@ResponseBody with returned String results in unresolvable view ServletException [SPR-6148]

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrew Ebaugh opened SPR-6148 and commented

We are using the @ResponseBody similar as indicated in the reference doc, like:
@RequestMapping(value = "/something", method = RequestMethod.PUT)
@ResponseBody
public String helloWorld() {
return "Hello World";
}

The returned String does get written to the response by the StringHttpMessageConverter (and the remote client is happy), but then the String goes on to be rendered as an InternalResourceView. Since the strings we are returning are not valid as internal resources, we see a ServletException that is, among other things, caught by our HandlerInterceptor.

One reason this is a problem is because we are mixing together some responses that are marshalled to XML, some that are returned as a strings via the ResponseBody, and others that are valid InternalResourceViews.

One approach may be that AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter should return null instead of attempting to create a ModelAndView after this condition is met:

AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.getModelAndView(..) :
if (returnValue != null && handlerMethod.isAnnotationPresent(ResponseBody.class)) {
handleRequestBody(returnValue, webRequest);
}

As it is, it proceeds to:

if (returnValue instanceof String) {
return new ModelAndView((String) returnValue).addAllObjects(implicitModel);
}

---

Affects: 3.0 M4

Attachments:

• ResponseBodyTest.java (3.88 kB)
• Test-servlet.xml (1.23 kB)

Referenced from: commits e49869e

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrew Ebaugh commented

Test attempting to demonstrate the issue.

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrew Ebaugh commented

Servlet config to be used with test class

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrew Ebaugh commented

I added some somewhat-related discussion about @ResponseBody to this thread:
http://forum.springsource.org/showthread.php?t=76969