Thymeleaf SpringMVC page footer doesn't find Controller - spring-mvc

Question

I have a spring boot project that uses SpringMVC and Thymeleaf. I have a footer defined in a layout.html that is included on every page. Is there anyway to include a a call on that footer that shows "status" for each page. This way when you navigate the site, the page footer will always show desired information?
I have a REST Controller that puts a Status object:
#Controller
public class StatusController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/status", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String get(Model model) {
Status status = new Stauts;
LocalDate lastUpdate = statusRepository.findByLastUpdate();
...
// do some work to update the status object
model.addAttribute( STATUS, status );
return "status";
}
I have a in my footer.html this defined:
<div th:fragment="foot">
<div id="footer">
<div class="container">
<p class="muted credit">
<form action="refreshData" th:action="#{/status}" method="get"></form>
Last update status: <span th:text="${status.status}" class="text-info"></span>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
And then each page includes the footer as such:
...
<div th:include="layout :: foot"></div>
</body>
I put a breakpoint in my controller and its not called, and I always get this exception on page load:
org.springframework.expression.spel.SpelEvaluationException:
EL1007E:(pos 0): Property or field 'status' cannot be found on null
I wonder if the Controller is never called because I have to use something like jQuery to make Ajax calls, or because I have this in my layout.html and that include doesn't make calls (which seems unlikely)?

Answer 1

In Spring MVC you only have one controller per page/call. You cannot call several controllers in one shot. I believe this is your issue.
You have multiple possibilites:
Either you have to incorporate this status variable in each controller yourself.
create a ControllerAdvice that prepares the model attribute status and is applied to each controller (default)
use a service call in your footer to fetch the status like: th:text="${#statusService.status}"
I for myself like the service approach for these kind of global available information.

Answer 2

CURRENT:
<span th:text="${status.status}" class="text-info">
CHANGE TO
<span th:text="${status}" class="text-info">
this will display null
in the controller you have set Status status = null; and set it in the model map to attribute status".
So ${status} is evaluated as null (this is nothing but model.get("status")). ${status.status} will be null.status .
Resulting in
'status' cannot be found on null