3. Spring Web on Servlet

Spring Web on Servlet.

This part of the documentation covers web applications built on the Servlet API and deployed to Servlet containers.

Spring Web MVC

Spring Web MVC is the original web framework built on the Servlet API and included in the Spring Framework from the very beginning.

1.2. DispatcherServlet

Spring MVC, like many other web frameworks, is designed around the front controller pattern where a central Servlet, the DispatcherServlet, provides a shared algorithm for request processing while actual work is performed by configurable, delegate components. This model is flexible and supports diverse workflows.

The DispatcherServlet, as any Servlet, needs to be declared and mapped according to the Servlet specification using Java configuration or in web.xml. In turn the DispatcherServlet uses Spring configuration to discover the delegate components it needs for request mapping, view resolution, exception handling, and more.

Below is an example of the Java configuration that registers and initializes the DispatcherServlet. This class is auto-detected by the Servlet container:

public class MyWebApplicationInitializer implements WebApplicationInitializer {

    @Override
    public void onStartup(ServletContext servletCxt) {

        // Load Spring web application configuration
        AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext ac = new AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext();
        ac.register(AppConfig.class);
        ac.refresh();

        // Create and register the DispatcherServlet
        DispatcherServlet servlet = new DispatcherServlet(ac);
        ServletRegistration.Dynamic registration = servletCxt.addServlet("app", servlet);
        registration.setLoadOnStartup(1);
        registration.addMapping("/app/*");
    }
}

In addition to using the ServletContext API directly, you can also extend AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer and override specific methods

1.2.1. Context Hierarchy

DispatcherServlet expects a WebApplicationContext, an extension of a plain ApplicationContext, for its own configuration. WebApplicationContext has a link to the ServletContext and Servlet it is associated with. It is also bound to the ServletContext such that applications can use static methods on RequestContextUtils to look up the WebApplicationContext if they need access to it.

For many applications having a single WebApplicationContext is simple and sufficient. It is also possible to have a context hierarchy where one root WebApplicationContext is shared across multiple DispatcherServlet (or other Servlet) instances, each with its own child WebApplicationContext configuration.

The root WebApplicationContext typically contains infrastructure beans such as data repositories and business services that need to be shared across multiple Servlet instances.