Duplicate RequestMapping - spring

Question

I'm working on an open source named OpenMRS supporting Spring MVC. I cannot modify core source for update purpose later. So I must write a module, something like plugin to add functions to the system. The problem is that I want to alter the original screen to mine by using portlet to redirect to my jsp. The controller of the core code is something like this:
#RequestMapping("/patientDashboard.form")
protected String renderDashboard(#RequestParam(required = true, value = "patientId") Integer patientId, ModelMap map){
....
return "patientDashboardForm";
}
I'm not familiar with Spring but as I know that when the url ends with /patientDashboard.form?patientId=xxx the function will call patientDashboardForm.jsp. Now I want to return to my jsp so I must define a new class with same code but return to my jsp (to do this because cannot modify the core code). But by defining same mapping /patientDashboard.form causes error "Cannot map handler XXX to URL path /patientDashboard.form: There is already handler YYY mapped".
So is there anyway to overcome this situation ?

Answer 1

There is no way to overrule an existing #RequestMapping. Each mapping must be unique. What you could do is the following. Instead of adding a request parameter, add a path parameter like this
#RequestMapping("/patientDashboard.form/{patientId}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String renderDashboard(#PathVariable("patientId") final long id, Model model) {
/* your code here */
}
This will create a new #RequestMapping that will differ from the existing one.

Answer 2

You have to create another #Controller extending the existing one. Then, you can define your custom mappings (you can't reuse the existing one) and reimplement the superclass methods at your convenience, redirecting to your view and defining custom logic there.
Example:
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/your_new_mapping")
public class YourController extends BaseController {
#Override
#RequestMapping("/patientDashboard.form")
public void renderDashboard(#RequestParam(required = true, value = "patientId") Integer patientId, ModelMap map){
// Call to default functionallity
super.renderDashboard(patientId, map);
...
// your custom code here
return "yourCustomJSPHere";
}
}