Spring MVC @PostConstruct Example

Spring MVC Controller handle each and every request. When a request comes to spring, it will send that request to the particulate controller based on request mapping. But sometimes we require initing some data only once during the life cycle of Controller. Spring providesPostConstruct annotation using that we can archive init of data only once in the life cycle of controller. @PostConstructis part of Spring MVC so it will work spring boot also while configuring Spring MVC with spring boot.

The method which has been written with @PostConstruct will does not return any data. The return type is void and also do not accept any arguments. Purpose of @PostConstruct as under:

1. Initialize data
2. Perform operation that wants to require only one time of Controller life cycle.

Here is Spring MVC @PostConstruct Example:

Here is an example of init SimpleDateFormat using @PostConstruct so Only SimpleDateFormat object will be created and the same object will be used for all request.

package com.javadeveloperzone.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

/**
 * Created by Java Developer Zone on 19-07-2017.
 */
@Controller
public class SpringBootExampleController {
    private static SimpleDateFormat dt;
    @PostConstruct
    protected void init() {
        System.out.println("It will called only one time in controller life cycle.");
        dt = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
        System.out.println("Date init successfully..");
    }
    @GetMapping("/getForm")
    @ResponseBody
    public String SpringBootHello() {
        return dt.format(new Date());
    }
}

Output

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v1.5.4.RELEASE)
2017-08-19 10:56:47.037  INFO 104060 --- [           main] com.javadeveloperzone.SpringBootConfig   : Starting SpringBootConfig on Mahesh with PID 104060 (F:\extrawork\spring-boot\spring-boot-initbinder-example\target\classes started by Lenovo in F:\extrawork\spring-boot\spring-boot-initbinder-example)
2017-08-19 10:56:47.041  INFO 104060 --- [           main] com.javadeveloperzone.SpringBootConfig   : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2017-08-19 10:56:47.116  INFO 104060 --- [           main] ationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext : Refreshing org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@1b26f7b2: startup date [Sat Aug 19 10:56:47 IST 2017]; root of context hierarchy
2017-08-19 10:56:49.334  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat initialized with port(s): 8080 (http)
2017-08-19 10:56:49.350  INFO 104060 --- [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Starting service [Tomcat]
2017-08-19 10:56:49.352  INFO 104060 --- [           main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine  : Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.5.15
2017-08-19 10:56:49.471  INFO 104060 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext
2017-08-19 10:56:49.471  INFO 104060 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.web.context.ContextLoader            : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 2359 ms
2017-08-19 10:56:49.633  INFO 104060 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.b.w.servlet.ServletRegistrationBean  : Mapping servlet: 'dispatcherServlet' to [/]
2017-08-19 10:56:49.638  INFO 104060 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.b.w.servlet.FilterRegistrationBean   : Mapping filter: 'characterEncodingFilter' to: [/*]
It will called only one time in controller life cycle.
Date init successfully..
2017-08-19 10:56:49.815  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/getForm],methods=[GET]}" onto public java.lang.String com.javadeveloperzone.controller.SpringBootExampleController.SpringBootHello()
2017-08-19 10:56:49.829  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error]}" onto public org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity<java.util.Map<java.lang.String, java.lang.Object>> org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.BasicErrorController.error(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest)
2017-08-19 10:56:49.830  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error],produces=[text/html]}" onto public org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.BasicErrorController.errorHtml(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest,javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse)
2017-08-19 10:56:49.963  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter : Looking for @ControllerAdvice: org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@1b26f7b2: startup date [Sat Aug 19 10:56:47 IST 2017]; root of context hierarchy
2017-08-19 10:56:50.366  INFO 104060 --- [           main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter        : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup
2017-08-19 10:56:50.424  INFO 104060 --- [           main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http)
2017-08-19 10:56:50.429  INFO 104060 --- [           main] com.javadeveloperzone.SpringBootConfig   : Started SpringBootConfig in 3.755 seconds (JVM running for 4.409)