NO JSON Result from Spring3 MVC DispatcherServlet due to AOP Configuration - json

Question

When we configure Spring AOP the JSON Results disappear for : AOPExression1
<aop:pointcut id="dmhMethodExecution"
expression="within(com.aditya.dmh..*)" />
So I added an exclusion for : AOPExpression1 as AOpExpression2
<aop:pointcut id="dmhMethodExecution"
expression="within(com.aditya.dmh..*)
and !within(com.aditya.dmh.controller..*)" />
in the ASPECTJ Expression
Still I donot see my JSON results from the controller which is a restful implementation.
package com.aditya.dmh.controller;
#Controller
public class EmployeeController {
private EmployeeServiceInterface employeeService;
#Autowired
public void setEmployeeService(EmployeeServiceInterface employeeService) {
this.employeeService = employeeService;
}
#RequestMapping("/employeeservices/1/allemployees.view")
public #ResponseBody Result<EmployeeModel> getEmployees(){
return employeeService.getEmployees(0, 10);
}
}
When I use log4j for the DEBUG messages I see the following:
15:37:04.214 [http-8090-1] DEBUG o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - Null ModelAndView returned to DispatcherServlet with name 'dmhServiceDispatcher': assuming HandlerAdapter completed request handling
15:37:04.214 [http-8090-1] DEBUG o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - Successfully completed request
When I remove the AOP the JSON results start to appear and I see that the additional Debug Message.
17:11:36.270 [http-8090-2] DEBUG o.s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestResponseBodyMethodProcessor - Written [com.aditya.Result#8a85268] as "application/json;charset=UTF-8" using [org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter#62ba2e48]
Looking at the Spring forums I understand that the Convertor is automatically configured when the
<mvc:annotation-driven/>
is used.
Is my problem of configuring AOP have anything to do with the RequestResponseBodymethodProcessor not being called.
Does this have anything to do with the proxies created around my controller when I use AOPExpression1. Why would an exclusion as in AOPExpression2 still have the problem.
Anyhelp would be appreciated

Answer 1

I belive that to intercept a request to a controller you should do it with MVC interceptors and not with aspects. What I did is to put into the applicationContext.xml this:
<mvc:interceptors>
<mvc:interceptor>
<mvc:mapping path="/employeeservices/1/allemployees.view"/>
<bean class="com.aditya.dmh.interceptor.ResultInterceptor" />
</mvc:interceptor>
</mvc:interceptors>
Now, the class ResultInterceptor is where you put the code you want to be done, for instance:
#Override
public boolean preHandle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object handler) throws Exception {
log.info("--- preHandle --- ");
return true;
}
At least this is the way I did it.
Hope it helps.

Answer 2

This is a bit of a speculation:
I think what is happening is a CGLIB based dynamic proxy is getting created for your controller (although you have excluded it explicitly in your new pointcut expression), if this happens then #RequestMapping annotations are not correctly detected(by `) and so the controller is not there to handle your REST request.
Can you try a few things:
Have an interface for the controller with the exact same methods that the controller handles, and put the #RequestMapping annotations there, this will handle cases where the dynamic proxy is created and should work as expected even if the dynamic proxy gets created..
Play around a little more with your pointcut expression to see why a proxy for you controller may be getting created.

Answer 3

THE SOLUTION FOR OUR PROBLEM IN THIS CONTEXT
We found out that the whole thing was with the Around Advice in AOP Configuration that we have had.
Before Fix
public void logAround(ProceedingJoinPoint joinPoint) throws Throwable {
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
joinPoint.proceed();
long totalTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
log.debug(buildLogMessage(new StringBuilder().append(METHOD_AROUND_ID)
.append("[").append(totalTime).append("] ").toString(),
joinPoint));
return returnValue;
}
After Fix
public Object logAround(ProceedingJoinPoint joinPoint) throws Throwable {
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
Object returnValue = joinPoint.proceed();
long totalTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
log.debug(buildLogMessage(new StringBuilder().append(METHOD_AROUND_ID)
.append("[").append(totalTime).append("] ").toString(),
joinPoint));
return returnValue;
}
the void effectively made sure that the Response Object sent by the logAround was not passed on back to the RequestResponseBodyMethodProcessor
Once we had it captured & returned the cglib proxies sent the response back to the processor & had the response sent back to the client.