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Spring MVC
Spring Boot has a number of starters that include Spring MVC. Note that some starters include a dependency on Spring MVC rather than include it directly. This section answers common questions about Spring MVC and Spring Boot.
Write a JSON REST Service
Any Spring @RestController
in a Spring Boot application should render JSON response by default as long as Jackson2 is on the classpath, as shown in the following example:
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Java
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Kotlin
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
@RestController
public class MyController {
@RequestMapping("/thing")
public MyThing thing() {
return new MyThing();
}
}
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController
@RestController
class MyController {
@RequestMapping("/thing")
fun thing(): MyThing {
return MyThing()
}
}
As long as MyThing
can be serialized by Jackson2 (true for a normal POJO or Groovy object), then localhost:8080/thing
serves a JSON representation of it by default.
Note that, in a browser, you might sometimes see XML responses, because browsers tend to send accept headers that prefer XML.
Write an XML REST Service
If you have the Jackson XML extension (jackson-dataformat-xml
) on the classpath, you can use it to render XML responses.
The previous example that we used for JSON would work.
To use the Jackson XML renderer, add the following dependency to your project:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-dataformat-xml</artifactId>
</dependency>
If Jackson’s XML extension is not available and JAXB is available, XML can be rendered with the additional requirement of having MyThing
annotated as @XmlRootElement
, as shown in the following example:
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Java
-
Kotlin
import jakarta.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
@XmlRootElement
public class MyThing {
private String name;
// getters/setters ...
public String getName() {
return this.name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
}
import jakarta.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement
@XmlRootElement
class MyThing {
var name: String? = null
}
You will need to ensure that the JAXB library is part of your project, for example by adding:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.jaxb</groupId>
<artifactId>jaxb-runtime</artifactId>
</dependency>
To get the server to render XML instead of JSON, you might have to send an Accept: text/xml header (or use a browser).
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Customize the Jackson ObjectMapper
Spring MVC (client and server side) uses HttpMessageConverters
to negotiate content conversion in an HTTP exchange.
If Jackson is on the classpath, you already get the default converter(s) provided by Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder
, an instance of which is auto-configured for you.
The ObjectMapper
(or XmlMapper
for Jackson XML converter) instance (created by default) has the following customized properties:
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MapperFeature.DEFAULT_VIEW_INCLUSION
is disabled -
DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES
is disabled -
SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS
is disabled -
SerializationFeature.WRITE_DURATIONS_AS_TIMESTAMPS
is disabled
Spring Boot also has some features to make it easier to customize this behavior.
You can configure the ObjectMapper
and XmlMapper
instances by using the environment.
Jackson provides an extensive suite of on/off features that can be used to configure various aspects of its processing.
These features are described in several enums (in Jackson) that map onto properties in the environment:
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For example, to enable pretty print, set spring.jackson.serialization.indent_output=true
.
Note that, thanks to the use of relaxed binding, the case of indent_output
does not have to match the case of the corresponding enum constant, which is INDENT_OUTPUT
.
This environment-based configuration is applied to the auto-configured Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder
bean and applies to any mappers created by using the builder, including the auto-configured ObjectMapper
bean.
The context’s Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder
can be customized by one or more Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilderCustomizer
beans.
Such customizer beans can be ordered (Boot’s own customizer has an order of 0), letting additional customization be applied both before and after Boot’s customization.
Any beans of type com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.Module
are automatically registered with the auto-configured Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder
and are applied to any ObjectMapper
instances that it creates.
This provides a global mechanism for contributing custom modules when you add new features to your application.
If you want to replace the default ObjectMapper
completely, either define a @Bean
of that type and mark it as @Primary
or, if you prefer the builder-based approach, define a Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder
@Bean
.
Note that, in either case, doing so disables all auto-configuration of the ObjectMapper
.
If you provide any @Beans
of type MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter
, they replace the default value in the MVC configuration.
Also, a convenience bean of type HttpMessageConverters
is provided (and is always available if you use the default MVC configuration).
It has some useful methods to access the default and user-enhanced message converters.
See the Customize the @ResponseBody Rendering section and the WebMvcAutoConfiguration
source code for more details.
Customize the @ResponseBody Rendering
Spring uses HttpMessageConverters
to render @ResponseBody
(or responses from @RestController
).
You can contribute additional converters by adding beans of the appropriate type in a Spring Boot context.
If a bean you add is of a type that would have been included by default anyway (such as MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter
for JSON conversions), it replaces the default value.
A convenience bean of type HttpMessageConverters
is provided and is always available if you use the default MVC configuration.
It has some useful methods to access the default and user-enhanced message converters (For example, it can be useful if you want to manually inject them into a custom RestTemplate
).
As in normal MVC usage, any WebMvcConfigurer
beans that you provide can also contribute converters by overriding the configureMessageConverters
method.
However, unlike with normal MVC, you can supply only additional converters that you need (because Spring Boot uses the same mechanism to contribute its defaults).
Finally, if you opt out of the default Spring Boot MVC configuration by providing your own @EnableWebMvc
configuration, you can take control completely and do everything manually by using getMessageConverters
from WebMvcConfigurationSupport
.
See the WebMvcAutoConfiguration
source code for more details.
Handling Multipart File Uploads
Spring Boot embraces the servlet 5 jakarta.servlet.http.Part
API to support uploading files.
By default, Spring Boot configures Spring MVC with a maximum size of 1MB per file and a maximum of 10MB of file data in a single request.
You may override these values, the location to which intermediate data is stored (for example, to the /tmp
directory), and the threshold past which data is flushed to disk by using the properties exposed in the MultipartProperties
class.
For example, if you want to specify that files be unlimited, set the spring.servlet.multipart.max-file-size
property to -1
.
The multipart support is helpful when you want to receive multipart encoded file data as a @RequestParam
-annotated parameter of type MultipartFile
in a Spring MVC controller handler method.
See the MultipartAutoConfiguration
source for more details.
It is recommended to use the container’s built-in support for multipart uploads rather than introduce an additional dependency such as Apache Commons File Upload. |
Switch Off the Spring MVC DispatcherServlet
By default, all content is served from the root of your application (/
).
If you would rather map to a different path, you can configure one as follows:
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Properties
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YAML
spring.mvc.servlet.path=/mypath
spring:
mvc:
servlet:
path: "/mypath"
If you have additional servlets you can declare a @Bean
of type Servlet
or ServletRegistrationBean
for each and Spring Boot will register them transparently to the container.
Because servlets are registered that way, they can be mapped to a sub-context of the DispatcherServlet
without invoking it.
Configuring the DispatcherServlet
yourself is unusual but if you really need to do it, a @Bean
of type DispatcherServletPath
must be provided as well to provide the path of your custom DispatcherServlet
.
Switch Off the Default MVC Configuration
The easiest way to take complete control over MVC configuration is to provide your own @Configuration
with the @EnableWebMvc
annotation.
Doing so leaves all MVC configuration in your hands.
Customize ViewResolvers
A ViewResolver
is a core component of Spring MVC, translating view names in @Controller
to actual View
implementations.
Note that ViewResolvers
are mainly used in UI applications, rather than REST-style services (a View
is not used to render a @ResponseBody
).
There are many implementations of ViewResolver
to choose from, and Spring on its own is not opinionated about which ones you should use.
Spring Boot, on the other hand, installs one or two for you, depending on what it finds on the classpath and in the application context.
The DispatcherServlet
uses all the resolvers it finds in the application context, trying each one in turn until it gets a result.
If you add your own, you have to be aware of the order and in which position your resolver is added.
WebMvcAutoConfiguration
adds the following ViewResolvers
to your context:
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An
InternalResourceViewResolver
named ‘defaultViewResolver’. This one locates physical resources that can be rendered by using theDefaultServlet
(including static resources and JSP pages, if you use those). It applies a prefix and a suffix to the view name and then looks for a physical resource with that path in the servlet context (the defaults are both empty but are accessible for external configuration throughspring.mvc.view.prefix
andspring.mvc.view.suffix
). You can override it by providing a bean of the same type. -
A
BeanNameViewResolver
named ‘beanNameViewResolver’. This is a useful member of the view resolver chain and picks up any beans with the same name as theView
being resolved. It should not be necessary to override or replace it. -
A
ContentNegotiatingViewResolver
named ‘viewResolver’ is added only if there are actually beans of typeView
present. This is a composite resolver, delegating to all the others and attempting to find a match to the ‘Accept’ HTTP header sent by the client. There is a useful blog aboutContentNegotiatingViewResolver
that you might like to study to learn more, and you might also look at the source code for detail. You can switch off the auto-configuredContentNegotiatingViewResolver
by defining a bean named ‘viewResolver’. -
If you use Thymeleaf, you also have a
ThymeleafViewResolver
named ‘thymeleafViewResolver’. It looks for resources by surrounding the view name with a prefix and suffix. The prefix isspring.thymeleaf.prefix
, and the suffix isspring.thymeleaf.suffix
. The values of the prefix and suffix default to ‘classpath:/templates/’ and ‘.html’, respectively. You can overrideThymeleafViewResolver
by providing a bean of the same name. -
If you use FreeMarker, you also have a
FreeMarkerViewResolver
named ‘freeMarkerViewResolver’. It looks for resources in a loader path (which is externalized tospring.freemarker.templateLoaderPath
and has a default value of ‘classpath:/templates/’) by surrounding the view name with a prefix and a suffix. The prefix is externalized tospring.freemarker.prefix
, and the suffix is externalized tospring.freemarker.suffix
. The default values of the prefix and suffix are empty and ‘.ftlh’, respectively. You can overrideFreeMarkerViewResolver
by providing a bean of the same name. -
If you use Groovy templates (actually, if
groovy-templates
is on your classpath), you also have aGroovyMarkupViewResolver
named ‘groovyMarkupViewResolver’. It looks for resources in a loader path by surrounding the view name with a prefix and suffix (externalized tospring.groovy.template.prefix
andspring.groovy.template.suffix
). The prefix and suffix have default values of ‘classpath:/templates/’ and ‘.tpl’, respectively. You can overrideGroovyMarkupViewResolver
by providing a bean of the same name. -
If you use Mustache, you also have a
MustacheViewResolver
named ‘mustacheViewResolver’. It looks for resources by surrounding the view name with a prefix and suffix. The prefix isspring.mustache.prefix
, and the suffix isspring.mustache.suffix
. The values of the prefix and suffix default to ‘classpath:/templates/’ and ‘.mustache’, respectively. You can overrideMustacheViewResolver
by providing a bean of the same name.
For more detail, see the following sections: