Spring MVC - Generate RSS Feed Example

The following example shows how to generate RSS Feed using the Spring Web MVC Framework. To start with, let us have a working Eclipse IDE in place and then consider the following steps to develop a Dynamic Form based Web Application using the Spring Web Framework.

RSSMessage.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.util.Date;

public class RSSMessage {
   String title;
   String url;
   String summary;
   Date createdDate;
   public String getTitle() {
      return title;
   }
   public void setTitle(String title) {
      this.title = title;
   }
   public String getUrl() {
      return url;
   }
   public void setUrl(String url) {
      this.url = url;
   }
   public String getSummary() {
      return summary;
   }
   public void setSummary(String summary) {
      this.summary = summary;
   }
   public Date getCreatedDate() {
      return createdDate;
   }
   public void setCreatedDate(Date createdDate) {
      this.createdDate = createdDate;
   }	
}

RSSFeedViewer.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.feed.AbstractRssFeedView;

import com.rometools.rome.feed.rss.Channel;
import com.rometools.rome.feed.rss.Content;
import com.rometools.rome.feed.rss.Item;

public class RSSFeedViewer extends AbstractRssFeedView {

   @Override
   protected void buildFeedMetadata(Map<String, Object> model, Channel feed,
      HttpServletRequest request) {

      feed.setTitle("Howcodex Dot Com");
      feed.setDescription("Java Tutorials and Examples");
      feed.setLink("http://www.howcodex.com");

      super.buildFeedMetadata(model, feed, request);
   }

   @Override
   protected List<Item> buildFeedItems(Map<String, Object> model,
      HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
   
      List<RSSMessage> listContent = (List<RSSMessage>) model.get("feedContent");
      List<Item> items = new ArrayList<Item>(listContent.size());

      for(RSSMessage tempContent : listContent ){

         Item item = new Item();

         Content content = new Content();
         content.setValue(tempContent.getSummary());
         item.setContent(content);

         item.setTitle(tempContent.getTitle());
         item.setLink(tempContent.getUrl());
         item.setPubDate(tempContent.getCreatedDate());

         items.add(item);
      }

      return items;		
   }
}

RSSController.java

package com.howcodex;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

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

@Controller
public class RSSController {
   @RequestMapping(value="/rssfeed", method = RequestMethod.GET)
   public ModelAndView getFeedInRss() {

      List<RSSMessage> items = new ArrayList<RSSMessage>();

      RSSMessage content  = new RSSMessage();
      content.setTitle("Spring Tutorial");
      content.setUrl("http://www.howcodex/spring");
      content.setSummary("Spring tutorial summary...");
      content.setCreatedDate(new Date());
      items.add(content);

      RSSMessage content2  = new RSSMessage();
      content2.setTitle("Spring MVC");
      content2.setUrl("http://www.howcodex/springmvc");
      content2.setSummary("Spring MVC tutorial summary...");
      content2.setCreatedDate(new Date());
      items.add(content2);

      ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView();
      mav.setViewName("rssViewer");
      mav.addObject("feedContent", items);

      return mav;
   }
}

TestWeb-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:context = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"   
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">
   <context:component-scan base-package = "com.howcodex" />

   <bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.view.BeanNameViewResolver" />

   <bean id = "rssViewer" class = "com.howcodex.RSSFeedViewer" />
</beans>

Here, we have created a RSS feed POJO RSSMessage and a RSS Message Viewer, which extends the AbstractRssFeedView and overrides its method. In RSSController, we have generated a sample RSS Feed.

Once you are done with creating source and configuration files, export your application. Right click on your application, use Export → WAR File option and save the TestWeb.war file in Tomcat's webapps folder.

Now, start your Tomcat server and make sure you are able to access other webpages from the webapps folder using a standard browser. Try a URL − http://localhost:8080/TestWeb/rssfeed and we will see the following screen.