Spring Boot web application example, using embedded Tomcat + JSP template, and package as an executable WAR file.

Technologies used :

  1. Spring Boot 1.4.2.RELEASE
  2. Spring 4.3.4.RELEASE
  3. Tomcat Embed 8.5.6
  4. Maven 3
  5. Java 8

1. Project Directory

Create the following folders manually :

2. Project Dependencies

Maven example. Read comments for self-explanatory.

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>

	<artifactId>spring-boot-web-jsp</artifactId>
	<packaging>war</packaging>
	<name>Spring Boot Web JSP Example</name>
	<description>Spring Boot Web JSP Example</description>
	<url>https://www.tuts.heomi.net</url>
	<version>1.0</version>

	<parent>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
		<version>1.4.2.RELEASE</version>
	</parent>

	<properties>
		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>

		<!-- Web -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
		</dependency>
		
		<!-- Web with Tomcat + Embed -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
			<scope>provided</scope>
		</dependency>

		<!-- JSTL -->
		<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>

		<!-- Need this to compile JSP -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler</groupId>
			<artifactId>ecj</artifactId>
			<version>4.6.1</version>
			<scope>provided</scope>
		</dependency>

		<!-- Optional, for bootstrap -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.webjars</groupId>
			<artifactId>bootstrap</artifactId>
			<version>3.3.7</version>
		</dependency>

	</dependencies>
	<build>
		<plugins>
			<!-- Package as an executable jar/war -->
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
				<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>
</project>

Display project depdencies :

$ mvn dependency:tree

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Spring Boot Web JSP Example 1.0
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.10:tree (default-cli) @ spring-boot-web-jsp ---
[INFO] org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-web-jsp:war:1.0
[INFO] +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-logging:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:jar:1.1.7:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-core:jar:1.1.7:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:1.7.21:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- org.slf4j:jcl-over-slf4j:jar:1.7.21:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- org.slf4j:jul-to-slf4j:jar:1.7.21:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:log4j-over-slf4j:jar:1.7.21:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework:spring-core:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.yaml:snakeyaml:jar:1.17:runtime
[INFO] |  +- org.hibernate:hibernate-validator:jar:5.2.4.Final:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- javax.validation:validation-api:jar:1.1.0.Final:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.jboss.logging:jboss-logging:jar:3.3.0.Final:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- com.fasterxml:classmate:jar:1.3.3:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.8.4:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.8.4:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.8.4:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework:spring-web:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework:spring-aop:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.springframework:spring-beans:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.springframework:spring-context:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  \- org.springframework:spring-webmvc:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |     \- org.springframework:spring-expression:jar:4.3.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-tomcat:jar:1.4.2.RELEASE:provided
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:jar:8.5.6:provided
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-el:jar:8.5.6:provided
[INFO] |  \- org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-websocket:jar:8.5.6:provided
[INFO] +- javax.servlet:jstl:jar:1.2:compile
[INFO] +- org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-jasper:jar:8.5.6:provided
[INFO] +- org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler:ecj:jar:4.6.1:provided
[INFO] \- org.webjars:bootstrap:jar:3.3.7:compile
[INFO]    \- org.webjars:jquery:jar:1.11.1:compile
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1.327 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2016-11-28T16:57:00+08:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 20M/309M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Spring Spring

3.1 This SpringBootServletInitializer run a SpringApplication from a traditional WAR deployment

SpringBootWebApplication.java

package com.favtuts;

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 {

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

	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		SpringApplication.run(SpringBootWebApplication.class, args);
	}

}

3.2 A simple Spring controller class.

WelcomeController.java

package com.favtuts;

import java.util.Map;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@Controller
public class WelcomeController {

	// inject via application.properties
	@Value("${welcome.message:test}")
	private String message = "Hello World";

	@RequestMapping("/")
	public String welcome(Map<String, Object> model) {
		model.put("message", this.message);
		return "welcome";
	}

}

4. JSP + Resources + Static files

4.1 For JSP files, put in src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/jsp/

src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/jsp/welcome.jsp

<!DOCTYPE html>
<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html lang="en">
<head>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
	href="webjars/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" />

<!-- 
	<spring:url value="/css/main.css" var="springCss" />
	<link href="${springCss}" rel="stylesheet" />
	 -->
<c:url value="/css/main.css" var="jstlCss" />
<link href="${jstlCss}" rel="stylesheet" />

</head>
<body>

	<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse">
		<div class="container">
			<div class="navbar-header">
				<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Spring Boot</a>
			</div>
			<div id="navbar" class="collapse navbar-collapse">
				<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
					<li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
					<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>
				</ul>
			</div>
		</div>
	</nav>

	<div class="container">

		<div class="starter-template">
			<h1>Spring Boot Web JSP Example</h1>
			<h2>Message: ${message}</h2>
		</div>

	</div>
	<!-- /.container -->

	<script type="text/javascript"
		src="webjars/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

</body>

</html>

4.2 For static files like CSS or Javascript, put in /src/main/resources/static/

/src/main/resources/static/css/main.css

h1{
	color:#0000FF;
}

h2{
	color:#FF0000;
}

4.3 For properties files, put in /src/main/resources/

/src/main/resources/application.properties

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

welcome.message: Hello Favtuts

Note
Spring Boot, convention over configuration, no need to declare the resource mapping like this. The resource mapping just handles automatically – Read this article – Spring Boot Serving static content

5. Demo

5.1 Start the Spring Boot web app.

project$ mvn spring-boot:run

5.2 Access http://localhost:8080

5.3 Maven package the project as an executable WAR file. A 18M++ WAR file will be generated in the target folder.

project$ mvn clean package

Run It, access http://localhost:8080 again.

project$ java -jar target/spring-boot-web-jsp-1.0.war

JSP limitations

You can’t create an executable jar to run this embedded Tomcat + JSP web example, because of a hard coded file pattern in Tomcat. Read this Spring Boot – JSP limitation.

Download Source Code

$ git clone https://github.com/favtuts/java-spring-boot-tutorials.git
$ cd spring-boot-web-jsp
$ mvn spring-boot:run

References

  1. Spring Boot – Static content
  2. SpringBootServletInitializer JavaDoc
  3. Deploying Spring Boot Applications
  4. Spring Boot – JSP limitations
  5. Spring MVC – Inlucde CSS file

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