Spring @RestController not returning plain text response

Question

I'm experimenting with the new Spring 4.0 @RestController to return a simple text response from a controller:

@RestController
@RequestMapping(value = "/heartbeat")
public class HeartbeatController {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(HeartbeatController.class);

    @RequestMapping
    public String heartbeat() {
        logger.info("Received heartbeat!");
        return "I'm Alive!";
    }

    @RequestMapping(value = "/test", produces = MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN_VALUE)
    public String heartbeat2() {
        logger.info("Received heartbeat!");
        return "I'm Alive!";
    }
}

When I access /heartbeat then I get back:

"I'm Alive!"

The result includes the double quotes, what I did not expect.

When I access /heartbeat/test then I get a empty response back, but I expect the I'm Alive! text.

UPDATE

curl -i http://myserver.com/rest/heartbeat

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8 Server: Development/1.0 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 18:59:08 GMT Cache-Control: no-cache Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT Content-Length: 12

"I'm Alive!"

curl -i -H "Accept: application/json" http://myserver.com/rest/heartbeat HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8 Server: Development/1.0 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 19:01:12 GMT Cache-Control: no-cache Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT Content-Length: 12

"I'm Alive!"

curl -i http://myserver.com/rest/heartbeat/test

HTTP/1.1 406 Not Acceptable Server: Development/1.0 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 19:00:13 GMT Cache-Control: no-cache Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT Content-Length: 0

curl -i -H "Accept: text/plain" http://myserver.com/rest/heartbeat/test

HTTP/1.1 406 Not Acceptable Server: Development/1.0 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 19:02:06 GMT Cache-Control: no-cache Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT Content-Length: 0

Spring @RestController not returning plain text response

5 Answers