Published: November 2025 | Category: Java Development, Spring Framework | Reading Time: 8 minutes

💥 The Game Has Changed

The days of custom versioning hacks are over. Spring Framework 7 introduces native API versioning through the new version attribute in @RequestMapping and all related annotations, and Spring Boot 4 brings this power to production-ready applications.

🎯 Why This Changes Everything

For years, every development team has rolled their own API versioning solution — header-based routing, path prefixes, custom annotations, you name it. While these custom approaches often worked well in isolation, they created a fragmented ecosystem within organizations with different teams meaning different patterns, different conventions, and ultimately, different learning curves when developers moved between projects.

Spring Framework 7 changes this by providing one standardized, framework-level solution that brings:

• ✅ Consistency across projects — One pattern to learn and follow
• ✅ Reduced boilerplate — No more custom routing logic
• ✅ Framework-level optimizations — Better performance and Spring ecosystem integration
• ✅ Clear migration paths — Evolve APIs without breaking existing clients

💥 Four Powerful Versioning Strategies

Spring Boot 4 supports multiple versioning approaches out of the box:

1️⃣ Header-Based Versioning (Recommended)

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/products")
public class ProductController {
    
    @GetMapping(path = "/{id}", version = "1.0")
    public ProductV1 getProductV1(@PathVariable String id) {
        return new ProductV1(id, "Product Name");
    }
    
    @GetMapping(path = "/{id}", version = "2.0+")
    public ProductV2 getProductV2(@PathVariable String id) {
        return new ProductV2(id, "Product Name", "Category", 29.99);
    }
}

Request:

curl http://localhost:8080/api/products/123 \
  -H "X-API-VERSION: 2.0"

2️⃣ Path-Based Versioning

@GetMapping(path = "/v{version}/products/{id}")
public Product getProduct(@PathVariable String version, 
                          @PathVariable String id) {
    // Handle based on version
}

3️⃣ Query Parameter Versioning

@GetMapping(path = "/products/{id}", params = "version=2")
public ProductV2 getProductV2(@PathVariable String id) { }

4️⃣ Media Type Versioning

@GetMapping(path = "/products/{id}", 
            produces = "application/vnd.myapp.v2+json")
public ProductV2 getProductV2(@PathVariable String id) { }

🎨 Semantic Version Ranges — The Game Changer

One of the most powerful features is semantic version range support. This means you can maintain backward compatibility without duplicating endpoints for every minor version!

@GetMapping(path = "/orders/{id}", version = "1.2+")
public OrderV12 getOrder(@PathVariable String id) {
    // Handles version 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.
}

@GetMapping(path = "/orders/{id}", version = "2.0+")
public OrderV2 getOrder(@PathVariable String id) {
    // Handles version 2.x
}

⚠️ Graceful Deprecation with HTTP Headers

Spring Framework 7 adds support for emitting deprecation hints in HTTP responses to guide clients with standard headers:

# application.properties
spring.mvc.api-version.deprecation.enabled=true

Response headers clients receive:

Deprecation: true
Sunset: Sat, 31 Dec 2025 23:59:59 GMT
Link: <https://api.example.com/docs/migration>; rel="deprecation"

Clients get clear signals that their API version is outdated — no surprises!

📝 Configuration Made Simple

Property-Based Approach (Recommended)

# application.properties
spring.mvc.api-version.resolver=header
spring.mvc.api-version.header-name=X-API-VERSION
spring.mvc.api-version.parser=semantic
spring.mvc.api-version.deprecation.enabled=true

Java-Based Configuration (Advanced)

@Configuration
public class ApiVersionConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
    
    @Override
    public void configureApiVersioning(ApiVersionConfigurer configurer) {
        configurer
            .resolver(ApiVersionResolver.header("X-API-VERSION"))
            .parser(new SemanticApiVersionParser())
            .deprecationHandler(
                new StandardApiVersionDeprecationHandler()
            );
    }
}

🧪 Testing Support Built-In

API versioning is also of interest for use in testing, for example with RestTestClient (new in 7.0) and WebTestClient:

@Test
void testApiVersion() {
    RestTestClient client = RestTestClient
        .bindToServer("http://localhost:8080");
    
    client.get()
        .uri("/api/products/123")
        .apiVersion("2.0")
        .exchange()
        .expectStatus().isOk()
        .expectBody(ProductV2.class);
}

🔗 Swagger/OpenAPI Integration

The best part? Tools like SpringDoc/OpenAPI can automatically document versions, creating separate API documentation groups for each version without additional configuration.

⚡ Best Practices

1. Stick to one format — Choose either numeric (1.0, 2.0) or prefixed (v1, v2), not both
2. Use header-based versioning for clean URLs and better REST compliance
3. Enable deprecation warnings to guide clients through migrations
4. Use semantic ranges (1.2+) to reduce endpoint duplication
5. Document your versioning strategy clearly for API consumers

🎯 When to Use What

Strategy	Best For	Avoid When
Header	Production APIs, mobile apps	Public APIs needing browser testing
Path	Public REST APIs, easy browser testing	Internal microservices
Query Param	Quick testing, backward compatibility	Clean REST design needed
Media Type	Strict REST compliance	Simplicity is priority

🚨 Important Note

This feature is currently in development. Broadcom released Spring Framework 7.0 and Spring Boot 4.0 in November 2025, so these features are now available but may evolve based on community feedback. Always test thoroughly before production deployment.

🔮 What This Means for the Future

In the age of AI-powered development and agentic coding, consistency becomes even more valuable. When your API versioning follows predictable patterns, AI tools can better understand your codebase, generate more accurate suggestions, and help maintain versioning strategies across new endpoints.

This standardization also enables better:

• IDE support and autocomplete
• API gateway integration
• Observability and monitoring
• Client SDK generation

🎬 Get Started Today!

Ready to implement native API versioning in your Spring Boot applications? Check out the official Spring documentation and start experimenting with Spring Boot 4. The future of API versioning is here — and it’s glorious! 🎉

What versioning strategy will you adopt? Drop your thoughts in the comments below! 👇