Spring Boot Circular View Path Error Explained

When running a Spring Boot MVC application, you may encounter the following error:

Circular view path [index]: would dispatch back to the current handler URL [/index] again. Check your ViewResolver setup!

This error causes the application to fail to render the view. What causes this and how can it be fixed?

Solution

The Circular view path error in Spring Boot usually occurs when a controller method returns a view name that matches the request mapping, causing an infinite loop. For example:

@GetMapping("/index")
public String index() {
    return "index";
}

If you have a view template named index.html in your templates directory, make sure your controller does not map to the same path as the view name. Instead, use:

@GetMapping("/")
public String index() {
    return "index";
}

Or rename the view or mapping to avoid the conflict. Always check your ViewResolver configuration as well.

Alternative #1

I've encountered this error multiple times in production applications, and sometimes the issue isn't as obvious as the path mapping. One common cause I've found is conflicting controller methods in the same class.

Check if you have multiple methods that could handle the same request:

@Controller
public class HomeController {
    
    @GetMapping("/index")
    public String index() {
        return "index";  // This causes the circular path
    }
    
    @GetMapping("/index")
    public String showIndex() {  // Duplicate mapping!
        return "index";
    }
}

Also, check for inherited mappings from parent classes or interfaces. I once spent hours debugging this only to find that a base controller had a conflicting @RequestMapping("/index").

You can debug this by adding logging:

@GetMapping("/index")
public String index() {
    log.info("Handling request for /index");
    return "index";
}

Then check your logs to see which method is actually being called.

Alternative #2

Another scenario I've seen is when you're using custom ViewResolvers or template engines that have their own path resolution logic.

If you're using Thymeleaf, check your application.properties:

# Make sure these don't conflict
spring.thymeleaf.prefix=classpath:/templates/
spring.thymeleaf.suffix=.html

Or if you're using FreeMarker:

spring.freemarker.template-loader-path=classpath:/templates/
spring.freemarker.suffix=.ftl

Sometimes the issue is that your template path doesn't match what Spring expects. For example:

@GetMapping("/dashboard")
public String dashboard() {
    return "dashboard";  // Looks for dashboard.html
}

But your template is actually at templates/dashboard/index.html. In this case, you should return "dashboard/index".

You can also explicitly specify the view name:

@GetMapping("/dashboard")
public String dashboard(Model model) {
    model.addAttribute("data", "some data");
    return "dashboard/index";  // Explicit path
}
</Answer>

<Answer>
##### Alternative #3
If you're building a **REST API** and don't actually need view resolution, you can completely avoid this issue by using `@RestController` instead of `@Controller`:

```java
@RestController  // This disables view resolution
public class ApiController {
    
    @GetMapping("/index")
    public ResponseEntity<String> index() {
        return ResponseEntity.ok("Hello World");
    }
    
    @GetMapping("/data")
    public ResponseEntity<Map<String, Object>> getData() {
        Map<String, Object> data = new HashMap<>();
        data.put("message", "Success");
        return ResponseEntity.ok(data);
    }
}

Or if you need both API and view endpoints, use @ResponseBody for specific methods:

@Controller
public class HybridController {
    
    @GetMapping("/")
    public String index() {
        return "index";  // Returns view
    }
    
    @GetMapping("/api/data")
    @ResponseBody
    public Map<String, Object> getData() {
        return Map.of("message", "Success");  // Returns JSON
    }
}

This approach completely sidesteps the circular view path issue for API endpoints while still allowing view resolution where needed.