Spring Boot mapping action to view(.html) not working - spring

Question

I have a spring boot basic application
package com.meenakshi.fileupload;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
#SpringBootApplication
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(Example.class, args);
}
}
My controller is
package com.meenakshi.fileupload.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
#Controller
public class IndexController {
#RequestMapping("/")
public String index() {
System.out.print("REDIRECTED BY MEENAKSHI");
return "index";
}
}
My index.html is a basic html file in src/main/resources/public folder
My pom.xml is
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>myproject</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.3.5.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<!-- Additional lines to be added here... -->
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
When I do localhost:8080 I expect to redirect to index.html but I am getting Whitelabel Error Page
When I add thymeleaf dependency and add xmlns:th="http://www.thymeleaf.org" in .html it works
How to resolve it? Also what is the default view resolver in Spring Boot? Do I compulsorily need to use thymeleaf?
Also, do I need to add something to application.properties

Answer 1

There are couple of ways you can expose your index.html.
The way I like the most is doing the following:
#Configuration
public class WebMvcConfiguration extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
#Override
public void addViewControllers(ViewControllerRegistry registry) {
registry.addViewController("/").setViewName("index.html");
registry.setOrder(Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE);
}
}
It will automatically grab your index.html and create a default view controller to serve it.
Another way is doing like you did but returning ModelAndView like the following but it suit a Thymeleaf/JSP more then a SPA:
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/")
public class DefaultController {
#GetMapping("/")
public ModelAndView index() {
IndexModel indexModel = new IndexModel();
return new ModelAndView("index", "index", indexModel);
}
}