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DispatcherServlet
Spring MVC, as many other web frameworks, is designed around the front controller
pattern where a central Servlet
, the DispatcherServlet
, provides a shared algorithm
for request processing, while actual work is performed by configurable delegate components.
This model is flexible and supports diverse workflows.
The DispatcherServlet
, as any Servlet
, needs to be declared and mapped according
to the Servlet specification by using Java configuration or in web.xml
.
In turn, the DispatcherServlet
uses Spring configuration to discover
the delegate components it needs for request mapping, view resolution, exception
handling, and more.
The following example of the Java configuration registers and initializes
the DispatcherServlet
, which is auto-detected by the Servlet container
(see Servlet Config):
-
Java
-
Kotlin
public class MyWebApplicationInitializer implements WebApplicationInitializer {
@Override
public void onStartup(ServletContext servletContext) {
// Load Spring web application configuration
AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext context = new AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext();
context.register(AppConfig.class);
// Create and register the DispatcherServlet
DispatcherServlet servlet = new DispatcherServlet(context);
ServletRegistration.Dynamic registration = servletContext.addServlet("app", servlet);
registration.setLoadOnStartup(1);
registration.addMapping("/app/*");
}
}
class MyWebApplicationInitializer : WebApplicationInitializer {
override fun onStartup(servletContext: ServletContext) {
// Load Spring web application configuration
val context = AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext()
context.register(AppConfig::class.java)
// Create and register the DispatcherServlet
val servlet = DispatcherServlet(context)
val registration = servletContext.addServlet("app", servlet)
registration.setLoadOnStartup(1)
registration.addMapping("/app/*")
}
}
In addition to using the ServletContext API directly, you can also extend
AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer and override specific methods
(see the example under Context Hierarchy).
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For programmatic use cases, a GenericWebApplicationContext can be used as an
alternative to AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext . See the
GenericWebApplicationContext
javadoc for details.
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The following example of web.xml
configuration registers and initializes the DispatcherServlet
:
<web-app>
<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/app-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>app</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value></param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>app</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/app/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
Spring Boot follows a different initialization sequence. Rather than hooking into
the lifecycle of the Servlet container, Spring Boot uses Spring configuration to
bootstrap itself and the embedded Servlet container. Filter and Servlet declarations
are detected in Spring configuration and registered with the Servlet container.
For more details, see the
Spring Boot documentation.
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