Package a spring boot application including JSPs and static resources

Question

I want to package a spring-boot application as jar, and I do so with mvn package.

This produces a jar which does not contain any /WEB-INF/jsp nor /src/main/webapp/resources.

How can I make sure my jar contains everything needed ?

Here my current pom.xml:

<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-samples</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0.RC3</version>
</parent>

<packaging>jar</packaging>

<properties>
    <main.basedir>${basedir}/../..</main.basedir>
    <m2eclipse.wtp.contextRoot>/</m2eclipse.wtp.contextRoot>
</properties>

<dependencies>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-jdbc</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
        <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
        <version>9.3-1101-jdbc41</version>
    </dependency>

</dependencies>

<!-- Package as an executable JAR -->
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <useSystemClassLoader>false</useSystemClassLoader>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

<!-- Allow access to Spring milestones and snapshots -->
<!-- (you don't need this if you are using anything after 1.0.0.RELEASE) -->
<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>spring-snapshots</id>
        <url>http://repo.spring.io/snapshot</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </repository>
    <repository>
        <id>spring-milestones</id>
        <url>http://repo.spring.io/milestone</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>spring-snapshots</id>
        <url>http://repo.spring.io/snapshot</url>
    </pluginRepository>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>spring-milestones</id>
        <url>http://repo.spring.io/milestone</url>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>
<artifactId>com.example.app</artifactId>

Answer 1

The following example works with Spring Boot 1.3.3.RELEASE: https://github.com/ghillert/spring-boot-jsp-demo

The key is to put the static jsp content in:

/src/main/resources/META-INF/resources/WEB-INF/jsp

and ensure you define the view prefix/suffix in your application.properties:

spring.mvc.view.prefix=/WEB-INF/jsp/
spring.mvc.view.suffix=.jsp

Answer 2

Is there any reason why you can't use the war packaging type? https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/usage.html I would recommend to use the war packaging type and use default maven web-application structure.

If you really want to use the jar plugin for your webapp, you need to configure it for your project. Due to your posting, I don't understand your structure and can't give you an example. Check out the usage of jar plugin here:https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/usage.html

Answer 3

Change your build tag to

 <build>
<resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</directory>
                <includes>
                    <include>**/**</include>
                </includes>
            </resource>
            <resource>
                <directory>${basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
                <includes>
                    <include>**/**</include>
                </includes>
            </resource>
        </resources>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <useSystemClassLoader>false</useSystemClassLoader>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

Answer 4

To create a runnable JAR with Spring Boot, use the spring-boot-maven-plugin in your pom.xml

<build>
<plugins>
    <plugin>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    </plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

Maybe you want to have a look at my example application http://info.michael-simons.eu/2014/02/20/developing-a-web-application-with-spring-boot-angularjs-and-java-8/ (Source is on GitHub, App is live and runs from a JAR).

One thing that you should note: JSP from JAR doesn't work due to some embedded Tomcat problems. I'm using Thymeleaf. If you need JSP, stay with the WAR deployment.

Answer 5

I had the same problem you had. I tried the answer above that you marked correct but it didn't work for me.

This worked ... change the pom.xml to ...

<packaging>war</packaging>

... this will causes maven to create a WAR file that is executable like so ...

java -jar yourwarfile.war

I found this solution with this similar question here ...

WEB-INF not included in WebApp using SpringBoot, Spring-MVC and Maven