Spring 3 MVC hello world example

In this tutorial, we show you a Spring 3 MVC hello world example, using Maven build tool.

Technologies used :

• Spring 3.2.13.RELEASE
• Maven 3
• JDK 1.6
• Eclipse 4.4
• Boostrap 3

1. Project Structure

Download the project source code and review the project folder structure :

2. Maven

A pom.xml template to quick start a Spring MVC project, it defines Spring 3 dependencies, an embedded Jetty container and Eclipse workspace configuration.

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
    http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.mkyong</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring3-web</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>spring css</name>

    <properties>
        <jdk.version>1.6</jdk.version>
        <spring.version>3.2.13.RELEASE</spring.version>
        <jstl.version>1.2</jstl.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>${jstl.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.3</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>${jdk.version}</source>
                <target>${jdk.version}</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

        <!-- embedded Jetty server, for testing -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
            <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>9.2.11.v20150529</version>
            <configuration>
                <scanIntervalSeconds>10</scanIntervalSeconds>
                <webApp>
                    <contextPath>/spring3</contextPath>
                </webApp>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

        <!-- configure Eclipse workspace --> 
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.9</version>
            <configuration>
                <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
                <wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
                <wtpContextName>spring3</wtpContextName>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </build>

  </project>

##3. Controller & Mapping The `@RequestMapping` has been available since 2.5, but now enhanced to support REST style URLs. ###`HelloController.java`

package com.mkyong.web.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
public class HelloController {

    @RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String printWelcome(ModelMap model) {

        model.addAttribute("message", "Spring 3 MVC Hello World");
        return "hello";

    }

    @RequestMapping(value = "/hello/{name:.+}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public ModelAndView hello(@PathVariable("name") String name) {

        ModelAndView model = new ModelAndView();
        model.setViewName("hello");
        model.addObject("msg", name);

        return model;

    }

}

##4. JSP Views A JSP page to display the value, and include bootstrap css and js.

html4strict

<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>


<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/hello.css" var="coreCss" />
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/bootstrap.min.css" var="bootstrapCss" />
<link href="${bootstrapCss}" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="${coreCss}" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>

<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="navbar-header">
        <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Spring 3 MVC Project</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

<div class="jumbotron">
  <div class="container">
    <h1>${title}</h1>
    <p>
        <c:if test="${not empty name}">
            Hello ${name}
        </c:if>

        <c:if test="${empty name}">
            Welcome Welcome!
        </c:if>
    </p>
    <p>
    <a class="btn btn-primary btn-lg" href="#" role="button">Learn more</a>
    </p>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="container">

  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-4">
        <h2>Heading</h2>
        <p>ABC</p>
        <p>
        <a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
        </p>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-4">
        <h2>Heading</h2>
        <p>ABC</p>
        <p>
        <a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
        </p>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-4">
        <h2>Heading</h2>
        <p>ABC</p>
        <p>
        <a class="btn btn-default" href="#" role="button">View details</a>
        </p>
    </div>
  </div>

  <hr />
  <footer>
    <p>© Mkyong.com 2015</p>
  </footer>
</div>

<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/hello.js" var="coreJs" />
<spring:url value="/resources/core/css/bootstrap.min.js" var="bootstrapJs" />

<script src="${coreJs}"></script>
<script src="${bootstrapJs}"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

</body>
</html>

5. Spring XML Configuration

5.1 Enable component scanning, view resolver and resource mapping.

spring-web-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.2.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.mkyong.web" />

    <bean
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix">
            <value>/WEB-INF/views/jsp/</value>
        </property>
        <property name="suffix">
            <value>.jsp</value>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />

    <mvc:annotation-driven />

</beans>

5.2 Declares a DispatcherServlet in web.xml. If the Spring XML configuration file is NOT specified, Spring will look for the {servlet-name}-servlet.xml.

In this example, Spring will look for the spring-web-servlet.xml file.

web.xml

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
    version="2.5">

    <display-name>Spring3 MVC Application</display-name>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring-web</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>
                    org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
                </servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring-web</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

You can define a Spring XML file via contextConfigLocation.

web.xml

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring-web</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>
                     org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
                </servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring-mvc-config.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>

        <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring-web</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

6. Demo

The pom.xml file defines an embedded Jetty container. Issues mvn jetty:run to start the project.

Terminal

$ mvn jetty:run
...
[INFO] Started Jetty Server
[INFO] Starting scanner at interval of 10 seconds.

URL : http://localhost:8080/spring3

URL : http://localhost:8080/spring3/hello/mkyong

7. WAR File

To create a WAR file for deployment :

Terminal

your-project$ mvn war:war

A WAR file will be created in project\target\ folder.

${Project}\target\spring3-web-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war