Spring MVC XmlViewResolver example

In Spring MVC, XmlViewResolver is used to resolve “view name” based on view beans in the XML file. By default, XmlViewResolver will loads the view beans from /WEB-INF/views.xml, however, this location can be overridden through the “location” property :


<beans ...>
	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.XmlViewResolver">
	   <property name="location">
		<value>/WEB-INF/spring-views.xml</value>
	   </property>
	</bean>
</beans>

In above case, it loads the view beans from “/WEB-INF/spring-views.xml“. See XmlViewResolver example :

1. Controller

A controller class, returns 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. XmlViewResolver

Register the XmlViewResolver in the Spring’s bean configuration file, loads the view beans from “/WEB-INF/spring-views.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="com.mkyong.common.controller.WelcomeController" />

	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.XmlViewResolver">
	   <property name="location">
	       <value>/WEB-INF/spring-views.xml</value>
	   </property>
	</bean>

</beans>

3. View beans

The “view bean” is just a normal Spring bean declared in the Spring’s bean configuration file, where

“id” is the “view name” to resolve.
“class” is the type of the view.
“url” property is the view’s url location.

File : spring-views.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 id="WelcomePage"
		class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView">
		<property name="url" value="/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomePage.jsp" />
	</bean>

</beans>

How it works ?
When a view name “WelcomPage” is returned by controller, the XmlViewResolver will find the bean id “WelcomPage” in “spring-views.xml” file, and return the corresponds view’s URL “/WEB-INF/pages/WelcomPage.jsp” back to the DispatcherServlet.