From Spring Boot To Jakarta EE 11: How Payara Starter Eases The Transition

If you’ve been living in the Spring ecosystem, you’re used to fast project setup. Spring Initializr gives you a sleek interface, some starter dependencies and a running project within minutes. Now you’re moving to Jakarta EE, where do you begin? 

In this blog, you’ll see how Spring developers can create Jakarta EE applications with the same ease they’re used to from Spring Initializr. 

Let’s be honest: Spring Boot abstracts away so much of the setup pain that you forget it’s even there. You don’t worry about the underlying servlet container, dependency versions or deployment descriptors, as Spring Boot handles it all. 

If you’ve spent most of your career building microservices and APIs with Spring Boot, you’ve probably grown accustomed to a certain rhythm to ship features quickly: 

1. Spring init your project by visiting https://start.spring.io. 
2. Pull in all the dependencies you need for an application and get most of the setup automatically sorted
3. Choose either Gradle or Maven, the language you want to use and which version (here, we assume Java, along with its version) as well as the Spring Boot version you want to use
4. Add Dependencies
5. Click Generate
6. Download the resulting ZIP file, which is an archive of a web application (as .war/.jar file) that is configured with your choices. 

Starting with Jakarta EE Doesn’t Have to be Slow  

Now, even though you are a Spring aficionado, for a number of reasons you may be tasked with developing a Jakarta EE application. Maybe it’s because the company landed a project where the framework was specified. Maybe it’s time to modernize any existing Java EE workloads, and the transition to the Jakarta EE namespace was identified as the most suitable option. Maybe you just want to see what’s out there beside Spring and expand your skillset, especially with the release of Jakarta EE 11.  

In any case, while Spring and Jakarta EE share some commonalities as enterprise Java frameworks, if you’ve never touched Jakarta EE, you may feel out of your depth. You might think Jakarta EE is heavyweight, XML-heavy and bound to large application servers. But the good news is the platform has evolved. Modern runtimes like Payara Micro run lean, start fast and work beautifully with container deployments. 

And the even better news? The latest Payara Starter, a free online developer tool to generate entity relationship diagrams and code, makes scafollding a Jakarta EE project as easy — dare I say, easier than creating a Spring Boot project with Spring Initializr. 

Meet Payara Starter: The Equivalent to Spring Initializr for Jakarta EE 

Payara Starter is a free, web-based project generator that offers a web-based UI that walks developers through scafollding a Jakarta EE application step by step. Think of it as Jakarta EE’s version of Spring Initializr. In effect, it is a tool that gives you a ready-to-run project with all the right dependencies, packaging and configuration for Payara Platform.  

The latest version of Payara Starter has three major features that make it a game-changer: 

1. Full Jakarta EE 11 support to develop future-oriented applications that leverage the latest specifications and technologies
2. A Jakarta Faces generator so you can scaffold JSF projects without touching obscure XML configs
3. An AI-powered ER diagram generator and ready-made code templates to shave hours from initial scaffolding, so the app is up and running almost instantly, even with complex data relationships. Note: expert oversight is essential when handling Gen AI tools. For these reasons, the AI functionalities within Payara Starter are best suited for testing and development environments, where they can help accelerate initial setup and design without the risks associated with production use. In any case, the generated ER Diagram and source code should be reviewed carefully, as they may contain errors. 

Payara Starter vs. Spring Initializr: Same Comfort, Different Stack 

Think of Payara Starter as a mirror image of the experience you’ve enjoyed in Spring Initializr. Both tools: 

1. Generate a complete starter project from a browser form
2. Allow you to pick dependencies and packaging types 
3. Provide a build-ready ZIP you can import into your IDE 

Payara Starter and Spring Initializr Side by Side 

Step-by-Step: Starting a Jakarta EE 11 App with Payara Starter 

1. Go to the Payara Starter webpage at https://start.payara.fish/ 
2. Select Maven or Gradle 
3. Select Jakarta EE 11 as the platform version and the profile (Platform, Web or Core)
4. Choose your runtime:
   1. Payara Server (traditional)
   2. Payara Micro (lightweight, perfect for microservices)
5. Pick the Java version you need 
6. Pick the MicroProfile specification you need, which will help you build cloud-native, resilient microservices with Jakarta EE
7. Choose you deployment option – if you want an intuitive, fully managed PaaS, opt for Payara Cloud 
8. Search for an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) as the backbone of your application
   1. (Optional) Open the AI-enriched Diagram Builder & Live Preview to adjust the structure based on your needs 
9. Download your generated project as .war file 

Wrapping Up: Familiar Simplicity, Different Framework 

Switching frameworks can feel like switching languages. Payara Starter gives you something steady to hold while you explore Jakarta EE. If you’ve built dozens of Spring Boot apps with Spring Initializr, you’ll feel right at home, only now you’re targeting a modern Jakarta EE runtime. 

Ultimately, by using Payara Starter you can spend less time on boilerplate and more time solving real problems, so the next time someone says, “We need Jakarta EE 11”, you won’t panic. You’ll just fire up Payara Starter, click a few options and get a quick proof of concept.