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This guide walks you through the process of creating a "hello world" web site with Spring.
You’ll build a service that will accept HTTP GET requests at:
http://localhost:8080/greeting
and respond with a web page displaying a greeting:
"Hello, World!"
You can customize the greeting with an optional name parameter in the query string:
http://localhost:8080/greeting?name=User
The name parameter value overrides the default value of "World" and is reflected in the response:
"Hello, User!"
In Spring’s approach to building web sites, HTTP requests are handled by a controller. You can easily identify these requests by the @Controller annotation. In the following example, the GreetingController handles GET requests for /greeting by returning the name of a View, in this case, "greeting". A View is responsible for rendering the HTML content:
src/main/java/hello/GreetingController.java
link:complete/src/main/java/hello/GreetingController.java[role=include]This controller is concise and simple, but there’s plenty going on. Let’s break it down step by step.
The @RequestMapping annotation ensures that HTTP requests to /greeting are mapped to the greeting() method.
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Note
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The above example does not specify GET vs. PUT, POST, and so forth, because @RequestMapping maps all HTTP operations by default. Use @RequestMapping(method=GET) to narrow this mapping.
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@RequestParam binds the value of the query String parameter name into the name parameter of the greeting() method. This query String parameter is not required; if it is absent in the request, the defaultValue of "World" is used. The value of the name parameter is added to a Model object, ultimately making it accessible to the view template.
The implementation of the method body relies on a view technology, in this case Thymeleaf, to perform server-side rendering of the HTML. Thymeleaf parses the greeting.html template below and evaluates the th:text expression to render the value of the ${name} parameter that was set in the controller.
src/main/resources/templates/greeting.html
link:complete/src/main/resources/templates/greeting.html[role=include]Although it is possible to package this service as a traditional WAR file for deployment to an external application server, the simpler approach demonstrated below creates a standalone application. You package everything in a single, executable JAR file, driven by a good old Java main() method. Along the way, you use Spring’s support for embedding the Tomcat servlet container as the HTTP runtime, instead of deploying to an external instance.
src/main/java/hello/Application.java
link:complete/src/main/java/hello/Application.java[role=include]@SpringBootApplication is a convenience annotation that adds all of the following:
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@Configurationtags the class as a source of bean definitions for the application context. -
@EnableAutoConfigurationtells Spring Boot to start adding beans based on classpath settings, other beans, and various property settings. -
Normally you would add
@EnableWebMvcfor a Spring MVC app, but Spring Boot adds it automatically when it sees spring-webmvc on the classpath. This flags the application as a web application and activates key behaviors such as setting up aDispatcherServlet. -
@ComponentScantells Spring to look for other components, configurations, and services in thehellopackage, allowing it to find theGreetingController.
The main() method uses Spring Boot’s SpringApplication.run() method to launch an application. Did you notice that there wasn’t a single line of XML? No web.xml file either. This web application is 100% pure Java and you didn’t have to deal with configuring any plumbing or infrastructure.
Logging output is displayed. The service should be up and running within a few seconds.
Now that the web site is running, visit http://localhost:8080/greeting, where you see:
"Hello, World!"
Provide a name query string parameter with http://localhost:8080/greeting?name=User. Notice how the message changes from "Hello, World!" to "Hello, User!":
"Hello, User!"
This change demonstrates that the @RequestParam arrangement in GreetingController is working as expected. The name parameter has been given a default value of "World", but can always be explicitly overridden through the query string.
Congratulations! You have just developed a web page using Spring.