Spring MVC, forward

Question

Is there any difference between

public class Controller1 extends AbstractController {
    @Override
    protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
        return new AnotherController().handleRequest(request, response);
    }
}

and

@Controller
public class Controller1 {

    @RequestMapping ...
    public String handleRequest() {
        return "forward:/path_to_my_another_controller";
    }
}

Answer 1

By creating controllers yourself, you will prevent Spring from injecting any dependencies into them. This may cause your self-created controllers to not work correctly.

If you really need to chain controllers like this, I would ask the Spring application context for an instance of the controller you want instead of creating one with the new operator.