Spring Security Annotation Configuration Example – HelloWorld

Previously we have seen how to implement Spring Security in a Hello World program using XML configuration. In this Spring Security Annotation Configuration Example, we will be using the same example but instead of XML configuration, we will be configuring it through annotation.

Let’s build Spring MVC application with the home page which will be accessible to everyone, and we will be having admin page which will be accessible to only to the user with admin rights. When the user tries to access the admin page he will be asked to log in, if the credentials entered matches the admin privilege then only he will be allowed in.

Folder Structure:

1. Create a simple Maven Project “SpringSecurityTutorial” and create a package for our source files “com.javainterviewpoint” under  src/main/java 
2. Now add the following dependency in the POM.xml

    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0%20http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.javainterviewpoint</groupId>
    <artifactId>SpringSecurityTutorial</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>SpringSecurityTutorial Maven Webapp</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
        <version>3.8.1</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.0</version>
      </dependency>
   
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <!-- Spring Security -->
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
        <version>${security.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
        <version>${security.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
        <version>${security.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>jstl</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
    <finalName>SpringSecurityTutorial</finalName>
    </build>
    <properties>
    <spring.version>4.2.1.RELEASE</spring.version>
    <security.version>4.0.3.RELEASE</security.version>
    <jdk.version>1.7</jdk.version>
    </properties>
   </project>

3. Create the Java class HelloController.java and SpringSecurityConfig.java under com.javainterviewpoint folder.
4. Place the SpringConfig-servlet.xml and web.xml  under the WEB-INF directory
5. View files index.jsp, hello.jsp, and admin.jsp are put under the subdirectory under WEB-INF/Jsp

Spring Security Annotation Configuration Example

web.xml

 <web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee%20http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd"
 version="3.1">
 <display-name>Archetype Created Web Application</display-name>
 <servlet>
   <servlet-name>SpringConfig</servlet-name>
   <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
   <init-param>
     <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
     <param-value>
       /WEB-INF/SpringConfig-servlet.xml
     </param-value>
   </init-param>
 </servlet>
 <servlet-mapping>
   <servlet-name>SpringConfig</servlet-name>
   <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>

 <listener>
   <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
 </listener>

 <!-- Loads Spring Security configuration file -->
 <context-param>
   <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
   <param-value>
      /WEB-INF/SpringConfig-servlet.xml
   </param-value>
 </context-param>

 <!-- Spring Security filter -->
 <filter>
   <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
   <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
 </filter>

 <filter-mapping>
   <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
   <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>
</web-app>

• The web.xml has everything about the application that a server needs to know, which is placed under the WEB-INF directory.  It contains the name of the SpringConfiguration file when the DispatcherServlet is initialized the framework will try to load a configuration file “[servlet-name]-servlet.xml” under the WEB-INF directory.
• Spring Security depends on the Servlet filter, we will be using the filter “DelegatingFilterProxy” which provides the link between web.xml and application context. (Note: The filter name should only be “springSecurityFilterChain” )

SpringConfig-servlet.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
 xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
 xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.2.xsd">

 <mvc:annotation-driven />
 <context:component-scan base-package="com.javainterviewpoint" />

 <bean id="viewResolver"
   class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
   <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/Jsp/" />
   <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
 </bean>
</beans>

• The SpringConfig-servlet.xml is also placed under the WEB-INF directory.
• <context:component-scan> will let the Spring Container to search for all the annotation under the package “com.javainteriviewpoint”. 
• <mvc:annotation-driven/> annotation will activate the @Controller, @RequestMapping, @Valid etc annotations.
• The view is resolved through “org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver” which searches for the jsp files under the /WEB-INF/Jsp/ directory.

SpringSecurityConfig.java

We will not be having SpringSecurity.xml in the example instead we will be having an additional class which performs the work of the XML Configuration.

package com.javainterviewpoint;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.authentication.builders.AuthenticationManagerBuilder;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.EnableWebSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter;

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SpringSecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter
{
    @Autowired
    public void configureGlobal(AuthenticationManagerBuilder authentication) throws Exception 
    {
        authentication.inMemoryAuthentication().withUser("test").password("test").roles("ADMIN");
    }
    
    @Override
    protected void configure(HttpSecurity httpSecurity) throws Exception 
    {
        httpSecurity.authorizeRequests()
            .antMatchers("/", "/hello").permitAll() 
            .antMatchers("/admin*").access("hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')")
            .and().formLogin();
    }
}

• configureGlobal() method configures the AuthenticationManagerBuilder class with the valid user credentials and the allowed roles. The AuthenticationManagerBuilder class creates the AuthenticationManger which is responsible for authenticating the credentials. In our example we have used the inMemoryAuthentication, you can choose other authentication types such JDBC, LDAP.

authentication.inMemoryAuthentication().withUser("test").password("test").roles("ADMIN");

It is equivalent of

 <authentication-manager>
   <authentication-provider>
     <user-service>
       <user name="test" password="test" authorities="ROLE_ADMIN" />
     </user-service>
    </authentication-provider>
 </authentication-manager>

• configure() method configures the HttpSecurity class which authorizes each HTTP request which has been made. In our example ‘/’ and ‘/hello’ will be allowed for everyone and ‘/admin’ will be allowed for the user having ADMIN role.

  httpSecurity.authorizeRequests()
            .antMatchers("/", "/hello").permitAll() 
            .antMatchers("/admin*").access("hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')")
            .and().formLogin();

It is equivalent of

<intercept-url pattern="/admin*" access="hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')" />

• formLogin() method will generate the default login form which will act as the login form here.

HelloController.java

package com.javainterviewpoint;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
public class HelloController
{
    @RequestMapping("/hello")
    public ModelAndView hello()
    {
        String welcomeMessage = "Hello controller Welcome Message";
        return new ModelAndView("hello","welcomeMessage",welcomeMessage);
    }
    @RequestMapping("/admin")
    public ModelAndView admin()
    {
        String welcomeMessage = "Welcome to Admin Page !!";
        return new ModelAndView("admin","welcomeMessage",welcomeMessage);
    }
}

• Our HelloController has two methods
  • hello() – when the user hits on the URL “/hello” this method gets called and the user will be redirected to the “hello.jsp”
  • admin() – when the user hits on the URL “/admin” this method gets called and the user will be redirected to the login page, only when the user keys in the valid credentials he will be allowed see the “admin.jsp”.

index.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
<%response.sendRedirect("hello");%>
<html>
<body>
 <h2>Hello World!</h2>
</body>
</html>

hello.jsp

 <%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
<html>
<head>
<title>Spring Security</title>
</head>
<body>
 <h2>Spring Security Tutorial Hello World Example !!!</h2>
 <h4>${welcomeMessage}</h4>
 <h4>
 <a href="admin">Admin Page</a> || <a href="<c:url value="j_spring_security_logout" />">Logout</a>
 </h4>
</body>
</html>

admin.jsp

 <%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
 pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
  <title>Spring Security Tutorial - Admin Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h3>${welcomeMessage}</h3>
</body>
</html>

Output

Hit on the URL: http://localhost:8080/SpringSecurityTutorial/hello

Hit on the URL: http://localhost:8080/SpringSecurityTutorial/admin

You will be asked to login, if an invalid password is entered you will get the below error.

Only when you enter the valid credentials you will be allowed to see the admin page.