EnableWebMvc annotation meaning

When you're using Java code (as opposed to XML) to configure your Spring application, @EnableWebMvc is used to enable Spring MVC. If you're not already familiar with Spring's support for Java configuration, this is a good place to start.

@EnableWebMvc is equivalent to <mvc:annotation-driven /> in XML. It enables support for @Controller-annotated classes that use @RequestMapping to map incoming requests to a certain method. You can read detailed information about what it configures by default and how to customise the configuration in the reference documentation.

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Welcome to the world of Spring. There is something you need to understand before you know what the annotation @EnableWebMVC means.

Spring traditionally supports two types of configurations:

XML based configuration

Annotation based configuration

These annotations are essentially implemented as a part of MVC Java Config Design.

Consider a simple class:

@EnableWebMvc
@Configuration
public class WebConfig {
}

There are no base classes. No spring beans in sight.. Hmmm..

Lets go a little further:

What does this actually provide.. ?

Well, to bore you a little bit more ,it provides a lot a things like:

@MVC request processing Global JSR-303 validator

and a few more.

Ahahah... But your application works with it right. So, where's the magic.. ?

@EnableWebMVC <---- What's behind this..?

This is behind it:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Import(DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration.class)
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
public @interface EnableWebMvc {
}

See, now you would think that how pointless using @EnableWebMVC. Would you rather:

Extend WebMvcConfigurationSupport

Override @Bean and other available methods

You can read up on:

Java Reflections:Annotations

Hope it helps. :)

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When we want to build a Spring Web MVC project we need to add necessary import from WebMvcConfigurationSupport.For that reason, we should use @EnableWebMvc in java based configuration. Only one @Configuration class may have @EnableWebMvc.

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Adding this annotation to an @Configuration class imports the Spring MVC configuration from WebMvcConfigurationSupport

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