do all java mvc based frameworks require you to wire up each and every file in a config file?
like in .net you can create generic routes that map to things like:
controller/action/parameter
I'm currently reading up on spring, but haven't reach the MVC part yet.
Most are transitioning to default mappings (based on naming conventions) and annotations.
Most of them, but not all. More precisely, have a look at Stripes, a presentation framework that uses "convention over configuration" and allows near to zero configurations (no XML, no annotations).
JSF 2, Sun's own MVC framework, doesn't require that thanks to the new annotations.
JSF is covered in Java EE 6 tutorial part II chapters 4-9. At IBM developerworks there's also a nice summary about getting rid of XML configurations with help of JSF 2 annotations.
Spring MVC allows this thing then org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping is active, for example, given config:
<beans ...>
<context:component-scan base-package="some.controllers" />
<bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />
</beans>
And controller implementation:
package some.controllers;
...
@Controller
public class SampleController {
@RequestMapping
public String hello() {
...
}
@RequestMapping
public String bye() {
...
}
}
URLs /sample/hello and /sample/bye will be mapped to the corresponding methods.
For controller/action/parameter kind of mapping controller looks so:
@RequestMapping("/hello/{parameter}")
public String hello(@PathVariable("parameter") String parameter) {
...
}