In today&#8217;s fast-paced development environment, migrating legacy applications to modern frameworks is a common practice. One such migration is converting Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications to Spring Boot. This blog will guide you through the few tips on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}