Spring Boot + JSP Example

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

Technologies used :

1. Spring Boot 2.1.2.RELEASE
2. Spring 5.1.4.RELEASE
3. Tomcat Embed
4. Maven 3
5. Java 8

1. Project Dependencies

1.1 Maven example. Read comments for self-explanatory.

<?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>

    <groupId>com.tutorial</groupId>

    <artifactId>SpringBootJSP</artifactId>

    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <name>SpringBootJSP</name>

    <properties>

        <endorsed.dir>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</endorsed.dir>

        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>

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

    </properties>

    

    <parent>

        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>

        <version>2.1.2.RELEASE</version>

    </parent>

    

    <dependencies>

        

        <!-- Enable Data, JPA, Hibernate, etc.. -->

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>

        </dependency>

        <!-- This is a web application -->

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>

        </dependency>

        <!-- Tomcat embedded container-->

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>

            <scope>provided</scope>

        </dependency>

        <!-- JSTL for JSP -->

        <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, tomcat-embed-jasper version is not working, no idea why -->

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler</groupId>

            <artifactId>ecj</artifactId>

            <version>4.6.1</version>

            <scope>provided</scope>

        </dependency>

        <!-- Optional, test for static content, bootstrap CSS-->

        <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>

2. Create SpringBootJSPApplication.java

2.1 This SpringBootServletInitializer run a SpringApplication from a traditional WAR deployment

package com.tutorial.springboot;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;

import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.support.SpringBootServletInitializer;

@SpringBootApplication

public class SpringBootJSPApplication 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. Create a simple DashboardController.java

package com.tutorial.springboot.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;

import org.springframework.ui.Model;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@Controller

public class DashboardController {

    @RequestMapping("/")

    public String welcome(Model model) {

        model.addAttribute("message", "SpringBoot");

        return "dashboard";

    }

}

4. JSP + Resources + Static files

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

src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/jsp/dashboard.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>

<!-- Access the bootstrap Css like this, 
Spring boot will handle the resource mapping automcatically -->
<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">

<h1>Spring Boot Web JSP Example</h1>
<h2>Message: ${message}</h2>

</div>

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


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

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

* { font-family:Calibri; }
h1 { color:#FF0000; }
h2 { color:#FFCC00; }


5. 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


6. Demo

6.1 Start the Spring Boot web app.

project$ mvn spring-boot:run

Access http://localhost:8080