Spring Boot jsp files cannot be found - spring

Question

I'm developing simple Spring Boot MVC application. Previously I had everything working with just Spring + Hibernate (that is there was servlet.xml etc.) and I'm trying to rebuild project to use Spring Boot. Althought I have read many answers on SO I still can't fix Spring Boot not finding my .jsp files - it displays whitelabel error page.
Many answers on SO are about including tomcat-embed-jasper and jstl in pom.xml but I already have it. I'm using IntelliJ IDEA 17 Ultimate, Tomcat 8.5.13, latest versions of Spring and Spring Boot.
Project structure:
Pom.xml:
<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>
<artifactId>spring-invoice</artifactId>
<groupId>spring-invoice</groupId>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.3.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<properties>
<springframework.version>4.3.8.RELEASE</springframework.version>
<hibernate.version>5.2.9.Final</hibernate.version>
<mysql.connector.version>5.1.41</mysql.connector.version>
<hibernatevalidator.version>5.4.1.Final</hibernatevalidator.version>
<start-class>com.invoices.Application</start-class>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<!-- Spring boot -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- Spring -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
<version>${springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Hibernate -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
<version>${hibernate.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Hibernate validator -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
<version>${hibernatevalidator.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- MySQL -->
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<version>${mysql.connector.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- C3PO -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.mchange</groupId>
<artifactId>c3p0</artifactId>
<version>0.9.5.2</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Servlet + JSP + JSTL -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
<version>2.3.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<finalName>spring-invoice</finalName>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
<!-- The Compiler Plugin is used to compile the sources of project -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.6.0</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<!-- Builds a Web Application Archive (WAR) file from the project output and its dependencies. -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
<configuration>
<failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
application.properties file
# Database
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/fakturowanie
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=1234
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect
# Hibernate
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
entitymanager.packagesToScan=com.invoices
spring.jpa.hibernate.naming-strategy=org.hibernate.cfg.ImprovedNamingStrategy
spring.mvc.view.prefix=/WEB-INF/view/
spring.mvc.view.suffix=.jsp
Application class
#SpringBootApplication
public class Application extends SpringBootServletInitializer
{
#Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application)
{
return application.sources(Application.class);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
One of my jsp files
<%# page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java" %>
<%# taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
<html lang="pl-PL">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Zarządzaj kontrahentami</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">
<h2>Zarządzaj kontrahentami</h2>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<!-- put new button: Add Customer -->
<input type="button" value="Dodaj nowego kontrahenta"
onclick="window.location.href='addCustomer'; return false;"
class="add-button"/>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Alias</th>
<th>Nazwisko</th>
<th>Imię</th>
<th>Nazwa firmy</th>
<th>NIP/PESEL</th>
<th>Ulica i nr mieszkania</th>
<th>Kod pocztowy</th>
<th>Miejscowość</th>
<th>Sposób zapłaty</th>
<th>Uwzględnij numer faktury</th>
</tr>
<c:forEach var="tempCustomer" items="${allCustomers}">
<c:url var="updateLink" value="/customers/updateCustomer">
<c:param name="customerID" value="${tempCustomer.id}"/>
</c:url>
<c:url var="deleteLink" value="/customers/deleteCustomer">
<c:param name="customerID" value="${tempCustomer.id}"/>
</c:url>
<tr>
<td>${tempCustomer.alias}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.lastName}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.firstName}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.companyName}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.taxIdentifier}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.postalCode}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.city}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.paymentMethod}</td>
<td>${tempCustomer.includeInCount}</td>
<td>
<!-- display the update and delete link -->
Edytuj
|
<a href="${deleteLink}" onclick="if (!(confirm(
'Czy na pewno usunąć tego kontrahenta?'))) return false">Usuń</a>
</td>
</tr>
</c:forEach>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
And controller of it
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/customers")
public class CustomersController implements IUtilities<Customer>
{
#Autowired
private ICustomerDAO customerDAO;
#GetMapping("/manageCustomers")
public String manageCustomers(Model model)
{
List<Customer> allCustomers = convertIterableToCollection(customerDAO.findAll());
model.addAttribute("allCustomers", allCustomers);
return "manage-customers";
}
#GetMapping("/addCustomer")
public String showFormForAdd(Model model)
{
// create model attribute to bind form data
Customer theCustomer = new Customer();
model.addAttribute("customerToEdit", theCustomer);
return "customer-form";
}
#GetMapping("/updateCustomer")
public String showFormForUpdate(#RequestParam("customerID") int customerId, Model model)
{
// get the customer from service
Customer theCustomer = customerDAO.findOne(customerId);
model.addAttribute("customerToEdit", theCustomer);
//redirect to update form
return "customer-form";
}
#GetMapping("/deleteCustomer")
public String deleteCustomer(#RequestParam("customerID") int customerId)
{
//delete the customer
customerDAO.delete(customerId);
return "redirect:/customers/manageCustomers";
}
#PostMapping("/saveCustomer")
public String saveCustomer(#ModelAttribute("customerToEdit") Customer customer) {
//save the customer using our service
customerDAO.save(customer);
return "redirect:/customers/manageCustomers";
}
#Override
public List<Customer> convertIterableToCollection(Iterable<Customer> iterable) {
List<Customer> list = new ArrayList<>();
iterable.forEach(list::add);
return list;
}
}

Answer 1

You are using Spring Boot but your pom is riddled with conflicting dependencies. For starters cleanup your pom.xml. Also in your pom you should take into account what is being done in the JSP Samples pom.xml (Which means at least make the spring-boot-starter-tomcat provided instead of the default compile scope.
Finally you don't need the maven-compile and maven-war plugins as those are already inherited from the parent.
<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>
<artifactId>spring-invoice</artifactId>
<groupId>spring-invoice</groupId>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.3.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<properties>
<hibernate.version>5.2.9.Final</hibernate.version>
<start-class>com.invoices.Application</start-class>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<!-- Spring boot -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- MySQL -->
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- C3PO -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.mchange</groupId>
<artifactId>c3p0</artifactId>
<version>0.9.5.2</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Servlet + JSP + JSTL -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<finalName>spring-invoice</finalName>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Also take into account the limitations there are when using Spring Boot with JSPs.
However the actual problem is your project structure, you are using Maven with should have a src/main/java directory for your java sources and all your web related things should be in src/main/webapp instead of web, further non java related resources should be in src/main/resources. Due to not having this default structure files aren't going to be copied to the correct location (actually they will be ignored).