Question

HandlerInterceptors in Spring can now be configured to be invoked only on certain URLs using <mvc:interceptors>.

Servlet Filters can achieve same functionality (logging, security etc). So which one should be used?

I think with Interceptors, one can use ModelAndView object to work with Models so it has more advantages. Can anyone draw out scenarios where Filters or Interceptors have advantages over the other?

Answer 1

The org.springframework.web.servlet.HanderInterceptor Interface JavaDoc itself has a two paragraphs that discuss this question:

HandlerInterceptor is basically similar to a Servlet 2.3 Filter, but
in contrast to the latter it just allows custom pre-processing with
the option of prohibiting the execution of the handler itself, and
custom post-processing. Filters are more powerful, for example they
allow for exchanging the request and response objects that are handed
down the chain. Note that a filter gets configured in web.xml, a
HandlerInterceptor in the application context.

As a basic guideline, fine-grained handler-related preprocessing tasks
are candidates for HandlerInterceptor implementations, especially
factored-out common handler code and authorization checks. On the
other hand, a Filter is well-suited for request content and view
content handling, like multipart forms and GZIP compression. This
typically shows when one needs to map the filter to certain content
types (e.g. images), or to all requests.