Java Web Development (JSP/Servlets) Services

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is quickly becoming one of the most powerful design patterns for AI applications. It bridges the gap between general-purpose large language models (LLMs) and your specific enterprise data. In this article, we’ll walk through how to build a complete RAG pipeline in Java using Spring Boot, Vertex AI’s Gemini embeddings, Apache PDFBox, and BigQuery Vector Search.

You will see how to do the following, wrapped in a Spring Boot app with a simple web UI:

One subtle challenge in software architecture is that architectural thinking can feel detached from the codebase. We draw diagrams, define layers, identify responsibilities, and craft a coherent structure — yet the moment implementation begins, those architectural ideas fade into the background. Over time, systems drift not because developers ignore design, but because the code itself provides almost no way to express that design.

This tension is well documented. In Just Enough Software Architecture, George Fairbanks argues that programming languages lack constructs for directly representing architectural concepts. Java lets us model types, fields, methods, and packages, but offers no native way to encode ideas such as “presentation layer,” “domain logic,” “aggregate root,” or “infrastructure boundary.” Without these cues in the code, architecture becomes optional, verbal, and fragile.

In a three-article series published recently on this site (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), I've been demonstrating the power of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) in the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) area, especially when coupled with the ubiquitous Java and its supersonic/subatomic cloud-native stack: Quarkus.

While focusing on the CDK fundamentals in Java, like Stack and Construct, together with their Quarkus implementations, this series was a bit frugal as far as the infrastructure elements were concerned. Indeed, for the sake of clarity and simplification, the infrastructure used to illustrate how to use the CDK with Java and Quarkus was inherently consensual. Hence, the idea for a new series, of which this article is the first, is a series less concerned with CDK internals and more dedicated to the infrastructure itself.

Troubleshooting memory problems, such as memory leaks and OutOfMemoryError, can be an intimidating task even for experienced engineers. In this post, we would like to share simple tips, tools, and tricks so that even a novice engineer can isolate memory problems and resolve them quickly.

What Are Common Signs of a Java Memory Leak That Might Lead to OutOfMemoryError?

Before your application throws an OutOfMemoryError, it usually gives you a few warning signs. If you catch them early, you can prevent downtime and customer impact. Here’s what you should keep an eye on:

In Spring, the ApplicationContext is the central container object that manages all beans (i.e., components, services, repositories, etc.).

Its tasks include reading the configuration (Java Config, XML, annotations), creating and managing bean instances, handling dependency injection, and running the application lifecycle.