Many of the new JVM-based web frameworks are ditching containers and WAR files and instead using a [WAR-less / Containerless approach][1]. But that doesn't mean you have to ditch your favorite Java web framework. A while back I posted about [going containerless with Tapestry][2]. Now lets do the same with Spring MVC. You can [grab the full source code from GitHub][3]. First we need a build that defines the dependencies. Here is the [build.gradle][4] file for my Gradle build: ```groovy apply plugin:'java' apply plugin:'application' version = '0.0.1-SNAPSHOT' mainClassName = "com.jamesward.Webapp" applicationName = "webapp" repositories { mavenCentral() } dependencies { compile 'org.springframework:spring-webmvc:3.1.2.RELEASE' compile 'cglib:cglib:2.2.2' compile 'org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-webapp:8.1.5.v20120716' } ``` There isn't much to this build except a few dependencies: Spring MVC, CGLib, and Jetty. The [src/main/resources/assets/index.html][5] file just contains simple HTML: ```html4strict hello, world ``` The [src/main/java/com/jamesward/WebConfig.java][6] file uses Spring annotations to configure Spring MVC: ```java package com.jamesward; import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration; import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.*; @Configuration @EnableWebMvc public class WebConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter { @Override public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) { registry.addResourceHandler("/**").addResourceLocations("classpath:/assets/"); } @Override public void addViewControllers(ViewControllerRegistry registry) { registry.addViewController("/").setViewName("redirect:index.html"); } } ``` Finally, a simple "static void main" Java class is used to start Jetty. The [src/main/java/com/jamesward/Webapp.java][7] file just sets up the HTTP listener and starts it: ```java package com.jamesward; import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server; import org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletContextHandler; import org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder; import org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext; import org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet; public class Webapp { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { final AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext applicationContext = new AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext(); applicationContext.register(WebConfig.class); final ServletHolder servletHolder = new ServletHolder(new DispatcherServlet(applicationContext)); final ServletContextHandler context = new ServletContextHandler(); context.setContextPath("/"); context.addServlet(servletHolder, "/*"); String webPort = System.getenv("PORT"); if (webPort == null || webPort.isEmpty()) { webPort = "8080"; } final Server server = new Server(Integer.valueOf(webPort)); server.setHandler(context); server.start(); server.join(); } } ``` That's it! To build and run this project locally you can simple run: ```bash ./gradlew run ``` (Note: Run "gradlew.bat" on Windows.) So simple it's hard to believe it works. :) Let me know if you have any questions. [1]: http://www.jamesward.com/2011/08/23/war-less-java-web-apps [2]: http://www.jamesward.com/2012/02/08/deploy-containerless-tapestry-apps-on-heroku [3]: https://github.com/jamesward/containerless-springmvc [4]: https://github.com/jamesward/containerless-springmvc/blob/master/build.gradle [5]: https://github.com/jamesward/containerless-springmvc/blob/master/src/main/resources/assets/index.html [6]: https://github.com/jamesward/containerless-springmvc/blob/master/src/main/java/com/jamesward/WebConfig.java [7]: https://github.com/jamesward/containerless-springmvc/blob/master/src/main/java/com/jamesward/Webapp.java