Apply Filter or Interceptor to Controller class via annotations [SPR-13377]

[spring-projects-issues]

Travis Smith opened SPR-13377 and commented

I think it would be awesome to be able to apply Filters or perhaps Interceptors as annotations. E.g.

@Controller
public class DefaultController {
    @RequestMapping("/")
    @ResponseBody
    String home() {
        return "Hello World!";
    }
}

And we want to apply some specific, custom authentication to that controller or request handlers.

@Controller
@MyAuthenticationFilter
public class DefaultController {
    @RequestMapping("/")
    @ResponseBody
    String home() {
        return "Hello World!";
    }
}

Or maybe @Filter(MyAuthenticationFilter.class) could work as well.

---

Issue Links:

• @HandlerInterceptor [SPR-4770] #9447 @HandlerInterceptor ("duplicates")

[spring-projects-issues]

Rossen Stoyanchev commented

This has been considered on a few occasions before, e.g. #9447. The case for a Filter is in the same category.

There isn't enough incentive for annotated components like filters and interceptors. They are few and far between vs controllers. Feel free to comment with more specifics if you feel you've got a case that will add to the discussion.

[spring-projects-issues]

Travis Smith commented

For me, it's more useful that the filter's usage be declared where it's used to be explicit. I can look at the controller (or route?) and see the intention here without having to go back to the config class and make the connection between the filter's match & and the request mapping. I like setting global things in the config class & local things in their locale.

I can understand this not being a strong enough reason to support something like this. If so, do you have any guidance on how one might tack this functionality on as an extension?

[spring-projects-issues]

Rossen Stoyanchev commented

RequestMappingHandlerMapping provides access to all request mappings via getHandlerMethods(), so it's possible to get that and filter out the ones for a specific controller. The returned RequestMappingInfo objects can also be used for matching to a request instance.