Spring @RequestMapping not working as expected if there are extensions in URL

The reason is by default the component which finds the mapping for the request URL - RequestMappingHandlerMapping, matches on suffix also (/entity/list and /entity/list.* are considered equivalent. The fix may be to turn suffix matching off:

<bean name="handlerMapping" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping">
    <property name="useSuffixPatternMatch" value="false"></property>
</bean>

However, this also means that you will have to manually register the handlerAdapter also - if you use <mvc:annotation-driven/> you can replace it with something along these lines:

<bean name="handlerAdapter" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter">
    <property name="webBindingInitializer">
        <bean class="org.springframework.web.bind.support.ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer">
            <property name="conversionService" ref="conversionService"></property>

            </property>
        </bean>
    </property>
    <property name="messageConverters">
        <list>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.ByteArrayHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.ResourceHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.SourceHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.XmlAwareFormHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.Jaxb2RootElementHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
            <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

Since Spring 3.2 you can also set the useRegisteredSuffixPatternMatch property of RequestMappingHandlerMapping bean in order to keep suffixPattern recognition activated but limited to registered extension.

Here you define only json and xml extensions:

<bean id="handlerMapping"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping">
    <property name="contentNegotiationManager" ref="contentNegotiationManager"/>
    <property name="useRegisteredSuffixPatternMatch" value="true"/>
</bean>

<bean id="contentNegotiationManager" class="org.springframework.web.accept.ContentNegotiationManagerFactoryBean">
    <property name="favorPathExtension" value="false"/>
    <property name="favorParameter" value="true"/>
    <property name="mediaTypes">
        <value>
            json=application/json
            xml=application/xml
        </value>
    </property>
</bean>

Note that mvc:annotation-driven accepts now a contentNegotiation option to provide a custom bean but the property of RequestMappingHandlerMapping has to be changed to true (default false) (cf. https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR-7632).

For that reason, you still have to override the all mvc:annotation-driven configuration. I opened a ticket to Spring to ask for a custom RequestMappingHandlerMapping: https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR-11253. Please vote if you are interested in.

While overriding, be careful to consider also custom Execution management overriding. Otherwise, all your custom Exception mappings will fail. You will have to reuse messageCoverters with a list bean:

<util:list id="messageConverters">
    <bean class="your.custom.message.converter.IfAny"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.ByteArrayHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.ResourceHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.SourceHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.XmlAwareFormHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.Jaxb2RootElementHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter"></bean>
</util:list>

<bean name="exceptionHandlerExceptionResolver"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver">
    <property name="order" value="0"/>
    <property name="messageConverters" ref="messageConverters"/>
</bean>

<bean name="handlerAdapter"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter">
    <property name="webBindingInitializer">
        <bean class="org.springframework.web.bind.support.ConfigurableWebBindingInitializer">
            <property name="validator">
                <bean class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean"/>
            </property>
        </bean>
    </property>
    <property name="messageConverters" ref="messageConverters"/>
</bean>

<bean id="handlerMapping"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping">
    <property name="contentNegotiationManager" ref="contentNegotiationManager"/>
    <property name="useRegisteredSuffixPatternMatch" value="true"/>
</bean>

<bean id="contentNegotiationManager" class="org.springframework.web.accept.ContentNegotiationManagerFactoryBean">
    <property name="favorPathExtension" value="false"/>
    <property name="favorParameter" value="true"/>
    <property name="mediaTypes">
        <value>
            json=application/json
            xml=application/xml
        </value>
    </property>
</bean>

I implemented, in the open source project Resthub that I am part of, a set of tests on these subjects: see https://github.com/resthub/resthub-spring-stack/pull/219/files and https://github.com/resthub/resthub-spring-stack/issues/217