Spring get files and images from external folder on disk, outside webapps?

Question

I have webproject which has images inside src/main/webapp folder. I would like to place images in different folder on the disk. But I have no idea how to manage requests to reach this images. Should I create some kind of httpServlet like shown here: http://balusc.omnifaces.org/2007/07/fileservlet.html

Or as I use Spring MVC with java configuration, there is more suitable and simpler way.

Looking forward for your suggestions.

Solution 1

Use the spring mvc support for static resources, its location attribute is an Spring Resource, so you could use file: prefix

<resources mapping="/resources/**" location="file:/my/external/directory/" />

or

@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
public class WebConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {

    @Override
    public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addResourceHandler("/resources/**")
                .addResourceLocations("file:/my/external/directory/");
    }
}

@See Spring Reference Chapter 6.4 The ResourceLoader for a table that list all prefixed for resources

Solution 2

In my case I placed js and css resources in webapp and images in e://images/. For this case I use two mvc:resources mapping

<mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/"/>
<mvc:resources mapping="/images/**" location="file:e://images/"/>

And locate the image of e: > images > abc.jpg using ....

<img src="../images/abc.jpg"/>

You could try also <img src="/images/abc.jpg"/> or <img src="images/abc.jpg"> (If not work)

The css/js linked under webapp > resources > js > xyz.js like below.

<script type='text/javascript' src='../resources/js/xyz.js'></script>

Comments

[techhunter]

Hi, I have tried the above. Does not work with any of the syntax combinations. Getting 404 error. This is what I am adding in my dispatcher-servlet.xml file <mvc:resources mapping="/imagesa/**" location="file:/D://itm_img/" />

[Mr. Mak]

@techhunter try with the exact slash from my reference of location. I see you use an extra slash before your drive name (/D). Please remove extra slash and lower case of drive name.

[techhunter]

Many thanks for your response. The avbove one worked me after changing the extension of image from ".jpg" to ".JPG". upvoted the answer.

[Mr. Mak]

@techhunter Thanks for vote. By the way you can add many more resources mapping and location in your xml.

[ThivankaW]

Hi how to access this image from browser.