How to render JSP using Spring Boot application

Question

I'm using spring for the first time and

I can't find the reason why I keep getting a 404 for 2 straight days.

Here is my [updated] pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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>com.earth</groupId>
<artifactId>EarthBnb</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.7.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath />
</parent>

<name>EarthBnb</name>

<properties>
    <endorsed.dir>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</endorsed.dir>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Need this to compile JSP -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler</groupId>
        <artifactId>ecj</artifactId>
        <version>4.6.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
       <groupId>javax.persistence</groupId>
       <artifactId>persistence-api</artifactId>
       <version>1.0.2</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
        <optional>true</optional>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-expression</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-framework-bom</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
        <type>pom</type>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-instrument</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-instrument-tomcat</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-jms</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-messaging</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-oxm</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
        <type>jar</type>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc-portlet</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-websocket</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.11.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.5.7.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
        <type>pom</type>
    </dependency> 
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl-api</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.persistence</groupId>
        <artifactId>eclipselink</artifactId>
        <version>2.5.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.persistence</groupId>
        <artifactId>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.modelgen.processor</artifactId>
        <version>2.5.2</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
        <version>7.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
        <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
        <version>2.9.2</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.7.0</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.8</source>
                <target>1.8</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <configuration>
                <warName>ROOT</warName>
                <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                <webResources>
                    <resource>
                        <directory>frontend/build</directory>
                        <targetPath>/</targetPath>
                        <filtering>false</filtering>
                    </resource>
                </webResources>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
            <artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>0.7.5.201505241946</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>default-prepare-agent</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>prepare-agent</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
                <execution>
                    <id>default-report</id>
                    <phase>prepare-package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>report</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

</project>

My controller

package controller;

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

@Controller
public class indexController {

    @RequestMapping("/index")
    public ModelAndView myindex(){
        return new ModelAndView("index.jsp");
    }
}

My main

package earthbnb;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
    }

    @Overridehttps://stackoverflow.com/posts/46391915/edit#
    protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
        return application.sources(SpringBootWebApplication.class);
    }


}

I've added also

spring.mvc.view.prefix: /WEB-INF/jsp/
spring.mvc.view.suffix: .jsp

to the src/main/resources/application.properties.

the jsp pages are inside src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/jsp/ If you need any other info let me know.

Any help would be appreciated...

Answer 1

You are using spring-boot dependencies and then you are going for the traditional XML files.
This is straight from the docs- Spring Boot favors convention over configuration and is designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible.
First get the clarity, Do you want to go for Spring-MVC or a Spring-Boot project.
To server the JSPs from a spring boot application you can see this existing answer of mine
spring boot controller can't reach to jsp view

UPDATE- As the OP updated the question I am adding the required changes which are to be done in order to make it work.

Project Directory Structure

pom.xml - contains minimum required dependency(exclusion of tomcat is done if you are not some other application server). It is having minimum dependencies you can add as per your need.

<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>com.demo</groupId>
    <artifactId>SpringMVCDemo</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.5.7.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath />
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>


        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Need this to compile JSP -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler</groupId>
            <artifactId>ecj</artifactId>
            <version>4.6.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

    </dependencies>


</project>

The Main class

package com;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
import org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootWebApplication extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
    }

    @Override
    protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
        return application.sources(SpringBootWebApplication.class);
    }

}

Index Controller - (You should use more specific annotation here @RestContoller to be specific while @Controller is also working fine) Also here the view name should contain only name , your code contains .jsp extension also.

package com.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
public class IndexController {

    @RequestMapping("/index")
    public ModelAndView myindex() {
        return new ModelAndView("index");
    }
}

application.properties

spring.mvc.view.prefix:/WEB-INF/jsp/
spring.mvc.view.suffix:.jsp
server.port=8081

I am not sure are you going to use embedded tomcat or some other application server like Glassfish,WLP or Weblogic. Even if you are some other server then just go to project directory and build the war file by using below command

mvn clean install

It will create the war inside target folder which you can put in application server of your choice.