List Controller methods from parent class

[ST-DDT]

Currently only the methods present in the topmost controller class are detected by jsonDoc.
However in some applications there is a lot of repetitive logic in the controllers so I moved them to a shared parent class. However now they will no longer be detected by jsonDoc. it would be nice if methods from parent classes will be detected by jsonDoc as well.

This can be fixed by adding a parent class check/recursion to this method:
AbstractSpringJSONDocScanner#jsondocMethods()

[ST-DDT]

Example fix:

@Override
public Set<Method> jsondocMethods(final Class<?> controller) {
	// NEWLY ADDED - START
	if (controller == null) {
		return new LinkedHashSet<>();
	}
	// NEWLY ADDED - END
	final Set<Method> annotatedMethods = new LinkedHashSet<>();
	for (final Method method : controller.getDeclaredMethods()) {
		if (method.isAnnotationPresent(RequestMapping.class)) {
			annotatedMethods.add(method);
			System.out.println(controller.getSimpleName() + " " + method);
		}
	}
	// NEWLY ADDED - START
	annotatedMethods.addAll(jsondocMethods(controller.getSuperclass()));
	// NEWLY ADDED - END
	return annotatedMethods;
}

EDIT: See below for additional information.

[joffrey-bion]

@ST-DDT Since controller methods are public, it would actually be much simpler and achieve the same purpose if we used controller.getMethods() instead of controller.getDeclaredMethods(). This way, we wouldn't even need the recursion.
Or do you have any example of non-public methods that you would like to see documented?

[ST-DDT]

@joffrey-bion AFAIK Spring does not require Controller methods to be public (although they should be IMO) thus this approach is necessary

[ST-DDT]

Unfortunately my solution/the parent scanning shows some other issues, because the @RequestMapping from the controller class is not present on parent classes thus the paths are wrong:

It will be displayed as /{id} instead of /myController/{id}

This can be fixed by

• Changing AbstractJSONDocScanner#initApiMethodDoc(...)

from

public abstract ApiMethodDoc initApiMethodDoc(Method method, Map<Class<?>, JSONDocTemplate> jsondocTemplates);

to

public abstract ApiMethodDoc initApiMethodDoc(Class<?> controller, Method method, Map<Class<?>, JSONDocTemplate> jsondocTemplates);

• Changing SpringPathBuilder#buildPath(...)

from

public static Set<String> buildPath(Method method) {
    Class<?> controller = method.getDeclaringClass();

to

public static Set<String> buildPath(Class<?> controller, Method method) {

PS: @joffrey-bion AFAICT your impl is likely to be also affected from this

[joffrey-bion]

@ST-DDT Thanks for pointing it out. I'll double check Spring's implementation to see how paths are actually read. Or maybe you know already?

Suppose we have this situation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/parent")
public class ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/parentMethod")
    public void parentMethod() { }
}

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/child")
public class ChildController extends ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/childMethod")
    public void childMethod() { }
}

What API does Spring generate? I would say:

• /child/childMethod
• /child/parentMethod

But is the parent controller type-annotation really ignored?

[ST-DDT]

Usually the parent would neither be annotated with @Controller nor with @RequestMapping. But yes the child wins.

For clarification:

// @Controller
// @RequestMapping("/parent")
public class ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/parentMethod")
    public void parentMethod() { }
}

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/child")
public class ChildController extends ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/childMethod")
    public void childMethod() { }
}

Will provide the following request urls:

• /child/childMethod
• /child/parentMethod

---

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/parent")
public class ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/parentMethod")
    public void parentMethod() { }
}

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/child")
public class ChildController extends ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/childMethod")
    public void childMethod() { }
}

Will provide the following request urls:

• /child/childMethod
• /child/parentMethod
• /parent/parentMethod

---

// @Controller
// @RequestMapping("/parent")
public class ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/parentMethod")
    public void parentMethod() { }
}

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/child")
public class ChildController extends ParentController {

    @Override
    @RequestMapping("/childMethod")
    public void parentMethod() { }
}

Will provide the following request urls:

• /child/childMethod

---

package a;

// @Controller
// @RequestMapping("/parent")
public class ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/parentMethod")
    void parentMethod() { }
}

package b;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/child")
public class ChildController extends ParentController {

    @RequestMapping("/childMethod")
    void parentMethod() { }
}

Will provide the following request urls:

• /child/childMethod
• /child/parentMethod

---

RequestMappings are resolved in org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractHandlerMethodMapping.detectHandlerMethods(Object) using:

• org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping.getMappingForMethod(Method, Class<?>)
  • org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping.createRequestMappingInfo(RequestMapping, RequestCondition<?>)
    • org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping.createRequestMappingInfo(RequestMapping, RequestCondition<?>)

This produces an org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.RequestMappingInfo and there you can extract all those paths and other stuff from. Unfortunately you will probably have to create a fake sub class of that class that exposes the RequestMappingHandlerMapping.getMappingForMethod(Method, Class<?>) Method.

public class DummyMapper extends RequestMappingHandlerMapping {

	@Override
	public RequestMappingInfo getMappingForMethod(Method method, Class<?> handlerType) {
		return super.getMappingForMethod(method, handlerType);
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args) throws NoSuchMethodException, SecurityException {
		Class<?> controller = MyController.class;
		Method method = controller.getMethod("list");
		System.out.println(new DummyMapper().getMappingForMethod(method, controller).getPatternsCondition().getPatterns());
	}
}

---

On the other hand you might be able to read all registered methods from:

org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractHandlerMethodMapping.getHandlerMethods()'s keys.

But this would only work if the server is running.

Maybe this article helps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11082818/spring-mvc-get-all-request-mappings

[ST-DDT]

@joffrey-bion Does this help you? Maybe we should move the discussion over to your fork.

[joffrey-bion]

@ST-DDT Yes, thanks a lot for the detailed reply.
Let's carry on the discussion there: joffrey-bion/livedoc#34