Preface

Reactor is an implementation of the Java 9 Reactive Streams specification, an API for asynchronous data processing. This specification is based on a reactive programming paradigm, enabling developers to build enterprise-grade, robust applications with reduced complexity and in less time. Hands-On Reactive Programming with Reactor shows you how Reactor works, as well as how to use it to develop reactive applications in Java.

The book begins with the fundamentals of Reactor and the role it plays in building effective applications. You will learn how to build fully non-blocking applications and will later be guided on the Publisher and Subscriber APIs. The first four chapters will help you to understand Reactive Streams and the Reactor framework. The following four chapters use Reactor to build a microservices SpringWebFlux extension to build REST-based web services. They demonstrate the concepts of the flow, backpressure, and execution models. You will gain an understanding of how to use two reactive composable APIs, Flux and Mono, which are used extensively to implement Reactive Extensions. In the final two chapters, you will gain an understanding of Reactive Streams and the Reactor framework.

The chapters explain the most important parts and build simple programs to establish a foundation. By the end of the book, you will have gained enough confidence to build reactive and scalable microservices.