PortletMVC4Spring

NOTE ON BRANCHES

• The PortletMVC4Spring master branch was intended to be reserved for compatibility with Spring Framework 6.x, but since Pivotal made the move from the javax. to the jakarta. package namespace, the PortletMVC4Spring master branch remains unused. See Version Scheme for more information about the 5.3,x, 5.2.x, and 5.1.x branches.

The PortletMVC4Spring project began as Spring Portlet MVC and was part of the Spring Framework. When the project was pruned from version 5.0.x of the Spring Framework under SPR-14129, it became necessary to fork and rename the project. This made it possible to improve and maintain the project for compatibility with the latest versions of the Spring Framework and the Portlet API.

Liferay, Inc. adopted Spring Portlet MVC in March of 2019 and the project was renamed to PortletMVC4Spring.

In June of 2021, Liferay also adopted the portlet-related source from the Spring Web Flow project and incorporated it into a separate "webflow" module within the PortletMVC4Spring project.

Documentation

• Developer Guide
• Javadoc Reference

Library Modules

Module	Description
com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.framework	Provides the Model/View/Controller (MVC) portlet framework.
com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security	Provides convenience and utility classes that help support Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection provided by Spring Security. For more information, see Enabling CSRF Protection.
com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.webflow	Provides the portlet framework that is built on top of Spring Web Flow.

Requirements

PortletMVC4Spring requires JDK 8+ and has been upgraded from version 2.0 of the Portlet API to version 3.0. In addition, it has been refactored and tested for use with version 5.1.x, 5.2,x, and 5.3.x of the Spring Framework.

Supported Portals

PortletMVC4Spring is supported in the following Portlet 3.0 compliant portals:

• Liferay Portal 7.1+
• Apache Pluto 3.0+

Version Scheme

PortletMVC4Spring follows a major.minor.patch version scheme. The major and minor version numbers correspond to Spring Framework versions for which PortletMVC4Spring is compatible. For example, version 5.3.x of PortletMVC4Spring is intended for use with Spring Framework 5.3.x, version 5.2.x of PortletMVC4Spring is intended for use with Spring Framework 5.2.x, and so on. The patch number indicates an incremental version containing patches for software defects.

Dependency Coordinates

Maven:

<dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring</groupId>
		<artifactId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.framework</artifactId>
		<version>5.3.4</version>	
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring</groupId>
		<artifactId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security</artifactId>
		<version>5.3.4</version>	
	</dependency>
	<!-- Only required for portlets that use Spring Web Flow -->
	<!--
	<dependency>
		<groupId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring</groupId>
		<artifactId>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.webflow</artifactId>
		<version>5.3.4</version>	
	</dependency>
	-->
<dependencies>

Gradle:

dependencies {
	compile group: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring', name: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.framework', version: '5.3.4'
	compile group: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring', name: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security', version: '5.3.4'
	// Only required for portlets that use Spring Web Flow
	// compile group: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring', name: 'com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.webflow', version: '5.3.4'
}

Archetypes

# JSP Form
mvn archetype:generate \
	-DarchetypeGroupId=com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.archetype \
	-DarchetypeArtifactId=com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.archetype.form.jsp.portlet \
	-DarchetypeVersion=5.3.4 \
	-DgroupId=com.mycompany \
	-DartifactId=com.mycompany.my.form.jsp.portlet

# Thymeleaf Form
mvn archetype:generate \
	-DarchetypeGroupId=com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.archetype \
	-DarchetypeArtifactId=com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.archetype.form.thymeleaf.portlet \
	-DarchetypeVersion=5.3.4 \
	-DgroupId=com.mycompany \
	-DartifactId=com.mycompany.my.form.thymeleaf.portlet

Demos

There are two demos available that have been tested in both Liferay Portal and Apache Pluto:

Source Code	Maven Central
applicant-jsp-portlet	com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.demo.applicant.jsp.portlet.war
applicant-thymeleaf-portlet	com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.demo.applicant.thymeleaf.portlet.war
applicant-webflow-portlet	com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.demo.applicant.webflow.portlet.war

The demos exercise many of the features of PortletMVC4Spring that developers typically need for form-based portlet applications. The first two demos are identical except that one uses JSPX views and the other uses Thymeleaf views.

Migration

If you are migrating a portlet project from Spring Portlet MVC to PortletMVC4Spring, then follow these steps:

1. Upgrade your pom.xml or build.gradle descriptor to version 5.1.x of the Spring Framework.

2. Replace the spring-webmvc-portlet dependency in your pom.xml or build.gradle descriptor with the com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.framework dependency. For more information about adding dependencies, see Dependency Coordinates.

3. Replace org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet with com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.DispatcherPortlet in your WEB-INF/portlet.xml descriptor.

4. The Spring Portlet MVC AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter class was replaced with the new PortletMVC4Spring PortletRequestMappingHandlerAdapter class in order to utilize the modern-day HandlerMethod infrastructure that Spring Web MVC is based on.

   If you specified AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter as a <bean> in a Spring configuration descriptor, then you will need to replace the org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter fully-qualified class name (FQCN) with com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.mvc.method.annotation.PortletRequestMappingHandlerAdapter. In addition, the following properties have changed:

• customModelAndViewResolver (no longer available)

• customArgumentResolver (no longer available)

• customArgumentResolvers (specify a list of HandlerMethodArgumentResolver instead of a list of WebArgumentResolver)

5. If using Apache Commons Fileupload, then update your Spring configuration descriptor:

• Replace the following legacy bean:

	<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"
		class="org.springframework.web.portlet.multipart.CommonsPortletMultipartResolver" />

• With the new one from PortletMVC4Spring:

	<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"
		class="com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.multipart.CommonsPortletMultipartResolver" />

Alternatively, you can upgrade to the native Portlet 3.0 file upload support provided by PortletMVC4Spring by updating your Spring configuration descriptor:

• Replace the following legacy bean:

	<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"
		class="org.springframework.web.portlet.multipart.CommonsPortletMultipartResolver" />

• With the new one from PortletMVC4Spring:

	<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"
		class="com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.multipart.StandardPortletMultipartResolver" />

• Finally, remove the following dependencies from your pom.xml or build.gradle descriptor:

	<dependency>
		<groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
		<artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>commons-io</groupId>
		<artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
	</dependency>

6. Perform a global search and replace of "org.springframework.web.portlet" with "com.liferay.portletmvc4spring" within your project.

Enabling CSRF Protection

Liferay Portal provides CSRF protection out-of-the-box for the ACTION_PHASE of the portlet lifecycle via the p_auth request parameter (present on all ActionURLs). If a developer uses XmlHttpRequest (XHR) to submit forms with the RESOURCE_PHASE, then the developer is responsible for providing CSRF protection.

The PortletMVC4Spring security module has the ability to enable CSRF protection for both the ACTION_PHASE and RESOURCE_PHASE in any supported portal. In the case of Liferay Portal, the PortletMVC4Spring CSRF protection is redundant with Liferay Portal's out-of-the-box CSRF protection for the ACTION_PHASE.

In order to enable CSRF protection, follow these steps:

1. Add the com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security library as a dependency to your portlet project. For more information, see Dependency Coordinates.

2. Add the following to your WEB-INF/spring-context/portlet-application-context.xml descriptor:

	<bean id="springSecurityPortletConfigurer"
		class="com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security.SpringSecurityPortletConfigurer" />
	<bean id="delegatingFilterProxy" class="org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy">
		<property name="targetBeanName" value="springSecurityFilterChain" />
	</bean>

3. Add the following to your WEB-INF/portlet.xml descriptor:

	<filter>
		<filter-name>SpringSecurityPortletFilter</filter-name>
		<filter-class>com.liferay.portletmvc4spring.security.SpringSecurityPortletFilter</filter-class>
		<lifecycle>ACTION_PHASE</lifecycle>
		<lifecycle>RENDER_PHASE</lifecycle>
		<lifecycle>RESOURCE_PHASE</lifecycle>
	<filter>
	<filter-mapping>
		<filter-name>SpringSecurityPortletFilter</filter-name>
		<!-- NOTE: Specify a portlet-name element for each and every portlet -->
		<!--       that you want protected! -->
		<portlet-name>portlet1</portlet-name>
	</filter-mapping>

4. Add the following to your WEB-INF/web.xml descriptor:

	<filter>
		<filter-name>delegatingFilterProxy</filter-name>
		<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
	</filter>
	<filter-mapping>
		<filter-name>delegatingFilterProxy</filter-name>
		<url-pattern>/WEB-INF/servlet/view</url-pattern>
		<dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
		<dispatcher>INCLUDE</dispatcher>
	</filter-mapping>

Issues

Defects and feature requests can be posted in the PortletMVC4Spring Issue Tracker.

License

PortletMVC4Spring is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Building From Source

Using Maven 3.x:

mvn clean install

Community Participation

For code contributions, see CONTRIBUTING.

Post questions in the Liferay Development Forum.