Question

I wish to implement dynamically changeable menu (updating whenever annotated method or controller added) for my Spring MVC application.

What i want is to introduce new annotation (@RequestMenuMapping) which will go to @Controller beans and their methods (just like @RequestMapping works).

Heres is what i want, User class, producing menu like

Users
    Index | List | Signup | Login

with following code:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("user")
@RequestMenuMapping("Users")
public class User {

    @RequestMapping("")
    @RequestMenuMapping("Index")
    public String index(/* no model here - just show almost static page (yet with JSP checks for authority)*/) {
        return "user/index.tile";
    }

    @RequestMapping("list")
    @RequestMenuMapping("List")
    public String list(Model model) {

        model.addAttribute("userList",/* get userlist from DAO/Service */);

        return "user/list.tile";
    }

    @RequestMapping("signup")
    @RequestMenuMapping("Signup")
    public String signup(Model model) {

        model.addAttribute("user",/* create new UserModel instance to be populated by user via html form */);

        return "user/signup.tile";
    }

    @RequestMapping("login")
    @RequestMenuMapping("Login")
    public String login(Model model) {

        model.addAttribute("userCreds",/* create new UserCreds instance to be populated via html form with login and pssword*/);

        return "user/login.tile";
    }
}

I think that Spring AOP may help me to pointcut methods with @RequestMenuMapping annotation and via @AfterReturning add something representing web-site menu to model.

But this raises two questions:

1. How do i get Model instance in @AfterReturning advice method in case it is missing in adviced method (as in .index())?
2. How do i get all methods (as in java reflection Method) and classes (as in java reflection Class) annotated with @RequestMenuMapping in order to build complete menu index?

Answer 1

InterceptorDemo:

@Aspect
@Component
public class InterceptorDemo {

  @Pointcut("@annotation(org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping)")
  public void requestMapping() {
  }
  @Pointcut("@annotation(you.package.RequestMenuMapping)")
  public void requestMenuMapping() {
  }


  @AfterReturning("requestMapping() && equestMenuMapping()")
  public void checkServer(JoinPoint joinPoint,Object returnObj) throws Throwable {
      Object[] args = joinPoint.getArgs();
      Model m = (Model)args[0];
      // use joinPoint get class or methd...
  }
}

If you want to intercept Contoller with you own, you can wirte another pointcut and ProceedingJoinPoint object can get what you want.