Unlocking the Power of Spring MVC: A Hands-on Basic Guide to the Dispatcher Servlet

In the world of web development, the dispatcher servlet plays a crucial role in Spring MVC framework. It acts as a front controller, responsible for handling all incoming Http requests and dispatching them to a appropriate handlers for processing. Lets get dive into working of Dispatcher Servlet and Understand its functionality.

What is DispatcherServlet?

The DispatcherServlet is a central component of the Spring MVC framework which receives all incoming Http requests and dispatches them to a appropriate handlers for processing. It is essentially the entry point for all request to a Spring MVC application.

How does the DispatcherServlet work?

When a request made to Spring MVC application, the DispatcherServlet is first intercept it. It is predefined class in Spring MVC module, it sends the request to the Handler mapper.

Handler mapper is responsible for mapping incoming request to the appropriate handler(Controller class) to determine which one should handle the request this process is know as request dispatcher will process the request and will return a ModelAndView object Model: data and View: logical file name to the DispatcherServlet.

DispatcherServlet will call View Resolver , it will identify extension and view location and this information will be sent to DispatcherServlet.

Front Controller will send Model to View component. Model(data) will be rendered and view component will generate a response back to DispatcherServlet and it will response back to client understandable format.

Key Features of DispatcherServlet:

• Centralized request Handling: It provides centralized mechanism which handles all incoming request, making it easier to manage and process request in Spring MVC application

• Handler Mapping: The DispatcherServlet uses handler mapper to determine which handler should process a particular request based on the requested URL.

• View Resolution: The DispatcherServlet uses view resolver to determine which view should be rendered to client.

• Interceptors: The DispatcherServlet supports the use of interceptors which are used to perform pre-processing (intercept the request before main handler) and post-processing (intercept the request after main handler has processed the request) task for request.

• Error Handling: The DispatcherServlet provides built in support for error handling, allowing you to define how the error should be handled.

Conclusion

The DispatcherServlet is a key component of the Spring MVC framework, providing a centralized mechanism for handling incoming requests and dispatching them to the appropriate handlers. Understanding how the DispatcherServlet works is essential for building robust and scalable web applications using the Spring MVC framework.