@Controller vs @RestController

1. @Controller

• @Controller tells Spring that this class contains web request handler methods.
• Marks a class as a Spring MVC controller.
• Handles web requests (GET/POST).
• Returns a view name(resolved by ViewResolver) instead of raw data.
• Used for web pages (MVC), not REST APIs.
• specialized forms of @Component.

@Controller
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping(path = "/home", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String homePage() {
        // This will be resolved to home.jsp or home.html
        return "home";
    }
}

2. @ResponseBody

• Tells Spring not to render a view, but instead Sends return value directly to HTTP response.
• Used for JSON, XML, or text.
• Can be applied to methods in a @Controller.

@Controller
public class UserController {

    @RequestMapping(path = "/user", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    @ResponseBody
    public String userMessage() {
        // This will return JSON (if Jackson is on the classpath)
        return "message";
    }
}

3. @RestController

A convenience annotation that combines: @Controller + @ResponseBody

• Every method automatically returns data (JSON/XML) instead of view.
• Commonly used for REST APIs.

 @RestController
public class ProductController {

     RequestMapping(path = "/product", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String productMessage() {
        return "message";
        // No need to use @ResponseBody, handled automatically
    }
}

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