7.9. Using handler interceptors

In some scenarios, you may need to pre- or post-process a portlet request, or both, for various reasons, such as logging, security, or tracing. Spring Portlet MVC provides handler interceptors to allow you to pre- and post-process portlet requests.

Handler interceptors are special beans in the Portlet MVC framework that implement the HandlerInterceptor interface. They’re similar to servlet filters in servlet technology; they intercept portlet requests targeted to a handler and pre- or post-process the request. Handler interceptors help remove cross-cutting concerns from the handler code, such as logging, security checks, and so on.