RequestMapping works on private methods [SPR-16878]

[spring-projects-issues]

Vipin VijayKumar opened SPR-16878 and commented

Where would we use @RequestMapping with private methods? Is there a specific use case

The reason why I am asking this is that I noticed that @RequestMapping worked on private methods as well. Why is this so?

Is it because spring access these methods through reflections so access modifiers aren't really considered? Is this a bug or a feature that has uses?

 

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No further details from SPR-16878

[spring-projects-issues]

Juergen Hoeller commented

This indeed works as designed. We generally don't restrict visibility declarations on reflective methods, leaving that choice up to the developer. That said, for this particular case, I would recommend public declarations or potentially package-visible declarations (without a visibility keyword), with private handler methods actually being more of a niche effect here.

[spring-projects-issues]

Vipin VijayKumar commented

Ok, so it's not recommended make these methods private right? Also, about niche cases? Any example if you could suggest?

[spring-projects-issues]

Vipin VijayKumar commented

Also thank you for the quick response :) 

[spring-projects-issues]

Juergen Hoeller commented

Indeed, private isn't recommended there. I'm sure some people do it for some reasons but I'm not aware of any worthwhile niches myself. At the same time, we can't easily take it back since it has been possible for many years... and it is fundamentally in line with our general handling of non-public methods.