Spring MVC entry point - spring-mvc

Question

I want my project to use more than one controller. My question is, how do I navigate from one controller to another and what should I do about having a standard home page for my users to land on? Should this be a separate "homeController"? I don't understand how this should work. The "Spring in Action" book doesn't go into enough details to explain this.
Thanks

Answer 1

You can use different Controllers (Java classes) with the #Controller annotation, depending on what you want to do is the URL associated with the method defined in the Controller, for example:
#Controller
public class HomeController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/home", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView home() {
//code to process for the /home url
}
// More code
}

Answer 2

In servlet-context.xml check
<context:component-scan base-package="com.domain.package.controller" />
And use
#Controller
In class you want to be controller.

Answer 3

You can use a dispatcher servlet to delegate to different controllers.
<servlet>
<servlet-name>your-servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>your-servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
Now depending on your #RequestMapping bindings in your controllers, the DispatcherServlet will decide where to route requests.

Answer 4

Also please check the spring mvc showcase on github. https://github.com/SpringSource/spring-mvc-showcase

Answer 5

If your web is needs a common landing page like login.jsp you can do it like following way.
Configure you dispatcher servlet in web.xml as follows.
<servlet>
<servlet-name>public</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>public</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/pub/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
Then you should have a dispatcher servelt call public-servelt.xml where you handle the login requests for all users.It should contains configs like this.
<context:component-scan base-package="com.mycompany.web.controller.secure" />
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver" p:prefix="/WEB-INF/jsp/pub/"
p:suffix=".jsp" />
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter"
p:synchronizeOnSession="true" />
And then in your index.jsp where the common landing place of web app, put a jsp forward to hit above dispatcher servelt as follows.
<jsp:forward page="/pub/login" />
note : In your controller you need to have /login mapping in a get method as follows.
#RequestMapping(method = {GET, HEAD}, value = "/login")
public String loginHandler(.......){}
This is how normally achieve a common landing page through a spring controller.