Return a static html without redirect in Spring

Question

So I'd like to return an HTML page without sending a redirect. The reason being is using a redirect changes the URL in the browser, and I can't redirect someone to the login if they aren't logged in. What's the most straight forward way to do this? Seems like it should be simple without using jsp or other server side view technologies.

Answer 1

You can use forward.

Example:

say /static/myWebpage.html is your static html page

This code will return the content of myWebpage.html without changing the url

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/path")
public class TestingController {
    @RequestMapping("/page")
    public String someOtherPage(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
        return "forward:/static/myWebpage.html";
    }
}

Again your url would be "localhost/path/page" but you will be viewing "localhost/static/myWebPage.html"

Answer 2

The answer given above is correct for most Spring configurations. Other times you'll just get a Content-Type: text/plain webpage with the forwarding information as the text. You must explicitly pass the forwarding information to a ModelAndView.

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/path")
public class TestingController {
    @RequestMapping("/page")
    public ModelAndView someOtherPage(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
        return new ModelAndView("forward:/static/myWebpage.html");
    }
}