Cannot Resolve Views inside WEB-INF/ folders using the jsp filename as RequestMapping value

Question

Ok this is always a problem for spring beginners, there could be tons of similar problems out there, but every time I type this issue, I always end up reading indirect solutions which I cannot understand, just like what the title said, I cannot resolve views(jsp) inside my WEB-INF/views folder, if i map the page using the file name.

Update: I've been searching extensively with a noHandlerFound/NoMapping Found for a URI problem, I just learned that the controller class name will be resolved by ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping removing the controller and lowercasing the non-controller name and it will be used as the url,

but I CANT still get to load my very simple page in start-up, and no matter where I search there are always tutorials that gives the same example, it does not work. please I need help here.. :(

ProductsHomeController.java (Controller class)

@Controller
public class ProductsHomeController{

@RequestMapping(value = "/productsHome", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView welcome() {
    return new ModelAndView("productsHome");
}

xml configuration (XML configuration for MVC annotation and InternalResourceViewResolver)

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

<bean
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
    <property name="viewClass"
        value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView" />
    <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
    <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</bean>

web.xml

    <context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>
            /WEB-INF/applicationContext-service.xml
            /WEB-INF/applicationContext-repository.xml
    </param-value>
</context-param>

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


<servlet>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Everytime I run this very simple web application on start, The servlet resolves the view and display the content of the page by this URL

  http://localhost:8080/ProductsHome/

but when I refresh the page, it results into a 404 error

and I need to manually type the file name of the jsp to resolve the view

  http://localhost:8080/ProductsHome/productsHome

This is the kind of code I always see in the tutorials I'm reading especially spring-recipe book, but I cannot make it work the way it was said in the book, I expect that on the first start-up the dispatcher-servlet will resolve the views and displaying the page with this URL below

how can I make this work? any help would be greatly appreciated.

  http://localhost:8080/ProductsHome/productsHome/home

here is the server log I get so far, I'm currently searching what I need to add to eclipse to show any error

     Sep 04, 2014 11:37:09 AM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: Loaded APR based Apache Tomcat Native library 1.1.30 using APR version 1.4.8.
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:09 AM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: APR capabilities: IPv6 [true], sendfile [true], accept filters [false], random [true].
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:09 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:OnlineStudentRegistration' did not find a matching property.
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:09 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:Spring.MVC' did not find a matching property.
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener initializeSSL
INFO: OpenSSL successfully initialized (OpenSSL 1.0.1g 7 Apr 2014)
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-apr-8080"]
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-apr-8009"]
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 1875 ms
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:10 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.0.9
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:11 AM org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGenerator createSecureRandom
INFO: Creation of SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [133] milliseconds.
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:14 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: No Spring WebApplicationInitializer types detected on classpath
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:14 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'dispatcher'
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:14 AM org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet initServletBean
INFO: FrameworkServlet 'dispatcher': initialization started
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:14 AM org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing WebApplicationContext for namespace 'dispatcher-servlet': startup date [Thu Sep 04 11:37:14 PDT 2014]; root of context hierarchy
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:15 AM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml]
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:16 AM org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping registerHandlerMethod
INFO: Mapped "{[/],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView com.osr.controllers.StudentLoginController.student()
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:16 AM org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping registerHandlerMethod
INFO: Mapped "{[/addStudent],methods=[POST],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView com.osr.controllers.StudentLoginController.studentLogin(com.osr.domain.Student,org.springframework.validation.BindingResult)
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:17 AM org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet initServletBean
INFO: FrameworkServlet 'dispatcher': initialization completed in 2180 ms
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:21 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: No Spring WebApplicationInitializer types detected on classpath
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:21 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
log4j:WARN See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#noconfig for more info.
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:22 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'dispatcher'
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:23 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-apr-8080"]
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:23 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-apr-8009"]
Sep 04, 2014 11:37:23 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 13063 ms

Answer 1

I thing the controller should be

@Controller
@RequestMapping(value = "/welcome")
public class WelcomeController {
@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView welcome() {
return new ModelAndView("productsHome");
}

put the welcome-file-list in web.xml

<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

in the file index.jsp , file index.jsp in the WEB-INF directory

<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<% response.sendRedirect("welcome"); %>

change the servlet-mapping

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

make sure that productsHome.jsp is in the /WEB-INF/views/ directory

Answer 2

The problem is with the servlet mapping.

<servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>