html - Spring Boot with AngularJS html5Mode

Question

I start my web application with spring boot. It use a simple main class to start an embedded tomcat server:

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@ComponentScan
public class Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }

}

I want to configure the server in the way that he can handle angularjs html5mode that will be activated with

$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);

Relevant postings from other users shows that you need to redirect to the root. the html5 mode remove the hashbag from the url. If you refresh the page the server doesnt find the page cause he do not handle the hash. see: AngularJS - Why when changing url address $routeProvider doesn't seem to work and I get a 404 error

Answer 1

Use this controller to forward the URI to index.html in order to preserve AngularJS routes. Source https://spring.io/blog/2015/05/13/modularizing-the-client-angular-js-and-spring-security-part-vii

@Controller
public class ForwardController {

    @RequestMapping(value = "/**/{[path:[^\.]*}")
    public String redirect() {
        // Forward to home page so that route is preserved.
        return "forward:/";
    }
} 

In this solution ForwardController forwards only paths, which are not defined in any other Controller nor RestController. It means if you already have:

@RestController
public class OffersController {

    @RequestMapping(value = "api/offers")
    public Page<OfferDTO> getOffers(@RequestParam("page") int page) {
        return offerService.findPaginated(page, 10);
    }
} 

both controllers are going to work properly - @RequestMapping(value = "api/offers") is checked before @RequestMapping(value = "/**/{[path:[^\.]*}")