Configuring CORS with Spring Boot

In this post, I will cover how to configure CORS in a Spring Boot project. If you want to understand how CORS works, you can check out the article Understanding CORS.

Configuring HTTP Request CORS

Controller CORS Configuration

Use @CrossOrigin annotation

Add a @CrossOrigin annotation to the controller class

// no credentials
@CrossOrigin
@RestController
@RequestMapping("/my")
public class MyController {
    @GetMapping
    public String testGet() {
        return "hello \n" + new Date();
    }
}

Add a @CrossOrigin annotation to the controller method

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/my")
public class MyController {
    // no credentials
    @CrossOrigin
    @GetMapping
    public String testGet() {
        return "hello \n" + new Date();
    }
}

// with credentials
@CrossOrigin(origins = {"http://localhost"}, allowCredentials = "true")
// or
@CrossOrigin(originPatterns = {"http://localhost:[*]"}, allowCredentials = "true")

Properties of CrossOrigin

• origins: by default, it’s *. You can specify allowed origins like @CrossOrigin(origins = {"http://localhost"}). You also can specify allowed origins by patterns like @CrossOrigin(originPatterns = {"http://*.taogen.com:[*]"}).

Add a @CrossOrigin annotation to the controller method or the controller class. It is equivalent to

1. responding a successful result to the preflight request. For example

   HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   Connection: keep-alive
   Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://foo.bar.org
   Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, OPTIONS, DELETE, PUT
   Access-Control-Max-Age: 86400

2. adding the following headers to the HTTP response headers

   Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
   Vary: Access-Control-Request-Headers
   Vary: Access-Control-Request-Method
   Vary: Origin

Update HTTP response headers

Only for GET, POST and HEAD requests without custom headers. In other words, it does not work for preflight requests.

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/my")
public class MyController {

    @GetMapping
    public String testGet(HttpServletResponse response) {
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Max-Age", "86400");
        return "test get\n" + new Date();
    }

    @PostMapping
    public String testPost(HttpServletResponse response) {
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Max-Age", "86400");
        return "test post\n" + new Date();
    }
}

// with credentials
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "{your_host}"); // e.g. http://localhost or reqs.getHeader("Origin")
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Credentials", "true");
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Max-Age", "86400");

For ‘DELETE + Preflight’ or ‘PUT + Preflight’ requests, adding header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *’ to HttpServletResponse does not enable CORS. This will result in the following error

Access to XMLHttpRequest at 'http://localhost:8080/my' from origin 'http://localhost' has been blocked by CORS policy: Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource.

For requests with custom headers, adding header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *’ to HttpServletResponse does not enable CORS. This will result in the following error

Access to XMLHttpRequest at 'http://localhost:8080/my' from origin 'http://localhost' has been blocked by CORS policy: Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource.

Global CORS configuration

WebMvcConfigurer.addCorsMappings

The WebMvcConfigurer.addCorsMappings has the same function as the @CrossOrigin annotation.

@Configuration
public class CorsConfiguration {
    @Bean
    public WebMvcConfigurer corsConfigurer() {
        return new WebMvcConfigurer() {
            @Override
            public void addCorsMappings(CorsRegistry registry) {
                // no credentials
                registry.addMapping("/**")
                        .allowedOrigins("*")
                        .allowedMethods("GET", "POST", "HEAD", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH");
            }
        };
    }
}

// with credentials
registry.addMapping("/**")
    .allowedOrigins("{your_host}") // e.g. http://localhost
    .allowCredentials(true)
    .allowedMethods("GET", "POST", "HEAD", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH");

• pathPattern: /myRequestMapping, /**, /myRequestMapping/**, /*
• allowedOrigins: By default, all origins are allowed. Its default value is *. You can specify allowed origins like "http://localhost".
• allowedOriginPatterns: for example, http://localhost:[*], http://192.168.0.*:[*], https://demo.com
• allowedMethods: By default, GET, HEAD, and POST methods are allowed. You can enable all methods by setting its value to "GET", "POST", "HEAD", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH".

Filters

@Component
public class CorsFilter implements Filter {

    @Override
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
        HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) res;
        HttpServletRequest reqs = (HttpServletRequest) req;
        // no credentials
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Methods", "POST, GET, PATCH, DELETE, PUT, PATCH");
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
        response.setHeader("Access-Control-Max-Age", "86400");
        chain.doFilter(req, res);
    }
}

// with credentials
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "{your_host}"); // e.g. http://localhost or reqs.getHeader("Origin")
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Credentials", "true");
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Methods", "POST, GET, DELETE, PUT, PATCH");
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
response.setHeader("Access-Control-Max-Age", "86400");