org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc
Class AbstractController

org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
  |
  +--org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport
        |
        +--org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
              |
              +--org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController
Direct Known Subclasses:
BaseCommandController, MultiActionController, ParameterizableViewController

public abstract class AbstractController
extends WebContentGenerator
implements Controller

Convenient superclass for controller implementations, using the Template Method design pattern.

As stated in the Controller interface, a lot of functionality is already provided by certain abstract base controllers. The AbstractController is one of the most important abstract base controller providing basic features such as the generation of caching headers and the enabling or disabling of supported methods (GET/POST).

Workflow (and that defined by interface):

  1. handleRequest() will be called by the DispatcherServlet
  2. Inspection of supported methods (ServletException if request method is not support)
  3. If session is required, try to get it (ServletException if not found)
  4. Set caching headers if needed according to cacheSeconds propery
  5. Call abstract method handleRequestInternal(), which should be implemented by extending classes to provide actual functionality to return ModelAndView objects.

Exposed configuration properties (and those defined by interface):
name default description
supportedMethods GET,POST comma-separated (CSV) list of methods supported by this controller, such as GET, POST and PUT
requiresSession false whether a session should be required for requests to be able to be handled by this controller. This ensures, derived controller can - without fear of Nullpointers - call request.getSession() to retrieve a session. If no session can be found while processing the request, a ServletException will be thrown
cacheSeconds -1 indicates the amount of seconds to include in the cache header for the response following on this request. 0 (zero) will include headers for no caching at all, -1 (the default) will not generate any headers and any positive number will generate headers that state the amount indicated as seconds to cache the content

Author:
Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller
See Also: WebContentInterceptor

Fields inherited from class org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
HEADER_CACHE_CONTROL, HEADER_EXPIRES, HEADER_PRAGMA, METHOD_GET, METHOD_POST

Method Summary
 final ModelAndViewhandleRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
           
 final voidsetSynchronizeOnSession(boolean synchronizeOnSession)
          Set if controller execution should be synchronized on the session, to serialize parallel invocations from the same client.

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
setCacheSeconds, setRequireSession, setSupportedMethods, setUseCacheControlHeader, setUseExpiresHeader

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
getApplicationContext, setApplicationContext

Method Detail

handleRequest

public final ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws java.lang.Exception

setSynchronizeOnSession

public final void setSynchronizeOnSession(boolean synchronizeOnSession)
Set if controller execution should be synchronized on the session, to serialize parallel invocations from the same client.

More specifically, the execution of the handleRequestInternal method will get synchronized if this flag is true.

See Also:
handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest,HttpServletResponse)