Spring boot cannot find index.html under webapp folder

Question

I read the following documentation from spring.io and it said By default Spring Boot will serve static content from a directory called /static (or /public or /resources or /META-INF/resources) in the classpath however when I put my index.html file under /resources the string index is just rendered. Currently index.html is under webapp and I am using AngularJS.

MvcConfiguration

@Configuration
public class MvcConfig {

    @Bean
    InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver(){

        InternalResourceViewResolver resolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
        resolver.setPrefix("/webapp/");
        resolver.setSuffix(".html");

        return resolver;
    }

}

Restful Service for index page

@RestController
public class IndexController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String index(){
        System.out.println("Looking in the index controller.........");
        return "index";
    }

}

ON my IDE console I do see Looking in the index controller...... printed from IndexController and under network in the Chrome development tools I only see localhost 200.

index.html

<body>

  <!--[if lt IE 7]>
      <p class="browsehappy">You are using an <strong>outdated</strong> browser. Please <a href="http://browsehappy.com/">upgrade your browser</a> to improve your experience.</p>
  <![endif]-->

  <div ng-view></div>

  <div>Angular seed app: v<span app-version></span></div>

So what exactly you want to do here ? had you initialize your app on index page ( ng-app ) ? — ojus kulkarni
– ojus kulkarni, Commented Mar 13, 2016 at 9:26
Try this resolver.setPrefix("/"); since src/main/webapp is already in your classpath. — Sanjay Rawat
– Sanjay Rawat, Commented Mar 13, 2016 at 12:31
@ojuskulkarni the app is configured correctly. index.html is not even being rendered. If there is an AngularJS issue I'll address that once my index page is being rendered — Mike3355
– Mike3355, Commented Mar 13, 2016 at 13:47

Vik David · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-13 12:44:52Z

36

Spring Boot docs also says:

Do not use the src/main/webapp directory if your application will be packaged as a jar. Although this directory is a common standard, it will only work with war packaging and it will be silently ignored by most build tools if you generate a jar.

Spring Boot is very opinionated and works best when you do not try to resist defaults. I don't see any reason having your files placed in /src/main/webapp. Just use /src/main/resources/static for your front-end assets. That is most common place.

It will serve these static files from root URI automatically, without need to create any root level Controller. In fact your IndexController would prevent static front-end files to be served from root URI. There is no need to create Controller for static files at all.

Also view resolver is not needed for your app. Your app is just REST API consumed by single page angular application. So your HTML templating is on client. View resolvers are needed if you are doing server side HTML templating (e.g. with Thymeleaf or JSP). So remove that piece also.

edited Mar 13, 2016 at 12:44

Vik David

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answered Mar 13, 2016 at 10:24

luboskrnac

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5 Comments

Mike3355 Over a year ago

Yes it said do not put the index page in webapps IF you are putting it in a jar. I made a dummy index.html file put it in /src/main/resources/static and the string index was still rendered. I do need a RestAPI because I am retrieving information from the @Service.

luboskrnac Over a year ago

because your IndexController is mapped to "/". When you want to serve static HTML files from your root resource, you shouldn't have any Controller mapped to "/".

Osama Al-Banna Over a year ago

I'm really confused actually when I create a new springboot project I don't have this folder webapp I only have static....where I should place my JSP files ?

Arya Over a year ago

@luboskrnac would the static folder also be the right place to put dynamically generated web pages?

luboskrnac Over a year ago

Can you elaborate more on "dynamically generated web pages"?

Volodymyr Grynda · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-09 18:16:23Z

4

@RestController
public class IndexController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String index(){
        System.out.println("Looking in the index controller.........");
        return "index";
    }

}

Problem is here, you are using @RestController, so in this case, if you write "return 'index';" spring boot covers it as just string answer. You need use @Controller annotation instead.

answered Sep 9, 2017 at 18:16

Volodymyr Grynda

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