Introduction to Custom Spring Boot Actuator Endpoint

Spring Boot Actuator is a framework that provides a wide range of endpoints that allow developers to monitor and manage applications in production environments. However, sometimes these endpoints may not provide all the information or metrics that developers need. In such cases, developers may want to create their own custom endpoints to expose the additional information.

Developing a custom Spring Boot Actuator endpoint is a straightforward process that involves creating a new controller that handles requests to the custom endpoint. In this article, we will explore the steps involved in creating a custom endpoint to expose custom metrics and information.

===Step-by-Step Guide to Exposing Custom Metrics and Information

Step 1: Add the Actuator Dependency
First, we need to add the Actuator dependency to our project. We can add it to the POM file or the Gradle build file, depending on our build system.

Step 2: Create a Custom Endpoint
Next, we need to create a new controller that handles requests to the custom endpoint. The controller should extend the AbstractEndpoint class provided by the Actuator framework. We can also add custom metrics to the endpoint by injecting the MetricRegistry provided by the Actuator framework.

Step 3: Customize the Response
By default, the Actuator framework returns JSON data in response to requests to endpoints. However, we can customize the response by adding a custom class that defines the structure of the response. We can do this by adding a custom ObjectMapper to our project and using it to serialize the response.

Step 4: Configure the Endpoint
Finally, we need to configure the endpoint by adding it to the application.properties file or the application.yml file, depending on our configuration system.

With these steps, we have successfully created a custom Spring Boot Actuator endpoint that exposes custom metrics and information.

Conclusion

Spring Boot Actuator provides a powerful set of endpoints that allow developers to monitor and manage their applications in production environments. However, sometimes developers need to expose additional information or custom metrics that are not available in the default endpoints. In such cases, creating a custom endpoint is the way to go. With the step-by-step guide provided in this article, developers can quickly create their custom endpoints and expose the information they need.