We've got some Pure Servlets (pure Java classes following the Servlet API, no framework) that we'd like to include in a project that relies heavily on the Spring Framework.
What's the best way of including these servlets in the project, when all the new code we're writing is making heavy use of Spring 3 features?
your servlet container can run multiple servlets, spring is just one of them. why not just include your servlets in the web.xml and see if it works? it should work. spring is not that intrusive, yet (but obviously it already intruded the minds of many developers)
If you declare servlets in the web.xml, alongside the Spring front controller, it most certainly will work.
You just have to be careful when you declare which URLs map to the servlets. If you send "/*" to the Spring front controller, none of your requests will reach your other servlets. Be specific about what you need to send to each one.
Spring provides a couple of classes to make this bridging easier.
Spring Controller implementation that forwards to a named servlet, i.e. the "servlet-name" in web.xml rather than a URL path mapping. A target servlet doesn't even need a "servlet-mapping" in web.xml in the first place: A "servlet" declaration is sufficient.
Useful to invoke an existing servlet via Spring's dispatching infrastructure, for example to apply Spring HandlerInterceptors to its requests.
Spring Controller implementation that wraps a servlet instance which it manages internally. Such a wrapped servlet is not known outside of this controller; its entire lifecycle is covered here (in contrast to ServletForwardingController).