creating spring rest services without using spring boot

Here is another example:

Directory Layout:

.
├── ./pom.xml
└── ./src
    └── ./src/main
        ├── ./src/main/java
        │   └── ./src/main/java/biz
        │       └── ./src/main/java/biz/tugay
        │           └── ./src/main/java/biz/tugay/restfulspring
        │               └── ./src/main/java/biz/tugay/restfulspring/config
        │                   ├── ./src/main/java/biz/tugay/restfulspring/config/RestfulHello.java
        │                   └── ./src/main/java/biz/tugay/restfulspring/config/WebAppInitalizer.java
        └── ./src/main/webapp
            └── ./src/main/webapp/WEB-INF
                └── ./src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>biz.tugay</groupId>
    <artifactId>restfulSpring</artifactId>

    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>restfulSpring Maven Webapp</name>

    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.16.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.16.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.16.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.16.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <finalName>restfulSpring</finalName>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
                <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>9.2.1.v20140609</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
                             http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
         version="3.0">
</web-app>

WebAppInitalizer.java

package biz.tugay.restfulspring.config;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.support.AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer;

@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
@ComponentScan("biz.tugay.restfulspring")
public class WebAppInitalizer extends AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {

    @Override
    protected String[] getServletMappings() {
        return new String[]{"/*"};
    }

    @Override
    protected Class<?>[] getRootConfigClasses() {
        return new Class<?>[]{WebAppInitalizer.class};
    }

    @Override
    protected Class<?>[] getServletConfigClasses() {
        return new Class[0];
    }
}

RestfulHello.java

package biz.tugay.restfulspring.config;

import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
@RequestMapping(value = "/")
public class RestfulHello {

    @RequestMapping(value = "hello")
    public ResponseEntity<String> sayHello() {
        final HttpHeaders httpHeaders= new HttpHeaders();
        httpHeaders.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
        return new ResponseEntity<String>("{\"msg\": \"Hello World\"}", httpHeaders, HttpStatus.OK);
    }
}

Build and run:

mvn clean install
mvn jetty:start

Test:

> GET /hello HTTP/1.1
> Host: localhost:8080
> User-Agent: insomnia/5.15.0
> Accept: */*
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:06:07 GMT
< Content-Type: application/json
< Content-Length: 22
< Server: Jetty(9.2.1.v20140609)

Content received:

{
    "msg": "Hello World"
}

You don't need Spring Boot to create a rest controller.

Please follow the spring framework documentation on how to setup MVC https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/web.html#spring-web

The MVC setup (the DispatcherServlet) depends on your spring version, you can either use xml or you can setup programmatically: https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/web.html#mvc-servlet

Once this is setup, you can add a rest controller to your application. Note that a rest controller (the @RestController annotation) is a stereotype annotation that combines @ResponseBody and @Controller, in other words the Controller returns an object in the response body instead of returning a view.

This is a perfect example explaining what I said above: http://www.programming-free.com/2014/01/spring-mvc-40-restful-web-services.html