Question

i am trying to create and run a simple Spring 3.1 mvc web application where i have defined a controller that simply returns “hello” in the response body using the class below:

package com.jr.freedom.controllers;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;

@Controller
public class Hello {

    @RequestMapping(value = "/hello", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    @ResponseBody
    public String helloWorldInJson() {

        return "hello";
    }
}

i have tried this URL but i keeps returning a 404 error?

http://localhost:8080/FreedomSpring/hello

Here is my servlett:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans      
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.1.xsd">

    <import resource="mvc-config.xml" />

    <bean
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping" />

    <!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by @Controllers to .jsp resources 
        in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
    <bean id="viewResolver"
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
    </bean>

    <bean
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter" />

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.jr.freedom.controllers"></context:component-scan>


</beans>

here is the web.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app version="2.4" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee 
         http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">

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

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>FreedomSpring</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.htm</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>


    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>

        </param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>log4jConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/log4j.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>
      index.jsp
    </welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

</web-app>

And finally my mvc-config.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.1.xsd">

    <mvc:annotation-driven />

    <!-- the application context definition for the springapp DispatcherServlet -->


    <mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="index.jsp" />


</beans>

I am using tomcat 7 on a windows 7 machine by the way. No errors are found from my logfile from tomcat:

13-Feb-2012 12:37:36 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Destroying Spring FrameworkServlet 'FreedomSpring'
13-Feb-2012 12:37:36 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Shutting down log4j
13-Feb-2012 12:37:36 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Closing Spring root WebApplicationContext
13-Feb-2012 12:37:37 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
13-Feb-2012 12:37:37 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Set web app root system property: 'webapp.root' = [C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\webapps\FreedomSpring\]
13-Feb-2012 12:37:37 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing log4j from [C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\webapps\FreedomSpring\WEB-INF\log4j.xml]
13-Feb-2012 12:37:37 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'FreedomSpring'


0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 - - [13/Feb/2012:12:37:45 +0000] "GET /FreedomSpring HTTP/1.1" 302 -
0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 - - [13/Feb/2012:12:37:45 +0000] "GET /FreedomSpring/ HTTP/1.1" 404 997
0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 - - [13/Feb/2012:12:37:51 +0000] "GET /FreedomSpring/hello HTTP/1.1" 404 1012

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Your DispatcherServlet is mapped to *.htm:

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>FreedomSpring</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.htm</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

But you are accessing the controller through non-matching URL: http://localhost:8080/FreedomSpring/hello. You have three choices:

1. Change you dispatcher servlet to:

   <servlet-mapping>
       <servlet-name>FreedomSpring</servlet-name>
       <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
   

   but in this case all requests will be handled through the Spring MVC, including images and other static resources

2. Use extension in controllers as well:

   <url-pattern>/*.htm</url-pattern>
   

   and map Hello controller to .htm so that you use: http://localhost:8080/FreedomSpring/hello.htm.

3. Map controllers to a different subdirectory:

   <url-pattern>/mvc/*</url-pattern>
   

   to access them you will have to use: http://localhost:8080/FreedomSpring/mvc/hello without making any changes to the controller itself.