Mapping same URL to different controllers in sprin

Question

I'm using spring annotation based controller. I want my URL /user/messages to map to some controller a if query parameter tag is present otherwise to some different controller b. This is required because when parameter tag is present then some more parameters can be present along with that which i want to handle in different controller to keep the implementation clean.Is there any way to do this in spring. Also is there any other elegant solution to this problem ?

Answer 1

If you want to go the Spring route, you can checkout the HandlerInterceptor mentioned here. The Interceptor can take a look at your query param and redirect the link to something else that can be caught by another SimpleUrlMapper.

The other way is to send it to a single controller and let the controller forward to another action if the query parameter is "b".

Answer 2

You can use the params attribute of the @RequestMapping annotation to select an controller method depending on Http parameters.

See this example:

@RequestMapping(params = "form", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView createForm() {
    ...
}

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView list() {
    ...
}

It is a REST style like Spring ROO uses: if the request contains the parameter forms then the createForm handler is used, if not the list method is used.