Spring MVC 3 - hello world example - Quick start

This tutorial helps you to quickly create and run a spring-mvc hello world application.  Spring version used for this example is 3.2.3-RELEASE.

Prerequisites

1. JDK 1.6+
2. Eclipse Juno+
3. Spring IDE 3.4+ for eclipse
4. Maven 3
5. Maven Integration plugin for eclipse
6. Tomcat 7+

Initial Steps

Right click and create New --> Spring project.  In the next dialog, fill in the project name as "spring-mvc-spring-sample" and select "Spring MVC Project".  Please specify package name "com.ananth.spring" and click Finish.

Run your application

Right click on your eclipse project --> Run As --> Run on server --> Finish.

From your browser navigate to http://localhost:8080/spring/ you will see this screen.

The source can be download from github. Next chapter Spring MVC with Spring security & Hibernate.

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener

I got this exception while I was trying to execute an open source application that I found from the web. I was trying to run the application from my eclipse managed tomcat 7 server. I noticed that my project's maven dependencies were not having the right jars.
This problem can be fixed by adding maven dependencies in the project's web deployment assembly.

1. Open the project's properties (e.g., right-click on the project's name in the project explorer and select "Properties")
2. Select "Deployment Assembly"
3. Click the "Add..." button on the right margin
4. Select "Java Build Path Entries" from the menu of Directive Type and click "Next"
5. Select "Maven Dependencies" from the Java Build Path Entries menu and click "Finish".

You should see "Maven Dependencies" added to the Web Deployment Assembly definition after the following the above steps.

How to get Spring Plugin for your Eclipse

Spring IDE

Spring IDE is an eclipse plug-in that helps in developing Spring Application. First we will see how to install the Spring IDE and later we will create our first Spring project using it. I am using Eclipse 3.4.1 version to demonstrate this.

To install Spring IDE, Go to Help -> Software Updates.

Click the "Add Site" button and enter "http://springide.org/updatesite" in the Add Site popup.

Select all the Spring IDE features and click Install.