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Servlet Config

In a Servlet environment, you have the option of configuring the Servlet container programmatically as an alternative or in combination with a web.xml file. The following example registers a DispatcherServlet:

Java
Kotlin

import org.springframework.web.WebApplicationInitializer;

public class MyWebApplicationInitializer implements WebApplicationInitializer {

	@Override
	public void onStartup(ServletContext container) {
		XmlWebApplicationContext appContext = new XmlWebApplicationContext();
		appContext.setConfigLocation("/WEB-INF/spring/dispatcher-config.xml");

		ServletRegistration.Dynamic registration = container.addServlet("dispatcher", new DispatcherServlet(appContext));
		registration.setLoadOnStartup(1);
		registration.addMapping("/");
	}
}

import org.springframework.web.WebApplicationInitializer

class MyWebApplicationInitializer : WebApplicationInitializer {

	override fun onStartup(container: ServletContext) {
		val appContext = XmlWebApplicationContext()
		appContext.setConfigLocation("/WEB-INF/spring/dispatcher-config.xml")

		val registration = container.addServlet("dispatcher", DispatcherServlet(appContext))
		registration.setLoadOnStartup(1)
		registration.addMapping("/")
	}
}

WebApplicationInitializer is an interface provided by Spring MVC that ensures your implementation is detected and automatically used to initialize any Servlet 3 container. An abstract base class implementation of WebApplicationInitializer named AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer makes it even easier to register the DispatcherServlet by overriding methods to specify the servlet mapping and the location of the DispatcherServlet configuration.

This is recommended for applications that use Java-based Spring configuration, as the following example shows:

Java
Kotlin

public class MyWebAppInitializer extends AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {

	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getRootConfigClasses() {
		return null;
	}

	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getServletConfigClasses() {
		return new Class<?>[] { MyWebConfig.class };
	}

	@Override
	protected String[] getServletMappings() {
		return new String[] { "/" };
	}
}

class MyWebAppInitializer : AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer() {

	override fun getRootConfigClasses(): Array<Class<*>>? {
		return null
	}

	override fun getServletConfigClasses(): Array<Class<*>>? {
		return arrayOf(MyWebConfig::class.java)
	}

	override fun getServletMappings(): Array<String> {
		return arrayOf("/")
	}
}

If you use XML-based Spring configuration, you should extend directly from AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer, as the following example shows:

Java
Kotlin

public class MyWebAppInitializer extends AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer {

	@Override
	protected WebApplicationContext createRootApplicationContext() {
		return null;
	}

	@Override
	protected WebApplicationContext createServletApplicationContext() {
		XmlWebApplicationContext cxt = new XmlWebApplicationContext();
		cxt.setConfigLocation("/WEB-INF/spring/dispatcher-config.xml");
		return cxt;
	}

	@Override
	protected String[] getServletMappings() {
		return new String[] { "/" };
	}
}

class MyWebAppInitializer : AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer() {

	override fun createRootApplicationContext(): WebApplicationContext? {
		return null
	}

	override fun createServletApplicationContext(): WebApplicationContext {
		return XmlWebApplicationContext().apply {
			setConfigLocation("/WEB-INF/spring/dispatcher-config.xml")
		}
	}

	override fun getServletMappings(): Array<String> {
		return arrayOf("/")
	}
}

AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer also provides a convenient way to add Filter instances and have them be automatically mapped to the DispatcherServlet, as the following example shows:

Java
Kotlin

public class MyWebAppInitializer extends AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer {

	// ...

	@Override
	protected Filter[] getServletFilters() {
		return new Filter[] {
			new HiddenHttpMethodFilter(), new CharacterEncodingFilter() };
	}
}

class MyWebAppInitializer : AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer() {

	// ...

	override fun getServletFilters(): Array<Filter> {
		return arrayOf(HiddenHttpMethodFilter(), CharacterEncodingFilter())
	}
}

Each filter is added with a default name based on its concrete type and automatically mapped to the DispatcherServlet.

The isAsyncSupported protected method of AbstractDispatcherServletInitializer provides a single place to enable async support on the DispatcherServlet and all filters mapped to it. By default, this flag is set to true.

Finally, if you need to further customize the DispatcherServlet itself, you can override the createDispatcherServlet method.