Replacing @Controller with @RestController in Spring Boot does not show intended view

Question

While running tests against this controller, I get the Circular View Path error. Replacing @Controller with @RestController fixes this error however now instead of the view showing in the browser I get the actual returned String in the view.

Example would be, when I replace @Controller below with @RestController and make a GET request mapping to "/ListA", the controller method returns the String ListA in the browser as in all you see printed in the browser are the letters ListA and the view with all my inputs, buttons, tables do not show.

What am I missing here?

 @RestController
 @RequestMapping
 public class WebController {
    
      @GetMapping("/ListA") 
      public String viewListAController() {
          
          return "ListA";

      }

      @GetMapping("/ListB") 
      public String viewListBController() {
          
          return "ListB";

      }
 }  

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65598795/replacing-controller-with-restcontroller-in-spring-boot-does-not-show-intended

Answer 1

@RestController simplifies the creation of RESTful web services. It's a convenience annotation that combines @Controller and @ResponseBody.

if you use it it will convert the response into a JSON object format. That's why you are getting a string as text in the browser, not the view.