I am using gradle for api and got this error :
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.web.client.ResourceAccessException: I/O error on GET request for "http://localhost:8080/SpringBootRestApi/api/user/":Connection refused: connect; nested exception is java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.doExecute(RestTemplate.java:580)
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.execute(RestTemplate.java:530)
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.getForObject(RestTemplate.java:237)
at com.websystique.springboot.SpringBootRestTestClient.listAllUsers(SpringBootRestTestClient.java:21)
at com.websystique.springboot.SpringBootRestTestClient.main(SpringBootRestTestClient.java:74)
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.connect0(Native Method)
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(DualStackPlainSocketImpl.java:79)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:350)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:206)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:188)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:172)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:589)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:538)
at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(NetworkClient.java:180)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:432)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:527)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(HttpClient.java:211)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:308)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:326)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(HttpURLConnection.java:1202)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect0(HttpURLConnection.java:1138)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(HttpURLConnection.java:1032)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(HttpURLConnection.java:966)
at org.springframework.http.client.SimpleBufferingClientHttpRequest.executeInternal(SimpleBufferingClientHttpRequest.java:81)
at org.springframework.http.client.AbstractBufferingClientHttpRequest.executeInternal(AbstractBufferingClientHttpRequest.java:48)
at org.springframework.http.client.AbstractClientHttpRequest.execute(AbstractClientHttpRequest.java:53)
at org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate.doExecute(RestTemplate.java:569)
... 4 more
I was facing a similar problem connecting to a spring web service. It on was on localhost:8080, when I changed localhost to an actual IP address it worked.