How to return an HTML page from a RESTful controller in Spring Boot?

Question

I want to return a simple HTML page from a controller, but I get only the name of the file not its content. Why?

This is my controller code:

@RestController
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String welcome() {
        return "login";
    }
}

This is my project structure:

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try to add a servlet to direct to index.html ```@ServletComponentScan``` then add @WebSevlet(urlPatterns = "") MainIndex — meadlai, Mar 05 '20 at 23:43

kukkuz · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-31T14:55:46.357

47

When using @RestController like this:

@RestController
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String welcome() {
        return "login";
    }
}

This is the same as you do like this in a normal controller:

@Controller
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    @ResponseBody
    public String welcome() {
        return "login";
    }
}

Using @ResponseBody returns return "login"; as a String object. Any object you return will be attached as payload in the HTTP body as JSON.

This is why you are getting just login in the response.

edited Mar 31 '19 at 14:55

answered Aug 01 '16 at 14:15

kukkuz

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4

I am confused. What is the problem and how to fix ? – Itération 122442 Aug 19 '20 at 09:36
2

@Itération122442 You should use Controller annotation for the class and you should remove the ResponseBody annotation from method named welcome() – Simone Colnaghi Dec 29 '21 at 21:10
20

lol i do not get why this is marked as correct, it does not tell the answer it just explains the problem – Tinovimba Mawoyo Mar 15 '22 at 14:09

score 45 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 11 '20 at 15:51

45

Follow below steps:

Must put the html files in resources/templates/
Replace the @RestController with @Controller
Remove if you are using any view resolvers.
Your controller method should return file name of view without extension like return "index"

Include the below dependencies:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
</dependency>`

edited Aug 11 '20 at 15:51

ankuranurag2

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answered Mar 21 '19 at 18:23

Chandan Kumar

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8

After adding `spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf` dependency, the view was resolved – Mithilesh Tipkari Feb 25 '20 at 17:53
1

With just spring-starter-web dependency I was able to serve html pages located inside src/main/resources/static , by typing localhost: 8080/helloworld.html( the entire name). But using thmleaf it automatically maps to the html files. SO MY QUESTION is there any option to serve the files through rest end points by just including spring-starter-web dependency – Arpan Banerjee Apr 09 '21 at 07:05
Using @Controller solved the issue and returned the view as opposed to a string – smac2020 Jul 01 '21 at 15:10

score 27 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 08 '17 at 04:22

27

You can try using ModelAndView:

@RequestMapping("/")
public ModelAndView index () {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
    modelAndView.setViewName("index");
    return modelAndView;
}

edited Nov 08 '17 at 04:22

Tom Aranda

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answered Nov 08 '17 at 02:44

Happy Nguyen

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score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 07 '21 at 13:10

@kukkuz pretty much answered to the question 'why?'. For those who are still looking into 'how', accumulating what others have answered.

Using a RestController:

@RestController
public class MyRestController {
    @RequestMapping("/")
    public ModelAndView welcome() {
        ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
        modelAndView.setViewName("login.html");
        return modelAndView;
    }  
}

pay attention that view name is: 'login.html' (full file name).
also it is important where the file is located, by default login.html must be in resources/static or resources/public

You may set up an application parameter for a default suffix like:

 spring.mvc.view.suffix=.html

in this case view name must be without extension like 'login'.

Some suggested thymeleaf can be used. means you have in your pom.xml dependencies something like this:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
  <version>2.4.4</version>
</dependency>

In that scenario login.html by default must sit in: resources/templates folder, and the call is similar only difference now is in a view name, since .html is used by tymeleaf as a default value.

//  fails by default
//  NO fail if spring mvc view suffix is set in properties e.g.: spring.mvc.view.suffix=.html
//  NO fail if thymeleaf is added, and there is a file login.html in a resources/templates folder.
@RequestMapping("/loginTest")
public ModelAndView loginTest () {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
    modelAndView.setViewName("login");
    return modelAndView;
}

Using a Controller:

@Controller
public class MyController {

  //gets html from a default 'resources/public' or 'resources/static' folder
  @RequestMapping(path="/welcome")
  public String getWelcomePage(){
      return "login.html";
  }

  //gets html from a default 'resources/public' or 'resources/static' folder
  @RequestMapping("/welcome1")
  public ModelAndView getWelcomePageAsModel() {
      ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
      modelAndView.setViewName("login.html");
      return modelAndView;
  }

  //  fails with 404 resource not found by default
  //  NO fail, if spring mvc view suffix is set in properties e.g.: spring.mvc.view.suffix=.html
  //  NO fail, if thymeleaf is added, and there is a file login.html in a resources/templates folder
  @RequestMapping(path="/welcome2")
  public String thisFails(){
      return "login";
  }
}

very complete answer. Just notice that Thymeleaf searches templates in 'classpath:/templates/` directory by default — bvn13, Jan 29 '23 at 23:04

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 15:24

5

Replace @RestController with @Controller.

edited Feb 17 '19 at 15:24

kukkuz

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answered Jan 10 '18 at 08:45

Noshin

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4

It would be better if you add some comments explaining your answer. – Ganesh Satpute Jun 02 '20 at 15:23

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 10 '19 at 16:14

5

Replace @Restcontroller with @controller. @Restcontroller returns only content not html and jsp pages.

edited Apr 10 '19 at 16:14

kukkuz

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answered Feb 07 '18 at 04:24

Prasad

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score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 14 '21 at 17:56

I did three things:

Put the HTML page in {project.basedir}/resources/static/myPage.html;
Switch @RestController to @Controller;
This is my controller:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/")
public String aName() {
    return "myPage.html";
}

No particular dependency is needed.

Kairat · Answer 8 · 2018-12-14T10:22:41.650

4

You should use login.html. And replace RestController with Controller

edited Dec 14 '18 at 10:22

answered Apr 18 '18 at 03:58

Kairat

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score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 21 '18 at 20:23

The answer from Kukkuz did not work for me until I added in this dependency into the pom file:

<!-- Spring boot Thymeleaf -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
</dependency>

From the guide here.

As well as updating the registry resources as outlined here.

It then started working just fine. If anyone in the future runs into the same issue and following the first answer does not solve your problem, follow these 2 other steps after utilizing the code in @Kukkuz's answer and see if that makes a difference.

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 26 '19 at 01:53

3

I'm not using Thymeleaf and the only way it worked for me was with @Controller in the class and

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/")
public String index() {
    return "index.html";
}

answered Feb 26 '19 at 01:53

Johnny Willer

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score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 11 '20 at 14:58

2

I know this is old but maybe it helps someone. To do this in a RestController, return a String that is the actual HTML code, then the browser will know what to display.

answered Oct 11 '20 at 14:58

Ahmad Bayan

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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 22 '21 at 16:34

Already answered by @kukkuz & @Robby with @RequestMapping annotation but we can also use with @GetMapping annotation.

@GetMapping("/index")
public ModelAndView welcome() {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
    modelAndView.setViewName("index.html");
    return modelAndView;
}

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited Apr 30 '19 at 03:54

1

You get only the name because you return only the name return "login";. It's @RestController and this controller returns data rather than a view; because of this, you get only content that you return from method.

If you want to show view with this name you need to use Spring MVC, see this example.

edited Apr 30 '19 at 03:54

kukkuz

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answered Aug 01 '16 at 14:04

Aleksandr Podkutin

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score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Sep 20 '17 at 12:03

0

The String you return here:

 return "login";

Is actually the whole content what you send back to the browser.

If you want to have the content of a file to be sent back, one way is:

Open file
Read contents into String
Return the value

You can go by with this answer on the question Spring boot service to download a file

edited Sep 20 '17 at 12:03

Anatoly Shamov

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answered Aug 01 '16 at 14:00

ppeterka

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This is not working for `@RestController` – Charlo Poitras Jun 28 '22 at 19:52

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 01 '20 at 03:19

@Controller
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/")
    public ModelAndView welcome() {
        ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
        modelAndView.setViewName("login.html");
        return modelAndView;
    }
}

This will return the Login.html File. The Login.html should be inside the static Folder.

Note: thymeleaf dependency is not added

@RestController
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, value = "/")
    public String welcome() {
        return "login";
    }
}

This will return the String login

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jun 10 '21 at 05:28

Methods annotated with @GetMapping in classes annotated with @RestController may return views (JSP,HTML etc) in two ways

@GetMapping("/dummy")
public String renderDummyWebPage() {
    return "dummy.jsp";
}

However, this method has two LIMITATIONS

That JSP Page has to be present in src/main/webapp directory, otherwise if the view is present in sub-directory the return type has to be modified accordingly. For example, if the JSP page is present in src/main/webapp/views directory - it should return views/dummy.jsp as String instead.
If you have already configured ViewResolver of the application returning a simple String will not work and the String will be interpreted as a normal String instead of JSP view name.

To overcome these two limitations, you can return a ModelAndView instead.

@GetMapping("/dummy")
public ModelAndView renderDummyWebPage() {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
    modelAndView.setViewName("dummy");
    return modelAndView;
}

I hope this answer would be helpful, thanks.

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 26 '21 at 03:59

0

You can specify GET or POST method inside RequestMapping like this:-

@RestController
public class HomeController {

@RequestMapping(value="/", Method="GET")  //or Method="POST"
public String welcome() {
    return "/login";
}
}

Now if you request on this page it will return login.html page

answered Oct 26 '21 at 03:59

ujjwal dixit

59
2

This doesn't work as /login is send as request body as we are using @RestController – Sandeep Kamath Jan 17 '23 at 03:26

score -1 · Answer 18 · answered Dec 07 '18 at 00:54

The most correct and modern form is to use IoC to put dependencies into the endpoint method, like the thymeleaf Model instance...

 @Controller 
 public class GreetingController {
        @GetMapping("/greeting") 
        public String greeting(
            @RequestParam(name="name", required=false, defaultValue="World") String name, Model model) {
             model.addAttribute("name", name); 
             return "greeting"; 
             // returns the already proccessed model from src/main/resources/templates/greeting.html 
      }
 }

See complete example at: https://spring.io/guides/gs/serving-web-content/

score -1 · Answer 19 · edited Nov 22 '19 at 09:11

-1

@Controller
public class WebController {
@GetMapping("/")

public String homePage() {
    return "index";
  }
}

edited Nov 22 '19 at 09:11

Valentino Ru

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answered Nov 22 '19 at 06:14

Loy Misquith

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any description? – Ali Sheikhpour Nov 22 '19 at 08:13
this will also work with spring.mvc.view.prefix: /WEB-INF/jsp/ spring.mvc.view.suffix: .jsp – JustTry Feb 28 '20 at 21:07

score -1 · Answer 20 · answered Feb 10 '23 at 22:24

I had the same issue in Spring boot 3.0.7 and this worked for me:

Change your controller annotations to @Controller and @RequestMapping. The welcome method should use @GetMapping annotation.

@Controller
@RequestMapping
public class HomeController {

    @GetMapping("/")
    public String welcome() {
        return "login";
    }
}

score -2 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 02 '19 at 18:26

You can solve this in two ways:

First way: If you wish to keep using REST you have to you a ModelAndView object to render a HTML page. An example is being posted by Happy Nguyen and I am posting it once more here:

@RequestMapping("/")
public ModelAndView index () {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView();
    modelAndView.setViewName("index");
    return modelAndView;
}

Second Way: If it is not important weather you keep using REST or not, so you can just change the @RestController to @Controller and make sure that you have already added Thymeleaf template engine.

How to return an HTML page from a RESTful controller in Spring Boot?

This is my controller code:

This is my project structure:

21 Answers21

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