Spring Boot Application with JSP

Spring Boot Application is a stand-alone solution of a normal Spring Web Application.

It comes with pre-configured conventions of the spring settings.Hence Spring Boot Application needs little configuration and configurations when there is a specific change.

Features:

Create Stand alone Spring Applications.
Automatically include Spring configurations/load default configurations.
In Memory Tomcat Web server for standalone server.
Provide Production Ready such as metrics/health checks without even adding any extra code.

Requirements: JDK1.7+, Maven 3+

Stack Java. Spring Boot

Like Every Basic Web Application, the Project structure needs to be proper when configuring in Maven, for a Spring Boot Application.

<project xmlns=“http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0”
xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”
xsi:schemaLocation=“http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd”>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>my.testwebapp</groupId>
  <artifactId>Testwebapp</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <name>My Maven Test Webapp</name>
  <!– FIXME change it to the project’s website –>
  <url>http://www.java2use.com</url>
  <parent>
     <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
     <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
     <version>2.0.6.RELEASE</version>
  </parent>
  <properties> 
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>
<dependencies>
 <dependency>
  <groupId>junit</groupId>
  <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
  <version>4.11</version>
  <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <!– JSTL for JSP –>
 <dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
  <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
  <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
 </dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  </plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>

<project xmlns=“http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0”

xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”

xsi:schemaLocation=“http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0

http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd”>

<groupId>my.testwebapp</groupId>

<artifactId>Testwebapp</artifactId>

<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

<name>My Maven Test Webapp</name>

<!– FIXME change it to the project’s website –>

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>

<version>2.0.6.RELEASE</version>

</parent>

<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>

<maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>

<maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>

</properties>

<groupId>junit</groupId>

<artifactId>junit</artifactId>

</dependency>

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>

</dependency>

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>

</dependency>

<!– JSTL for JSP –>

<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>

</dependency>

<groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>

<artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>

</dependency>

</dependencies>

<build>

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>

</plugin>

</plugins>

</build>

</project>

The above pom.xml needs to have the following SpringBoot and JSP dependencies.

SpringBoot:
org.springframework.boot.spring-boot-starter-web
org.springframework.boot.spring-boot-starter-tomcat

JSTL For JServlet/JSP:
javax.servlet.jstl
org.apache.tomcat.embed.tomcat-embed-jasper

The src folder should have the following three components in project structure for Maven to recognize this as a Web project.

main/java to store the java sources
main/resources to store the java resources.
main/webapp to store the jsp/html or web files.

Java Sources:

A Java class needs to be created for the controller to receive the request and send the response back to the client. Create Stand alone Spring Applications.

SpringBootController.java

package my.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*; @Controller
public class SpringBootController { @RequestMapping(“/index”)
   String home() {
      return “index”;
   }
}

package my.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*; @Controller

public class SpringBootController { @RequestMapping(“/index”)

String home() {

return “index”;

}

For creating a spring boot application in Java, we have to create a Java file where the Spring application needs to be booted.

WebApplication.java

package my.controller;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;

@SpringBootApplication
public class WebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
  @Override
  protected SpringApplicationBuilder 
     configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
    return application.sources(WebApplication.class);
}


  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
      SpringApplication.run(WebApplication.class, args);
  }
}

package my.controller;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;

@SpringBootApplication

public class WebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

@Override

protected SpringApplicationBuilder

configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {

return application.sources(WebApplication.class);

}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

SpringApplication.run(WebApplication.class, args);

}

JSP/HTML Web Files:

A new simple JSP file needs to be created inside webapps for displaying the web page. Lets call index.jsp

index.jsp

<html>
  <body>
      <h2>...This is a Index Page…</h2>
  </body>
</html>

<html>

<body>

<h2>...This is a Index Page…</h2>

</body>

</html>

Now we have inform the Spring Boot application about the JSP files, since Spring Boot application for web follows default Spring MVC configuration.

This properties/xml file needs to be created in src/resources folder which will be understood by the Maven.

application.properties

spring.mvc.view.prefix: / 
spring.mvc.view.suffix: .jsp

1 2	spring.mvc.view.prefix: / spring.mvc.view.suffix: .jsp

Clean & Build

Once configured, please execute the following instructions to clean & build the Spring Boot Application.

In the Project root directory, please execute the following command.

mvn clean install

1	mvn clean install

Running the Spring Boot Application:

Once it is success, we have to start the spring-boot application with another maven command.

mvn spring-boot:run

1	mvn spring-boot:run

Once Spring Boot Application Started, you will get the logs.., as below, with Port number 8080 where Internal Tomcat server started and running.

2019-01-03 17:11:48.719  INFO 13556 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error]}" onto public org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity<java.util.Map<java.lang.String, java.lang.Object>> org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.servlet.error.BasicErrorController.error(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest)
2019-01-03 17:11:48.780  INFO 13556 --- [           main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping  : Mapped URL path [/webjars/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler]
2019-01-03 17:11:48.785  INFO 13556 --- [           main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping  : Mapped URL path [/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler]
2019-01-03 17:11:49.066  INFO 13556 --- [           main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter        : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup
2019-01-03 17:11:49.160  INFO 13556 --- [           main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http) with context path ''
2019-01-03 17:11:49.174  INFO 13556 --- [           main] m.t.r.s.MySpringBootWebApplication       : Started MySpringBootWebApplication in 5.509 seconds (JVM running for 13.193)

2019-01-03 17:11:48.719 INFO 13556 --- [ main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error]}" onto public org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity<java.util.Map<java.lang.String, java.lang.Object>> org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.servlet.error.BasicErrorController.error(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest)

2019-01-03 17:11:48.780 INFO 13556 --- [ main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping : Mapped URL path [/webjars/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler]

2019-01-03 17:11:48.785 INFO 13556 --- [ main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping : Mapped URL path [/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler]

2019-01-03 17:11:49.066 INFO 13556 --- [ main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup

2019-01-03 17:11:49.160 INFO 13556 --- [ main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http) with context path ''

2019-01-03 17:11:49.174 INFO 13556 --- [ main] m.t.r.s.MySpringBootWebApplication : Started MySpringBootWebApplication in 5.509 seconds (JVM running for 13.193)

Now, once the application started, invoke the URL of JSP, to see the application JSP being invoked from Spring boot server.

http://localhost:8080/
or 
http://localhost:8080/index.jsp

http://localhost:8080/

http://localhost:8080/index.jsp

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