how to override default thymeleaf resolver in spring boot

Question

Hi I want to override the default thymeleaf configuration to custom folder of the web app. Thymeleaf dependencies are added to the pom.xml file. I want to map to WEB-INF/views/ folder.

my current configuration

@Bean
public ThymeleafViewResolver thymeleafViewResolver() {
    ThymeleafViewResolver thymeleafViewResolver = new ThymeleafViewResolver();
    thymeleafViewResolver.setTemplateEngine(templateEngine());
    thymeleafViewResolver.setOrder(1);
    return thymeleafViewResolver;
}

@Bean
public SpringTemplateEngine templateEngine() {
    SpringTemplateEngine templateEngine = new SpringTemplateEngine();
    templateEngine.setTemplateResolver(templateResolver());
    templateEngine.addDialect(new LayoutDialect());
    return templateEngine;
}

@Bean
public ServletContextTemplateResolver templateResolver() {
    ServletContextTemplateResolver templateResolver = new ServletContextTemplateResolver();
    templateResolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/views/");
    templateResolver.setSuffix(".html");
    templateResolver.setTemplateMode("HTML5");
    templateResolver.setOrder(1);
    templateResolver.setCacheable(false);
    return templateResolver;
}

When I run the app, it is showing below exceptions.

Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.thymeleaf.ThymeleafAutoConfiguration$DefaultTemplateResolverConfiguration': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot find template location: classpath:/templates/ (please add some templates or check your Thymeleaf configuration)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:136)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:408)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1558)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:539)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:762)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:757)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:480)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.refresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:118)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:691)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:321)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:961)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:950)
    at com.jo.dsdemo.app.MainApp.main(MainApp.java:17)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot find template location: classpath:/templates/ (please add some templates or check your Thymeleaf configuration)
    at org.springframework.util.Assert.state(Assert.java:385)
    at org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.thymeleaf.ThymeleafAutoConfiguration$DefaultTemplateResolverConfiguration.checkTemplateLocationExists(ThymeleafAutoConfiguration.java:82)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$LifecycleElement.invoke(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:349)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$LifecycleMetadata.invokeInitMethods(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:300)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:133)
    ... 17 more

Answer 1

I think the simplest way should be to define spring.thymeleaf.prefix to "/WEB-INF/templates/". Otherwise you make sure that your Bean has the name defaultTemplateResolver.

Untested - but hopefully helpful. Please give feedback, so further readers know if it's useful or not.