Using @RequestMapping annotation with attribute consumes in Spring MVC

To specify the format that a request can process for a user request, such as the JSON data format, we can use the @RequestMapping annotation with the consumes property in Spring MVC. How is it in detail? Let’s find out in this tutorial!

First, I will create a Maven project as an example:

If you do not know how to create the project, just follow the instructions of this tutorial.

I will change the default version of the dependencies as follows:

<properties>
  <maven.compiler.source>21</maven.compiler.source>
  <maven.compiler.target>21</maven.compiler.target>

  <org.springframework-version>6.1.10</org.springframework-version>
  <org.slf4j-version>2.0.13</org.slf4j-version>
  <org.junit-version>5.10.2</org.junit-version>
  <jakarta.servlet-api-version>6.1.0</jakarta.servlet-api-version>
</properties>

<maven.compiler.source>21</maven.compiler.source>

<maven.compiler.target>21</maven.compiler.target>

<org.springframework-version>6.1.10</org.springframework-version>

<org.slf4j-version>2.0.13</org.slf4j-version>

<org.junit-version>5.10.2</org.junit-version>

<jakarta.servlet-api-version>6.1.0</jakarta.servlet-api-version>

</properties>

To run this project, I will use the Maven Jetty Plugin:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
    <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>11.0.21</version>
</plugin>

<groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>

<artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>

</plugin>

Now we will define a new Controller located in the com.huongdanjava.springmvcrequestmapping package, named HelloController. This controller only accepts requests that the data format is JSON. The contents of HelloController are as follows:

package com.huongdanjava.springmvcrequestmapping;

import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class HelloController {

	@RequestMapping(value = "/hello", consumes = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
	public String hello() {
		return "Hello World!";
	}
}

package com.huongdanjava.springmvcrequestmapping;

import org.springframework.http.MediaType;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController

public class HelloController {

@RequestMapping(value = "/hello", consumes = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)

public String hello() {

return "Hello World!";

}

At this point, if you use Postman to request this URL with the GET method and do not transmit anything else, you will get the following result:

To fix this, you must modify the header of the request by adding the Content-Type=application/json attribute. At that point, our request will be free of errors.