SpringSource IDE does not use project name as root URL for Spring MVC application

Question

When I create a Spring MVC Template Project with the SpringSource IDE, I run the application and the root URL is set as the last word of the default package name:

For example, when I create the project, I set the default package as com.sample.myapp. When I run the application, it opens at http://localhost:8080/myapp. Why does the root URL not use my project name, MyProject, instead?

This is a problem because I have to specify all of the URL's in my application to /myapp/resources/css/mycss.css but when I export a .war and deploy it to a Tomcat server, then Tomcat expects the project name instead (it wants me to use /MyProject/resources/css/mycss.css. As a result, all of my links are broken when I deploy (but not when I run on tomcat locally within the SpringSource IDE...)

Has anyone else run into this problem?

---

Example for comment discussion below:

<bean id="serviceProperties" class="org.springframework.security.cas.ServiceProperties">
    <property name="service"
        value="https://localhost:8443/MyProject/j_spring_cas_security_check" />
    <property name="sendRenew" value="false" />
</bean>

Cuthburt

Answer 1

It depends on how you run the application. I assume you chose "Run on Server" from within the SpringSource IDE (STS)? If you double click on the server definition in STS, you will see a "modules" tab. From there, you can edit the "Path" and set it to whatever you want. When you select "Run on Server", STS has to define a context path and simply defaults it to last element of the default package. If I recall correctly, by default Tomcat uses the file name name of the zipped or exploded .war. In either case, you can over-ride it.

Hope that helps.

Trimester

Your assumption was correct, and that's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much! – Cuthburt

Thanks a lot. After putting so much time, changing servlet-context, pom details and cleaning / building project I still was not able to find it. Even looked on SO and couldn't find anything i.e until I started asking a new question. – Mary

Answer 2

The first part in the URL after host and port is called the context-path. In your case myapp. In tomcat the context-path is equal to the name of the war-file. If you name the war-file ROOT.war then no context-path is used.

As bimsapi mentioned you can change the context-path in STS, too.

But: You can and should make your app independent of the context-path. If you are using JSP then build links with the <c:url /> tag:

<c:url value="/resources/css/mycss.css" />

This outputs the correct url including the actual context-path. Or your can store it in a variable and use it later:

<c:url value="/items/index" var="cancel-url" />
<a href="${cancel-url}">Cancel</a>

In Java code you can get the context-path with:

request.getContextPath()

where request is the current HttpServletRequest object. Using this makes your app completely independent of the actual context-path which simplifies deployment a lot.

Winsome

That was very informative, thank you. I was starting to look at a way that I wouldn't have to hard code the application name into my URL's, and that seems like it will do the trick! Thanks! – Cuthburt

Florian, one more question. I also have some URL's in my applicationContext-security.xml in which I hardcode in the context path. Do you know the recommended way to make the URL's in the bean definitions relative? – Cuthburt

What kind of URL is it? If it is for spring-security then just provide the relative URL without context-path, like this: <security:openid-login default-target-url="/items"> – Winsome

Florian, please see my revised post for an example of the type of URL. – Cuthburt

Sorry, I don't know. But there is a related question: #4555706 – Winsome

Answer 3

Not sure about STS, but the war file name is set in pom file :

</dependencies>    
<build>
<finalName>yourProject</finalName>

(just realized you didn't specify maven, oh well)

Affusion