Spring MVC MultiActionController example

In Spring MVC application, MultiActionController is used to group related actions into a single controller, the method handler have to follow below signature :

    public (ModelAndView | Map | String | void) actionName(
        HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse [,HttpSession] [,CommandObject]);

1. MultiActionController

See a MultiActionController example.

package com.mkyong.common.controller;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.MultiActionController;

public class CustomerController extends MultiActionController{

    public ModelAndView add(HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        return new ModelAndView("CustomerPage", "msg","add() method");

    }

    public ModelAndView delete(HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        return new ModelAndView("CustomerPage", "msg","delete() method");

    }

    public ModelAndView update(HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        return new ModelAndView("CustomerPage", "msg","update() method");

    }

    public ModelAndView list(HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        return new ModelAndView("CustomerPage", "msg","list() method");

    }

}

With ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping configured.

<beans ...>

 <bean 
  class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />

  <bean class="com.mkyong.common.controller.CustomerController" />

</beans>

2. Mapping Examples

Now, the reuqested URL will map to the method name in the following patterns :

    CustomerController –> /customer/*
    /customer/add.htm –> add()
    /customer/delete.htm –> delete()
    /customer/update.htm –> update()
    /customer/list.htm –> list()

3. InternalPathMethodNameResolver

The InternalPathMethodNameResolver is the default MultiActionController implementation to map URL to method name. But, you are still allow to add prefix or suffix to the method name :

<beans ...>
 <bean 
  class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />

  <bean class="com.mkyong.common.controller.CustomerController">
     <property name="methodNameResolver">
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.InternalPathMethodNameResolver">
       <property name="prefix" value="test" />
       <property name="suffix" value="Customer" />
    </bean>
     </property>
   </bean>
</beans>

Now, the URL will map to the method name in the following pattern :

    CustomerController –> /customer/*
    /customer/add.htm –> testaddCustomer()
    /customer/delete.htm –> testdeleteCustomer()
    /customer/update.htm –> testupdateCustomer()
    /customer/list.htm –> testlistCustomer()