This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback. Whitelabel error page

This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback. error can be resolved in three ways, Identify the loading issue of the controller or method, disable the error page from the browser, and customize the error page to display the appropriate error message. There was an unexpected error Whitelabel Error page. It returns a 404 page not found error.

In this post, we will see about this error “Whitelabel Error page, This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.”. You see this error, because something went wrong in the application. For some reason, Spring boot can not server the web page

If the url invokes a rest call or a jsp call to the spring boot application, the spring boot will not be able to serve the request. Instead, the “Whitelable Error Page” page will be displayed in the browser.

The Error Page

Whitelabel Error Page
This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

Fri Apr 10 22:45:19 IST 2020
There was an unexpected error (type=Not Found, status=404).
No message available

How to reproduce this Whitelabel Error Page

Create a web-based spring boot application in the spring tool suite. In the pom.xml file, add spring-boot-starter-web dependency. The maven dependence will be as shown in the code below.

pom.xml

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

The spring boot main class will be created in the “com.yawintutor.application” package. The main class will be shown in the code below.

Application.java

package com.yawintutor.application;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
	}
}

A rest controller class is created to serve a rest call. The controller class “TestController.java” is created in the controller package “com.yawintutor.controller.”

TestController.java

package com.yawintutor.controller;

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

@RestController
public class TestController {

	@RequestMapping("/welcome")
	public String welcomepage() {
		return "Welcome to Yawin Tutor";
	}

}

To reproduce this error page, run the Spring Boot Application. The spring boot application starts the tomcat server and listens to port 8080. Open a web browser, type the “http:/localhost:8080/welcome” url. The “Whitelabel error page” will be shown in the browser.

Whitelabel Error Page
This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

Root Cause

If the url invokes a rest call or a jsp call to the spring boot application, the spring boot will not be able to serve the request. There are two reasons for failing to serve the request. Either the controller class is not loaded in the spring boot context or the rest call is not available.

There are three ways to solve this problem. Identify the loading issue of the controller or method, disable the error page from the browser, and customize the error page to display the appropriate error message.

Solution 1 – Root Package

The main class “Application.java” and the controller class “TestController.java” are in packages of parallel level (com.yawintutor.application, com.yawintutor.controller). Make sure your main class is in the root package. The other classes should be in the root sub package. The spring boot application scans the package from the root package where the main class exist with annotation @SpringBootApplication and sub packages.

com
   +-- yawintutor
         +-- application
             |  +-- Application.java (Main class)
             |
             +-- controller
                 +-- TestController.java

Solution 2 – @ComponentScan

In the spring boot application, if the main class package is not a root package, the other package beans will not be loaded in the spring boot context. The @ComponentScan annotation in the main class informs the bean packages to be loaded at startup.

package com.yawintutor.application;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan({"com.yawintutor.controller"})
public class Application {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
	}

}

Solution 3 – Typo Error

If the main class package is a root package, still if you see the error, check the rest controller’s method signature. The rest call url and the configured request mapping url should match. Check the rest call url for any typo error. If anything exists, correct the error. Check the RequestMapping configuration in the rest controller and correct the request mapping url.

Make sure the rest call url and the request mapping url in the rest controller should match. In the example below, “/welcome” should match in both rest url and request mapping url.

http://localhost:8080/welcome

	@RequestMapping("/welcome")
	public String welcomepage() {
		return "Welcome to Yawin Tutor";
	}

Solution 4 – Disable the Error Page

The default Whitelabel Error page can be disabled with the configuration of “server.error.whitelabel.enabled” in the application.properties. This is not a valid solution as it appears as a blank page that does not transmit any information to the end user. 

Add the following line to the application.properties, restart the spring boot application. The default Whitelable error page will disappear and the blank page will be displayed.

application.properties

server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false

This can be configured using application.yml file as like below

application.yml

server:
	error:
		whitelabel:
			enabled:false

The error page can be disabled using the annotation @EnableAutoConfiguration with ErrorMvcAutoConfiguration in the main class. The code below shows how to disable using the annotation.

Application.java

package com.yawintutor.application;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.servlet.error.ErrorMvcAutoConfiguration;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude = {ErrorMvcAutoConfiguration.class})
public class Application {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
	}

}

Solution 5 – Customize using Thymeleaf Error Page

The another way of removing Whitelabel error page is replace with customized error page. The error page can be customized by adding a error.html file in resources/templates directory. This error page is rendered using Thymeleaf template engine if any error is occurred.

pom.xml

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
		</dependency>

resources/templates/error.html

<html>
<body>
<center>
<h1>Error occurred</h1>
<h2>Please contact website admin</h2>
<a href="/">Home</a>
</center>
</body>
</html>

Solution 6 – Customize using ErrorController

If the error occurs, redirect the user to a custom error page showing the generic error message to intimate something that went wrong with the application, To take action, please contact the respective privileged person to resolve this problem. Create a customized error page that will overwrite the default error page as like below

ErrorHandlerController.java

package com.yawintutor.application;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.error.ErrorController;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class ErrorHandlerController implements ErrorController{

	@Override
	@RequestMapping("/error")
	@ResponseBody
	public String getErrorPath() {
		return "<center><h1>Something went wrong</h1></center>";
	}
}

Summary

In this post, we saw an error on the “Whitelabel error page” error. In most cases, this error page is due to controller bean loading issue or method signature issue. If the error is in a valid scenario, the customization of the error message is preferred to show the appropriate error message to the end user.