Question

In spring when control return to view i have seen it return through,

return new ModelAndView("contact", "command", new Contact());

But i have seen a example where just a string name returns as below,

 @RequestMapping("/index")
    public String listContacts(Map<String, Object> map) {

        map.put("contact", new Contact());
        map.put("contactList", contactService.listContact());

        return "contact";
    }

Is this also valid or a good practice?

Answer 1

Yes it is valid to return a String. It will be interpreted as the View name (ref):

A String value which is interpreted as view name, with the model implicitly determined through command objects and ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor methods.

Is it a good practice ?

Let’s say that’s a matter of taste. (My point of view is that this style requires more knowledge about implicit behavior of Spring MVC and so I don’t like it because it make the code more difficult to understand for someone not aware of all this implicit behavior, but it’s really just personal preference…)