Spring 3 MVC hello world example Annotation

In this tutorial, we will take the previous Maven + Spring MVC XML example, rewrite it to support @JavaConfig configuration, no more XML files, and deploy it into a Servlet 3.0+ container, like Tomcat 7 or Jetty 9.

Technologies used :

1. Spring 3.2.13.RELEASE
2. Maven 3
3. JDK 1.6
4. Tomcat 7 or Jetty 9
5. Eclipse 4.4
6. Boostrap 3

1. Project Structure

Download the project source code and review the project folder structure :

P.S No more XML files like web.xml or any other Spring XML configuration files.

2. Maven

2.1 A pom.xml template to quick start a Spring MVC project. To compile this project, we need to add a servlet-api dependency.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
  http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd"> 
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.mkyong</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring3-mvc-maven-annotation-hello-world</artifactId>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>spring mvc</name>
  <properties>
	<jdk.version>1.6</jdk.version>
	<spring.version>3.2.13.RELEASE</spring.version>
	<jstl.version>1.2</jstl.version>
	<servletapi.version>3.1.0</servletapi.version>
  </properties>
  <dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
		<version>${spring.version}</version>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
		<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
		<version>${jstl.version}</version>
	</dependency>
	<!-- compile only, deployed container will provide this -->
	<dependency>
		<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
		<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
		<version>${servletapi.version}</version>
		<scope>provided</scope>
	</dependency>
  </dependencies>
  <build>
    <plugins>
	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
		<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
		<version>3.3</version>
		<configuration>
			<source>${jdk.version}</source>
			<target>${jdk.version}</target>
		</configuration>
	</plugin>
	<!-- embedded Jetty server, for testing -->
	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
		<artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
		<version>9.2.11.v20150529</version>
		<configuration>
			<scanIntervalSeconds>10</scanIntervalSeconds>
			<webApp>
				<contextPath>/spring3</contextPath>
			</webApp>
		</configuration>
	</plugin>
	<!-- configure Eclipse workspace --> 
	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
		<artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
		<version>2.9</version>
		<configuration>
			<downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
			<downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
			<wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
			<wtpContextName>spring3</wtpContextName>
		</configuration>
	</plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  </project>

2.2 To compile this project and make it supports Eclipse IDE.

$ mvn eclipse:eclipse

3. Spring Controller

package com.mkyong.web.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
@Controller
public class HelloController {
	@RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String printWelcome(ModelMap model) {
		model.addAttribute("message", "Spring 3 MVC Hello World");
		return "hello";
	@RequestMapping(value = "/hello/{name:.+}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public ModelAndView hello(@PathVariable("name") String name) {
		ModelAndView model = new ModelAndView();
		model.setViewName("hello");
		model.addObject("msg", name);
		return model;

4. JSP Views

A JSP page to display the value, and include bootstrap css and js.

<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Maven + Spring MVC + @JavaConfig</title>
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/hello.css" var="coreCss" />
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/bootstrap.min.css" var="bootstrapCss" />
<link href="${bootstrapCss}" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="${coreCss}" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top">
  <div class="container">
	<div class="navbar-header">
		<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Spring 3 MVC Project @JavaConfig</a>
	</div>
  </div>
</nav>
<div class="jumbotron">
  <div class="container">
	<h1>${title}</h1>
	<p>
		<c:if test="${not empty name}">
			Hello ${name}
		</c:if>
		<c:if test="${empty name}">
			Welcome Welcome!
		</c:if>
    </p>
    <p>
		<a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="#" role="button">Learn more</a>
	</p>
	</div>
</div>
<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
	<div class="col-md-4">
		<h2>Heading</h2>
		<p>ABC</p>
		<p>
			<a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
		</p>
	</div>
	<div class="col-md-4">
		<h2>Heading</h2>
		<p>ABC</p>
		<p>
			<a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
		</p>
	</div>
	<div class="col-md-4">
		<h2>Heading</h2>
		<p>ABC</p>
		<p>
			<a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
		</p>
	</div>
  </div>
  <hr>
  <footer>
	<p>© Mkyong.com 2015</p>
  </footer>
</div>
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/hello.js" var="coreJs" />
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/bootstrap.min.js" var="bootstrapJs" />
<script src="${coreJs}"></script>
<script src="${bootstrapJs}"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

5. Spring @JavaConfig

package com.mkyong.config;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ResourceHandlerRegistry;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView;
@EnableWebMvc //mvc:annotation-driven
@Configuration
@ComponentScan({ "com.mkyong.web" })
public class SpringWebConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
	@Override
	public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
		registry.addResourceHandler("/resources/**").addResourceLocations("/resources/");
	@Bean
	public InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver() {
		InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
		viewResolver.setViewClass(JstlView.class);
		viewResolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/views/jsp/");
		viewResolver.setSuffix(".jsp");
		return viewResolver;

XML equivalent.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
	xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.2.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">
	<context:component-scan base-package="com.mkyong.web" />
	<bean
		class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
		<property name="prefix">
			<value>/WEB-INF/views/jsp/</value>
		</property>
		<property name="suffix">
			<value>.jsp</value>
		</property>
	</bean>
	<mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
	<mvc:annotation-driven />
</beans>

6. Servlet 3.0+ Container

Create a ServletInitializer class by extending AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer, the Servlet 3.0+ container will pick up this class and run it automatically. This is the replacement for web.xml.

package com.mkyong.servlet3;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.support.AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer;
import com.mkyong.config.SpringWebConfig;
public class MyWebInitializer extends
		AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {
	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getServletConfigClasses() {
		return new Class[] { SpringWebConfig.class };
	@Override
	protected String[] getServletMappings() {
		return new String[] { "/" };
	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getRootConfigClasses() {
		return null;

7. Demo

Download the project and run it with the embedded Jetty container.

$ mvn jetty:run

URL : http://localhost:8080/spring3

URL : http://localhost:8080/spring3/hello/mkyong

Download Source Code

References

1. What new in Spring 3
2. Spring 3 MVC and XML example
3. Spring 3 MVC and JSON example