spring mvc Updated July 27, 2011 by mkyong 12 comments

Spring MVC ResourceBundleViewResolver example

In Spring MVC, ResourceBundleViewResolver is used to resolve “view named” based on view beans in “.properties” file.

By default, ResourceBundleViewResolver will loads the view beans from file views.properties, which located at the root of the project class path. However, this location can be overridden through the “basename” property, for example,


<beans ...>
	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
		<property name="basename" value="spring-views" />
	</bean>
</beans>

In above case, it loads the view beans from “spring-views.properties“, which located at the root of the project class path.

Note
The ResourceBundleViewResolver has the ability to load view beans from different resource bundles for different locales, but this use case is rarely required.

ResourceBundleViewResolver example to show you how it works :

1. Controller

A controller class, return a view, named “WelcomePage“.


//...
public class WelcomeController extends AbstractController{
	
	@Override
	protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
		HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

		ModelAndView model = new ModelAndView("WelcomePage");
		
		return model;
	}
}

2. ResourceBundleViewResolver

Register ResourceBundleViewResolver in the Spring’s bean configuration file, change the default view beans location to “spring-views.properties“.


<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-2.5.xsd">

  <bean 
  class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />
	
	<!-- Register the bean -->
	<bean class="com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController" />

	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
		<property name="basename" value="spring-views" />
	</bean>

</beans>

3. View beans

Declare each view bean as a normal resource bundle style (key & message), where

“WelcomePage” is the view name to match.
“.(class)” is the type of view.
“.url” is the view’s URL location.

File : spring-views.properties


WelcomePage.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView
WelcomePage.url=/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomePage.jsp

Note
Put this “spring-views.properties” file on your project class path.

How it works ?
When view name “WelcomPage” is returned by controller, the ResourceBundleViewResolver will find the key start with “WelcomPage” in “spring-views.properties” file, and return the corresponds view’s URL “/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomPage.jsp” back to the DispatcherServlet.

Download Source Code

Download it – SpringMVC-ResourceBundleViewResolver-Example.zip (7 KB)

Reference

ResourceBundleViewResolver documentation

Written by mkyong

Software Engineer • Writer • Dad

20+ years hands-on, writing about Java, Spring, and AI. Every code example here is tested.

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12 comments on “Spring MVC ResourceBundleViewResolver example”

nup
December 1, 2014 at 2:59 pm

what will happen if i dont provide .url property in view.properties file ?

Reply

Colin Hilbert

March 12, 2013 at 1:35 am

I have the downloaded project set up, word for word, with WelcomeController.java:

package common.controller;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController;

public class WelcomeController extends AbstractController{
	
	@Override
	protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

		ModelAndView model = new ModelAndView("WelcomePage");
		return model;
	}
}

this file is in the common.controller package;

My spring-views.properties file:

WelcomePage.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView
WelcomePage.url=/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomePage.jsp

this is in the src folder

My WelcomePage.jsp:

<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags" %>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Spring MVC ResourceBundleViewResolver example</h1>
</body>
</html>

this is in the /WEB-INF/pages/ folder

my mvc-dispatcher-servlet.xml :

<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-2.5.xsd">
	
	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping"/>
	
	<!--  register the bean -->
	<bean class="common.controller.WelcomeController"/>
	
	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
		<property name="basename" value="spring-views"/>
	</bean>
	
</beans>

is in the WEB-INF folder along with the web.xml :

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.4" 
	xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" 
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee 
	http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
	
  	<display-name>ResourceBundleViewResolverExample</display-name>
  
  	<servlet>
  		<servlet-name>mvc-dispatcher</servlet-name>
    	<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    	<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  	</servlet>
  
  	<servlet-mapping>
 		<servlet-name>mvc-dispatcher</servlet-name>
    	<url-pattern>*.htm</url-pattern>
  	</servlet-mapping>

    <context-param>
		<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>/WEB-INF/mvc-dispatcher-servlet.xml</param-value>
  	</context-param>
  
  	<listener>
    	<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
  	</listener>
  
</web-app>

When I run this in eclipse I get a 404 no matter what combination of addresses I type in the url bar. I have successfully run all the tutorials before this so the issue is not jars. I dont know what I am supposed to do to pull up the page. If I move the jsp to just inside the WebContent folder, I can just type WelcomePage.jsp right after /projectname/ after running and it will load just fine but thats not what the tutorial is set to accomplish. Please help.

Colin Hilbert
March 12, 2013 at 1:37 am

sorry about the extra imports in the controller (controller and request mapping) those are left over from me trying different things to make this work

Reply
1. Colin Hilbert
  March 12, 2013 at 1:51 am
  
  ok I figured it out the call to the WelcomePage in the url has to be all lowercase:
  
  http://localhost/PROJECTNAME/welcomepage.htm not WelcomePage.htm or any of the other hundred combinations that I tried before that….SMH
  
  Reply

Treeman Cheung
January 18, 2013 at 2:48 pm

Could you tell me how to access the test page?

Reply
1. Treeman Cheung
  January 18, 2013 at 3:12 pm
  
  OK, I found it, thx a lot~
  
  Reply
  1. Colin Hilbert
    March 9, 2013 at 3:59 am
    
    I wish you would post i, I cannot figure it out to save my own life
    
    Reply
Syed Suhaib
August 17, 2012 at 5:18 pm

Can you please explain how control flows(the way you have mentioned above in “How it Works” section) when we are using Tiles. we have resourcebundleviewresolver, tiles-def.xml, views.properties, internalresourceviewresolver, I want to understand how control flows once view name is returned from controller.

Ex:

I) tiles-def has a template with 1) header 2)left-nav 3) body 4) footer (all will invoke different controller)

II) views.properties has mapping to all jsp

III) controller returns a view name.

Also, as mentioned above in views.properties url is the complete path as shown below
WelcomePage.url=/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomePage.jsp
Is this required when we are using both “resourcebundleviewresolver” and “internalresourceviewresolver”?

Reply
Kristen Duley
July 3, 2012 at 1:35 am

I truly appreciate this post.Thanks Again. Fantastic.

Reply
reos
December 3, 2010 at 11:44 pm

I got this error

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘WelcomePage’: Instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: No bean class specified on bean definition

Reply
1. mkyong Author
  July 27, 2011 at 4:56 pm
  
  Please post your last caused by error message
  
  Reply
  1. lezcanin
    June 27, 2012 at 8:31 pm
    
    Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController] for bean with name ‘com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController#0’ defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/mvc-dispatcher-servlet.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1141)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.predictBeanType(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:524)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1177)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.getBeanNamesForType(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.getBeanNamesForType(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:202)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBeanNamesForType(AbstractApplicationContext.java:933)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractDetectingUrlHandlerMapping.detectHandlers(AbstractDetectingUrlHandlerMapping.java:72)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractDetectingUrlHandlerMapping.initApplicationContext(AbstractDetectingUrlHandlerMapping.java:57)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport.initApplicationContext(ApplicationObjectSupport.java:119)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport.initApplicationContext(WebApplicationObjectSupport.java:69)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport.setApplicationContext(ApplicationObjectSupport.java:73)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationContextAwareProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(ApplicationContextAwareProcessor.java:70)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:350)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1331)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:473)
    … 22 more
    Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
    at org.springframework.util.ClassUtils.forName(ClassUtils.java:211)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanDefinition.java:385)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1138)
    … 36 more
    
    Reply