Spring MVC 5 - Hello World Example
In this article, we will learn how to create a simple Hello World Spring MVC Application using Spring MVC 5 +, JSP, Maven build tool, and Eclipse IDE.
In this example, we will use a Java-based configuration that is we configure the Spring DispatcherServlet and spring beans configuration using all Java Code (no XML).
Tools and technologies used
- Spring MVC - 5.1.0 RELEASE
- JDK - 1.8 or later
- Maven - 3.5.1
- Apache Tomcat - 8.5
- IDE - STS/Eclipse Neon.3
- JSTL - 1.2.1
Spring MVC Hello World Application Flow
Development Steps
- Create Maven Web Application
- Add Dependencies - pom.xml File
- Project Structure
- Spring Configuration - AppConfig.java
- Servlet Container Initialization - MySpringMvcDispatcherServletInitializer.java
- Model Class - HelloWorld.java
- Controller Class - HelloWorldController.java
- View - helloworld.jsp
- Build + Deploy + Run an application
- Demo
1. Create Maven Web Application
Let's create a Maven-based web application either using a command line or from Eclipse IDE.
- Use the Guide to Create Maven Web Applicationlink to create a maven project using a command line.
- Use Create Maven Web Application using Eclipse IDE link to create a maven web application using IDE Eclipse.
Once you created a maven web application, refer to pom.xml file jar dependencies.
2. Add Dependencies - pom.xml File
Refer to the following pom.xml file and add jar dependencies to your pom.xml.
<project xmlns="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>net.javaguides.springmvc</groupId>
<artifactId>springmvc5-helloworld-exmaple</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>springmvc5-helloworld-exmaple Maven Webapp</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework/spring-webmvc -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>5.1.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<!-- JSTL Dependency -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl-api</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>taglibs</groupId>
<artifactId>standard</artifactId>
<version>1.1.2</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Servlet Dependency -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- JSP Dependency -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
<version>2.3.1</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.5.1</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Note that we are using spring-webmvc dependency for a Spring MVC web application.
Next, let's create a standard project structure, please refer to below diagram.
3. Project Structure
Standard project structure for your reference -
As the name suggests Spring MVC, look at the diagram we are using the Model-View-Controller approach.
Model - HelloWorld.java
View - helloworld.java
Controller - HelloWorldController.java
Next step, we will configure Spring beans using Java-based configuration.
4. Spring Configuration - AppConfig.java
Create an AppConfig class and annotated it with @Configuration, @EnableWebMvc, and @ComponentScan annotations as follows.
package net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.config;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView;
@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
@ComponentScan(basePackages = {
"net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld"
})
public class AppConfig {
@Bean
public InternalResourceViewResolver resolver() {
InternalResourceViewResolver resolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
resolver.setViewClass(JstlView.class);
resolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/views/");
resolver.setSuffix(".jsp");
return resolver;
}
}
Let's understand few important annotations as below:
- The @Configuration is a class-level annotation indicating that an object is a source of bean definitions.
- The @EnableWebMvc enables default Spring MVC configuration and provides the functionality equivalent to mvc:annotation-driven/ element in XML based configuration.
- The @ComponentScan scans the stereotype annotations (@Controller, @Service, etc...) in a package specified by basePackages attribute.
InternalResourceViewResolver
This ViewResolver allows us to set properties such as prefix or suffix to the view name to generate the final view page URL:
@Bean
public InternalResourceViewResolver resolver() {
InternalResourceViewResolver resolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
resolver.setViewClass(JstlView.class);
resolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/views/");
resolver.setSuffix(".jsp");
return resolver;
}
We only need a simple JSP page, placed in the /WEB-INF/view folder. In this example, we have used helloworld.jsp as the view - /WEB-INF/views/helloworld.jsp
5. Servlet Container Initialization - SpringMvcDispatcherServletInitializer.java
Let's configure Spring MVC DispatcherServlet and set up URL mappings to Spring MVC DispatcherServlet.
Create a SpringMvcDispatcherServletInitializer class by extending the AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer class as follows.
package net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.config;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.support.AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer;
public class SpringMvcDispatcherServletInitializer extends AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {
@Override
protected Class [] getRootConfigClasses() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
return null;
}
@Override
protected Class [] getServletConfigClasses() {
return new Class[] {
AppConfig.class
};
}
@Override
protected String[] getServletMappings() {
return new String[] {
"/"
};
}
}
6. Model Class - HelloWorld.java
As we know that Spring MVC uses a model-view-controller design pattern. Let's create a model - HelloWorld.java with message and DateTime fields. This model data will be rendered on a view (JSP file).
package net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.model;
public class HelloWorld {
private String message;
private String dateTime;
public String getMessage() {
return message;
}
public void setMessage(String message) {
this.message = message;
}
public String getDateTime() {
return dateTime;
}
public void setDateTime(String dateTime) {
this.dateTime = dateTime;
}
}
Next, we will create a Controller to handle a request, populate the model with some data, and returns the view to a browser
7. Controller Class - HelloWorldController.java
Create a HelloWorldController class annotated with @Controller annotation under net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.controller package and write the following code in it.
package net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.controller;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.Model;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import net.javaguides.springmvc.helloworld.model.HelloWorld;
/**
* @author Ramesh Fadatare
*/
@Controller
public class HelloWorldController {
@RequestMapping("/helloworld")
public String handler(Model model) {
HelloWorld helloWorld = new HelloWorld();
helloWorld.setMessage("Hello World Example Using Spring MVC 5!!!");
helloWorld.setDateTime(LocalDateTime.now().toString());
model.addAttribute("helloWorld", helloWorld);
return "helloworld";
}
}
8. View - helloworld.jsp
Let's create an helloworld.jsp file under src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/views folder and write the following code in it.
<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><%@ page isELIgnored="false" %>
<meta charset="ISO-8859-1">
<title>Spring 5 MVC - Hello World Example | javaguides.net</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>${helloWorld.message}</h2>
<h4>Server date time is : ${helloWorld.dateTime}</h4>
</body>
</html>
9. Build + Deploy + Run an application
As we are using the maven build tool so first, we will need to build this application using the following maven command:
clean install
Once build success, then we will run this application on tomcat server 8.5 in IDE or we can also deploy war file on external tomcat webapps folder and run the application.
10. Demo
Once an application is up and running in tomcat then hit this link into browser: http://localhost:8080/springmvc5-helloworld-exmaple/helloworld
We will see the below page on the browser with the current date-time and a message from a model.
That's all.
What's next?
In the next Spring MVC tutorial, we will learn how to do Signup form handling using Spring MVC.