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URI Links
This section describes various options available in the Spring Framework to work with URI’s.
UriComponents
Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux
UriComponentsBuilder
helps to build URI’s from URI templates with variables, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
UriComponents uriComponents = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}") (1)
.queryParam("q", "{q}") (2)
.encode() (3)
.build(); (4)
URI uri = uriComponents.expand("Westin", "123").toUri(); (5)
1 | Static factory method with a URI template. |
2 | Add or replace URI components. |
3 | Request to have the URI template and URI variables encoded. |
4 | Build a UriComponents . |
5 | Expand variables and obtain the URI . |
val uriComponents = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}") (1)
.queryParam("q", "{q}") (2)
.encode() (3)
.build() (4)
val uri = uriComponents.expand("Westin", "123").toUri() (5)
1 | Static factory method with a URI template. |
2 | Add or replace URI components. |
3 | Request to have the URI template and URI variables encoded. |
4 | Build a UriComponents . |
5 | Expand variables and obtain the URI . |
The preceding example can be consolidated into one chain and shortened with buildAndExpand
,
as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.encode()
.buildAndExpand("Westin", "123")
.toUri();
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.encode()
.buildAndExpand("Westin", "123")
.toUri()
You can shorten it further by going directly to a URI (which implies encoding), as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("Westin", "123");
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("Westin", "123")
You can shorten it further still with a full URI template, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}?q={q}")
.build("Westin", "123");
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder
.fromUriString("https://example.com/hotels/{hotel}?q={q}")
.build("Westin", "123")
UriBuilder
Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux
UriComponentsBuilder
implements UriBuilder
. You can create a
UriBuilder
, in turn, with a UriBuilderFactory
. Together, UriBuilderFactory
and
UriBuilder
provide a pluggable mechanism to build URIs from URI templates, based on
shared configuration, such as a base URL, encoding preferences, and other details.
You can configure RestTemplate
and WebClient
with a UriBuilderFactory
to customize the preparation of URIs. DefaultUriBuilderFactory
is a default
implementation of UriBuilderFactory
that uses UriComponentsBuilder
internally and
exposes shared configuration options.
The following example shows how to configure a RestTemplate
:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
// import org.springframework.web.util.DefaultUriBuilderFactory.EncodingMode;
String baseUrl = "https://example.org";
DefaultUriBuilderFactory factory = new DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl);
factory.setEncodingMode(EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES);
RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
restTemplate.setUriTemplateHandler(factory);
// import org.springframework.web.util.DefaultUriBuilderFactory.EncodingMode
val baseUrl = "https://example.org"
val factory = DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl)
factory.encodingMode = EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES
val restTemplate = RestTemplate()
restTemplate.uriTemplateHandler = factory
The following example configures a WebClient
:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
// import org.springframework.web.util.DefaultUriBuilderFactory.EncodingMode;
String baseUrl = "https://example.org";
DefaultUriBuilderFactory factory = new DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl);
factory.setEncodingMode(EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES);
WebClient client = WebClient.builder().uriBuilderFactory(factory).build();
// import org.springframework.web.util.DefaultUriBuilderFactory.EncodingMode
val baseUrl = "https://example.org"
val factory = DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl)
factory.encodingMode = EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES
val client = WebClient.builder().uriBuilderFactory(factory).build()
In addition, you can also use DefaultUriBuilderFactory
directly. It is similar to using
UriComponentsBuilder
but, instead of static factory methods, it is an actual instance
that holds configuration and preferences, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
String baseUrl = "https://example.com";
DefaultUriBuilderFactory uriBuilderFactory = new DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl);
URI uri = uriBuilderFactory.uriString("/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("Westin", "123");
val baseUrl = "https://example.com"
val uriBuilderFactory = DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl)
val uri = uriBuilderFactory.uriString("/hotels/{hotel}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("Westin", "123")
URI Encoding
Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux
UriComponentsBuilder
exposes encoding options at two levels:
-
UriComponentsBuilder#encode(): Pre-encodes the URI template first and then strictly encodes URI variables when expanded.
-
UriComponents#encode(): Encodes URI components after URI variables are expanded.
Both options replace non-ASCII and illegal characters with escaped octets. However, the first option also replaces characters with reserved meaning that appear in URI variables.
Consider ";", which is legal in a path but has reserved meaning. The first option replaces ";" with "%3B" in URI variables but not in the URI template. By contrast, the second option never replaces ";", since it is a legal character in a path. |
For most cases, the first option is likely to give the expected result, because it treats URI variables as opaque data to be fully encoded, while the second option is useful if URI variables do intentionally contain reserved characters. The second option is also useful when not expanding URI variables at all since that will also encode anything that incidentally looks like a URI variable.
The following example uses the first option:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromPath("/hotel list/{city}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.encode()
.buildAndExpand("New York", "foo+bar")
.toUri();
// Result is "/hotel%20list/New%20York?q=foo%2Bbar"
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromPath("/hotel list/{city}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.encode()
.buildAndExpand("New York", "foo+bar")
.toUri()
// Result is "/hotel%20list/New%20York?q=foo%2Bbar"
You can shorten the preceding example by going directly to the URI (which implies encoding), as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromPath("/hotel list/{city}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("New York", "foo+bar");
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromPath("/hotel list/{city}")
.queryParam("q", "{q}")
.build("New York", "foo+bar")
You can shorten it further still with a full URI template, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
URI uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromUriString("/hotel list/{city}?q={q}")
.build("New York", "foo+bar");
val uri = UriComponentsBuilder.fromUriString("/hotel list/{city}?q={q}")
.build("New York", "foo+bar")
The WebClient
and the RestTemplate
expand and encode URI templates internally through
the UriBuilderFactory
strategy. Both can be configured with a custom strategy,
as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
String baseUrl = "https://example.com";
DefaultUriBuilderFactory factory = new DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl)
factory.setEncodingMode(EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES);
// Customize the RestTemplate..
RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
restTemplate.setUriTemplateHandler(factory);
// Customize the WebClient..
WebClient client = WebClient.builder().uriBuilderFactory(factory).build();
val baseUrl = "https://example.com"
val factory = DefaultUriBuilderFactory(baseUrl).apply {
encodingMode = EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES
}
// Customize the RestTemplate..
val restTemplate = RestTemplate().apply {
uriTemplateHandler = factory
}
// Customize the WebClient..
val client = WebClient.builder().uriBuilderFactory(factory).build()
The DefaultUriBuilderFactory
implementation uses UriComponentsBuilder
internally to
expand and encode URI templates. As a factory, it provides a single place to configure
the approach to encoding, based on one of the below encoding modes:
-
TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES
: UsesUriComponentsBuilder#encode()
, corresponding to the first option in the earlier list, to pre-encode the URI template and strictly encode URI variables when expanded. -
VALUES_ONLY
: Does not encode the URI template and, instead, applies strict encoding to URI variables throughUriUtils#encodeUriVariables
prior to expanding them into the template. -
URI_COMPONENT
: UsesUriComponents#encode()
, corresponding to the second option in the earlier list, to encode URI component value after URI variables are expanded. -
NONE
: No encoding is applied.
The RestTemplate
is set to EncodingMode.URI_COMPONENT
for historical
reasons and for backwards compatibility. The WebClient
relies on the default value
in DefaultUriBuilderFactory
, which was changed from EncodingMode.URI_COMPONENT
in
5.0.x to EncodingMode.TEMPLATE_AND_VALUES
in 5.1.
Relative Servlet Requests
You can use ServletUriComponentsBuilder
to create URIs relative to the current request,
as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
HttpServletRequest request = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, path, and query string...
URI uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromRequest(request)
.replaceQueryParam("accountId", "{id}")
.build("123");
val request: HttpServletRequest = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, path, and query string...
val uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromRequest(request)
.replaceQueryParam("accountId", "{id}")
.build("123")
You can create URIs relative to the context path, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
HttpServletRequest request = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, and context path...
URI uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromContextPath(request)
.path("/accounts")
.build()
.toUri();
val request: HttpServletRequest = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, and context path...
val uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromContextPath(request)
.path("/accounts")
.build()
.toUri()
You can create URIs relative to a Servlet (for example, /main/*
),
as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
HttpServletRequest request = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, context path, and Servlet mapping prefix...
URI uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromServletMapping(request)
.path("/accounts")
.build()
.toUri();
val request: HttpServletRequest = ...
// Re-uses scheme, host, port, context path, and Servlet mapping prefix...
val uri = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromServletMapping(request)
.path("/accounts")
.build()
.toUri()
As of 5.1, ServletUriComponentsBuilder ignores information from the Forwarded and
X-Forwarded-* headers, which specify the client-originated address. Consider using the
ForwardedHeaderFilter to extract and use or to discard
such headers.
|
Links to Controllers
Spring MVC provides a mechanism to prepare links to controller methods. For example, the following MVC controller allows for link creation:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/hotels/{hotel}")
public class BookingController {
@GetMapping("/bookings/{booking}")
public ModelAndView getBooking(@PathVariable Long booking) {
// ...
}
}
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/hotels/{hotel}")
class BookingController {
@GetMapping("/bookings/{booking}")
fun getBooking(@PathVariable booking: Long): ModelAndView {
// ...
}
}
You can prepare a link by referring to the method by name, as the following example shows:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
UriComponents uriComponents = MvcUriComponentsBuilder
.fromMethodName(BookingController.class, "getBooking", 21).buildAndExpand(42);
URI uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri();
val uriComponents = MvcUriComponentsBuilder
.fromMethodName(BookingController::class.java, "getBooking", 21).buildAndExpand(42)
val uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri()
In the preceding example, we provide actual method argument values (in this case, the long value: 21
)
to be used as a path variable and inserted into the URL. Furthermore, we provide the
value, 42
, to fill in any remaining URI variables, such as the hotel
variable inherited
from the type-level request mapping. If the method had more arguments, we could supply null for
arguments not needed for the URL. In general, only @PathVariable
and @RequestParam
arguments
are relevant for constructing the URL.
There are additional ways to use MvcUriComponentsBuilder
. For example, you can use a technique
akin to mock testing through proxies to avoid referring to the controller method by name, as the following example shows
(the example assumes static import of MvcUriComponentsBuilder.on
):
-
Java
-
Kotlin
UriComponents uriComponents = MvcUriComponentsBuilder
.fromMethodCall(on(BookingController.class).getBooking(21)).buildAndExpand(42);
URI uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri();
val uriComponents = MvcUriComponentsBuilder
.fromMethodCall(on(BookingController::class.java).getBooking(21)).buildAndExpand(42)
val uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri()
Controller method signatures are limited in their design when they are supposed to be usable for
link creation with fromMethodCall . Aside from needing a proper parameter signature,
there is a technical limitation on the return type (namely, generating a runtime proxy
for link builder invocations), so the return type must not be final . In particular,
the common String return type for view names does not work here. You should use ModelAndView
or even plain Object (with a String return value) instead.
|
The earlier examples use static methods in MvcUriComponentsBuilder
. Internally, they rely
on ServletUriComponentsBuilder
to prepare a base URL from the scheme, host, port,
context path, and servlet path of the current request. This works well in most cases.
However, sometimes, it can be insufficient. For example, you may be outside the context of
a request (such as a batch process that prepares links) or perhaps you need to insert a path
prefix (such as a locale prefix that was removed from the request path and needs to be
re-inserted into links).
For such cases, you can use the static fromXxx
overloaded methods that accept a
UriComponentsBuilder
to use a base URL. Alternatively, you can create an instance of MvcUriComponentsBuilder
with a base URL and then use the instance-based withXxx
methods. For example, the
following listing uses withMethodCall
:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
UriComponentsBuilder base = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromCurrentContextPath().path("/en");
MvcUriComponentsBuilder builder = MvcUriComponentsBuilder.relativeTo(base);
builder.withMethodCall(on(BookingController.class).getBooking(21)).buildAndExpand(42);
URI uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri();
val base = ServletUriComponentsBuilder.fromCurrentContextPath().path("/en")
val builder = MvcUriComponentsBuilder.relativeTo(base)
builder.withMethodCall(on(BookingController::class.java).getBooking(21)).buildAndExpand(42)
val uri = uriComponents.encode().toUri()
As of 5.1, MvcUriComponentsBuilder ignores information from the Forwarded and
X-Forwarded-* headers, which specify the client-originated address. Consider using the
ForwardedHeaderFilter to extract and use or to discard
such headers.
|
Links in Views
In views such as Thymeleaf, FreeMarker, or JSP, you can build links to annotated controllers by referring to the implicitly or explicitly assigned name for each request mapping.
Consider the following example:
-
Java
-
Kotlin
@RequestMapping("/people/{id}/addresses")
public class PersonAddressController {
@RequestMapping("/{country}")
public HttpEntity<PersonAddress> getAddress(@PathVariable String country) { ... }
}
@RequestMapping("/people/{id}/addresses")
class PersonAddressController {
@RequestMapping("/{country}")
fun getAddress(@PathVariable country: String): HttpEntity<PersonAddress> { ... }
}
Given the preceding controller, you can prepare a link from a JSP, as follows:
<%@ taglib uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags" prefix="s" %>
...
<a href="${s:mvcUrl('PAC#getAddress').arg(0,'US').buildAndExpand('123')}">Get Address</a>
The preceding example relies on the mvcUrl
function declared in the Spring tag library
(that is, META-INF/spring.tld), but it is easy to define your own function or prepare a
similar one for other templating technologies.
Here is how this works. On startup, every @RequestMapping
is assigned a default name
through HandlerMethodMappingNamingStrategy
, whose default implementation uses the
capital letters of the class and the method name (for example, the getThing
method in
ThingController
becomes "TC#getThing"). If there is a name clash, you can use
@RequestMapping(name="..")
to assign an explicit name or implement your own
HandlerMethodMappingNamingStrategy
.