{"id":305,"date":"2025-06-18T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/?p=305"},"modified":"2025-06-13T19:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T19:19:04","slug":"understanding-restcontroller-in-spring-boot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"Understanding @RestController in Spring Boot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This annotation is a specialization of @Controller<\/code>, specifically designed for creating REST endpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It combines the @Controller<\/code> and @ResponseBody<\/code> annotations, making it easier to create RESTful applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your application works with RESTful APIs, this is the go-to annotation to define your controllers. It simplifies your code and communicates the intent: this class serves REST endpoints<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to use it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Create a class and annotate it with @RestController<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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import<\/span> org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span>\n@<\/span>RestController<\/span><\/span>\npublic<\/span> <\/span>class<\/span> <\/span>MyController<\/span> {<\/span><\/span>\n}<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Define a method to respond to an HTTP method:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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import<\/span> org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span>\n@<\/span>RestController<\/span><\/span>\npublic<\/span> <\/span>class<\/span> <\/span>MyController<\/span> {<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span>\n    @<\/span>GetMapping<\/span>(<\/span>"<\/span>\/hello<\/span>"<\/span>)<\/span><\/span>\n    <\/span>public<\/span> <\/span>MessageResponse<\/span> <\/span>hello<\/span>() {<\/span><\/span>\n        <\/span>return<\/span> <\/span>new<\/span> <\/span>MessageResponse<\/span>(<\/span>"<\/span>Hello, world!<\/span>"<\/span>);<\/span><\/span>\n    }<\/span><\/span>\n}<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Create the response record:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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public<\/span> <\/span>record<\/span> <\/span>MessageResponse<\/span>(<\/span>String<\/span> message) {}<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s it! Now you have a controller and method that will respond to an endpoint for a particular HTTP method in a REST-compatible format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s test it out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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curl<\/span> <\/span><<\/span>http:\/\/localhost:8080\/hell<\/span>o<\/span>><\/span><\/span>\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The response should look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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{<\/span><\/span>\n  <\/span>"<\/span>message<\/span>"<\/span>:<\/span> <\/span>"<\/span>Hello, world!<\/span>"<\/span><\/span>\n}<\/span><\/span>\n<\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By using this annotation, Spring simplifies the creation of RESTful applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that you know the difference between @Controller<\/code> and @RestController<\/code>, you can make sure to choose the better option for your context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is it? This annotation is a specialization of @Controller, specifically designed for creating REST endpoints. It combines the @Controller and @ResponseBody annotations, making it easier to create RESTful applications. If your application works with RESTful APIs, this is the go-to annotation to define your controllers. It simplifies your code and communicates the intent: this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[13,18,22,23,24],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-java","category-spring","tag-java","tag-programming","tag-spring-boot","tag-spring-framework","tag-springboot"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/springmasteryhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}