yet another HelloWorld spring/maven/eclipse configuration befuddlement

[Stuart Rogers]

Greetings all,

just another newbie eclipse/maven/spring webapp configuration tangle.

I've tried to set up my project with the canonical eclipse/maven/spring
webapp structure. It compiles and deploys w/o error to my local instance of tomcat.

But I can't seem to get to my index page.


pom.xml

    <!-- just the build part -->
    <build>
      <finalName>hopeThisWorks</finalName>
      <directory>target</directory>
       <resources>
        <resource>
          <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
        </resource>
        <resource>
          <directory>src/main/java</directory>
        </resource>
      </resources>
      <sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
      <testSourceDirectory>src/test/java</testSourceDirectory>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0</version>
          <configuration>
            <source>${jdkVersion}</source>
            <target>${jdkVersion}</target>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.3</version>
          <configuration>
            <webResources>
              <resource>
                <directory>src/main/webapp</directory>
              </resource>
            </webResources>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </build>

\webapp\WEB-INF\web.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
              http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
              version="2.5">    
              <!-- have to manually adjust .settings file for 2.5 to work -->
     
      <display-name>webspringtester Application</display-name>
  
      <!-- definition of the root spring container shared by all servlets and filters -->
      <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml</param-value>
      </context-param>
      
      <!-- various Spring MVC filters -->
      
      <!-- creates the spring container shared by all servlets and filters -->
      <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
      </listener>
       
      <!-- process application requests -->
      <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring-dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
          <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
          <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
      </servlet> 
      
      <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring-dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
      </servlet-mapping>
    
    </web-app>

\WEB-INF\spring\root-context.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd">
        
</beans>

\WEB-INF\spring\appServlet\servlet-context.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd">
            
    </beans>

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <beans:beans
        xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
        xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
        xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
        xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
        xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
        xsi:schemaLocation="
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc    
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.1.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.1.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx    
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.1.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/util
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-3.1.xsd">
    
      <context:component-scan base-package="com.webspringtester.controller" />
      
      <!-- Enables the Spring MVC @Controller programming model -->        
      <annotation-driven />
      
      <!-- Handles HTTP GET requests for /resources/** by efficiently serving up static resources in the ${webappRoot}/resources directory -->
      <resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
  
      <!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by @Controllers to .jsp resources in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
      <!-- STS shows ERROR : Build path is Incomplete. Cannot find class file for javax/servlet.ServletContext -->
      <beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <beans:property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
        <beans:property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
      </beans:bean>
   
    </beans:beans>

\WEB-INF\views\index.jsp

    <html>
    <body>
    <h2>the worlds simplest index.jsp file</h2>
    </body>
    </html>

\WEB-INF\views\contactMe.jsp

    <html>
    <body>
    <h2>contact me for great deals on ice cream</h2>
    </body>
    </html>

com.webspringtester.controller.BaseController.java---------------------

    import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
    
    import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
    import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
    import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;
    
    @Controller
    public class BaseController
    {
        private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(BaseController.class);
    
        @RequestMapping(value="/index", method = RequestMethod.GET)
        public String welcome(ModelMap model)
        {
            logger.info("got inside");
            model.addAttribute("message", "Maven Web Project + Spring 3 MVC - welcome()");
     
            //Spring uses InternalResourceViewResolver and return back index.jsp
            return "index";
        }
    
        @RequestMapping(value="/contactMe", method = RequestMethod.GET)
        public String contactMe(ModelMap model)
        {
            logger.info("got inside contactMe");
            model.addAttribute("message", "HOORAY");
     
            //Spring uses InternalResourceViewResolver and return back index.jsp
            return "contactMe";
        }
    }

going to http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks yields the following msg in my eclipse console:
WARN [springframework.web.servlet.PageNotFound-noHandlerFound] - No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [/hopeThisWorks/] in DispatcherServlet with name 'spring-dispatcher'

I've googled up quite a few similar problems, seems it's tricky to get right, structure and names all have to jibe, could use some help please.

And on a tangential topic, is it considered best-practice to make use of a WebApplicationInitializer or not? Obviously I'm doing this all by hand but maybe there's a better way.

TIA,

Still-learning Steve

[Bill Gorder]

I did not look really close at all your code but it jumped out at me that the URL you are hitting is not mapped to anything.

Your controller is mapped as follows:

@RequestMapping(value="/index", method = RequestMethod.GET)

This is expecting a GET request at http://hostname/context-root/index

Based on what you have posted I expect you should be trying to go to

http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks/index

[Stuart Rogers]

Thanks for your response.

That is correct, I desire to enter http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks and/or http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks/index and have \WEB-INF\views\index.jsp get displayed

I starting to wonder if I'm using the correct Tomcat and/or browser. I successfully publish my project to "Tomcat v7.0 Server at localhost" in the Server tab within Eclipse, no errors thrown to the console, then enter http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks , http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks/index , http://localhost:8080/hopeThisWorks/index.jsp in my browser ==external== to Eclipse and get 404s for all three. So it seems there's still some subtly of configuration I'm missing :-(

Regards,

Still-learning Steve

[Bill Gorder]

Lets start with simplifying your POM a bit. Maven has pretty sensible defaults. Try this:

 <!-- just the build part -->  
    <build>  
      <finalName>hopeThisWorks</finalName>    
      <plugins>  
        <plugin>  
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>  
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>  
          <version>3.0</version>  
          <configuration>  
            <source>${jdkVersion}</source>  
            <target>${jdkVersion}</target>  
          </configuration>  
        </plugin>  
        <plugin>  
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>  
          <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>  
          <version>2.3</version>  
        </plugin>  
      </plugins>  
    </build>  

Also you can have it match both in your Request mapping.

 @RequestMapping(value = {"/","/index"}

Try getting a program like 7zip and opening the WAR and seeing what is in there? Do things look like they are there and in the right place?

[Stuart Rogers]

Found out my problem wasn't with the code at all, but rather with me not remembering to Project->Maven->Update Project after changing the <build><finalName> value . So the old value for the context-root embedded in my project's .settings file was still on hopeThisWorks. So of course trying http://localhost:8080/webspringtester drew a 404.

Solution is to explictly set the name of the context-root in <build><plugins><plugin><maven-war-plugin><configuration><warName> . This overrides what you may have set using <build><finalName> in your pom.

Thanks for your replies,

CASE CLOSED

Still-learning Steve