Java Doc for Controller.java in  » J2EE » spring-framework-2.0.6 » org » springframework » web » portlet » mvc » Java Source Code / Java DocumentationJava Source Code and Java Documentation

Any implementation of the portlet Controller interface should be a reusable, threadsafe class, capable of handling multiple portlet requests throughout the lifecycle of an application. To be able to configure Controller(s) in an easy way, Controllers are usually JavaBeans.

Workflow:

After the DispatcherPortlet has received a request and has done its work to resolve locales, themes and suchlike, it tries to resolve a Controller to handle that request, using a org.springframework.web.portlet.HandlerMapping HandlerMapping . When a Controller has been found, the Controller.handleRenderRequest handleRenderRequest or Controller.handleActionRequest handleActionRequest method will be invoked, which is responsible for handling the actual request and - if applicable - returning an appropriate ModelAndView. So actually, these method are the main entrypoint for the org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet DispatcherPortlet which delegates requests to controllers. These method - and also this interface - should preferrably not be implemented by custom controllers directly, since abstract controllers also provided by this package already provide a lot of functionality for typical use cases in portlet applications. A few examples of those controllers: AbstractController AbstractController , AbstractCommandController AbstractCommandController , AbstractFormController AbstractFormController , SimpleFormController SimpleFormController .

So basically any direct implementation of the Controller interface just handles RenderRequests/ActionRequests and should return a ModelAndView, to be further used by the DispatcherPortlet. Any additional functionality such as optional validation, form handling, etc should be obtained through extending one of the abstract controller classes mentioned above.