Spring MVC can't handle 404 from Resource Handler?

Question

I'm using Spring MVC 4.3.11.RELEASE and have a vanilla resource handler for static resources. It's working fine - for resources that exist. However if not, it appears to return a 404 to the DispatcherServlet which is happy with that response since it found a handler. I've got ControllerAdvice for NoHandlerFoundException which works fine for controllers but isn't meant to handle this case. So Spring MVC punts completely and I get the nasty Tomcat 404 response. I can find no way to configure handling for this case so I can return a proper response.

With TRACE enabled for Spring, you see the following for such a request:

2018-03-15T14:22:05,361 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Bound request context to thread: org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade@597aa896
2018-03-15T14:22:05,361 DEBUG [] DispatcherServlet          - DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher' processing GET request for [/creditcard/static/doh]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,361 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Testing handler map [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping@4b720a14] in DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher'
2018-03-15T14:22:05,361 DEBUG [] questMappingHandlerMapping - Looking up handler method for path /static/doh
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] questMappingHandlerMapping - Did not find handler method for [/static/doh]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Testing handler map [org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping@67db7dde] in DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher'
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping  - No handler mapping found for [/static/doh]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Testing handler map [org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping@4698270f] in DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher'
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] SimpleUrlHandlerMapping    - Matching patterns for request [/static/doh] are [/static//**]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] SimpleUrlHandlerMapping    - URI Template variables for request [/static/doh] are {}
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] SimpleUrlHandlerMapping    - Mapping [/static/doh] to HandlerExecutionChain with handler [ResourceHttpRequestHandler [locations=[ServletContext resource [/static//]], resolvers=[org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.PathResourceResolver@20537c7e]]] and 1 interceptor
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Testing handler adapter [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter@442b38d3]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Testing handler adapter [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter@3128c8a7]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] DispatcherServlet          - Last-Modified value for [/creditcard/static/doh] is: -1
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] ResourceHttpRequestHandler - Applying "invalid path" checks to path: doh
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] PathResourceResolver       - Resolving resource for request path "doh"
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] PathResourceResolver       - Checking location: ServletContext resource [/static//]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] PathResourceResolver       - No match for location: ServletContext resource [/static//]
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] ResourceHttpRequestHandler - No matching resource found - returning 404
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] DispatcherServlet          - Null ModelAndView returned to DispatcherServlet with name 'dispatcher': assuming HandlerAdapter completed request handling
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 TRACE [] DispatcherServlet          - Cleared thread-bound request context: org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade@597aa896
2018-03-15T14:22:05,364 DEBUG [] DispatcherServlet          - Successfully completed request

Thoughts?

Answer 1

I had the same issue. My solution as follows:

• spring.resources.add-mappings=false (either in yaml or application.properties)

• in Config of WebMvcConfigurer 'addResourceHandlers' method add all your mappings, e.g.:

  @Configuration
  public class WebMvcConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
      @Override
      public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
          registry.addResourceHandler("/home.html**")
                  .addResourceLocations("classpath:/static/views/home/");
      }
  
      @Override
      public void configureDefaultServletHandling(
                DefaultServletHandlerConfigurer configurer) {
          // DO not enable this ! 
          // configurer.enable();
          // Remove this method! 
      }
  }
  

• must remove default servlet handler, as it will try to handle and return with status 404, but never throws the NoHandlerFoundException

• add GlobalExceptionHandler Controller advice:

  @ControllerAdvice
  public class GlobalExceptionHandler {
      @ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
      public String handleNotFoundError(Exception ex) {
          return "redirect:/your404page";
      }
  }
  

Hope this helps! For me it works perfectly!