Issue with spring boot's thymeleaf auto configuration trying to resolve error template for rest application

Question

My Spring Boot REST application only uses Thymeleaf for mail templates.

Unfortunately my boot configuration tries to resolve an error template when an error is encountered.

See exception below:

21:25:30.030 [http-nio-8080-exec-8] ERROR o.a.c.c.C.[.[.[.[dispatcherServlet] - Servlet.service() for servlet dispatcherServlet threw exception
org.thymeleaf.exceptions.TemplateInputException: Error resolving template "error", template might not exist or might not be accessible by any of the configured Template Resolvers
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateRepository.getTemplate(TemplateRepository.java:246)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1104)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1060)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1011)
        at org.thymeleaf.spring4.view.ThymeleafView.renderFragment(ThymeleafView.java:335)
        at org.thymeleaf.spring4.view.ThymeleafView.render(ThymeleafView.java:190)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1257)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1037)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:980)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:897)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:970)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:861)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:846)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:230)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:165)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:726)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:471)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:394)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:311)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.custom(StandardHostValve.java:395)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.status(StandardHostValve.java:254)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:177)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:87)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:349)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:784)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:66)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:802)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1410)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
21:25:30.030 [http-nio-8080-exec-8] ERROR o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost] - Exception Processing ErrorPage[errorCode=0, location=/error]
org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException: Request processing failed; nested exception is org.thymeleaf.exceptions.TemplateInputException: Error resolving template "error", template might not exist or might not be accessible by any of the configured Template Resolvers
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:982)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:861)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:846)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:230)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:165)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:726)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:471)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:394)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:311)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.custom(StandardHostValve.java:395)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.status(StandardHostValve.java:254)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:177)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:87)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:349)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:784)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:66)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:802)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1410)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.thymeleaf.exceptions.TemplateInputException: Error resolving template "error", template might not exist or might not be accessible by any of the configured Template Resolvers
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateRepository.getTemplate(TemplateRepository.java:246)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1104)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1060)
        at org.thymeleaf.TemplateEngine.process(TemplateEngine.java:1011)
        at org.thymeleaf.spring4.view.ThymeleafView.renderFragment(ThymeleafView.java:335)
        at org.thymeleaf.spring4.view.ThymeleafView.render(ThymeleafView.java:190)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1257)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1037)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:980)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:897)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:970)
        ... 25 common frames omitted

This seems to indicate that Spring Boot has configured a Thymeleaf view resolver for pages (whereas I only uses Thymeleaf for mail templates).

How can I make sure Spring Boot only uses Thymeleaf for mail templates and thus avoid the above exception?

edit: I have the following line to my application.properties

server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false

but it does not seem to make any difference.

Answer 1

Using this property in application.properties:

spring.thymeleaf.enabled=false

seems to disable thymeleaf for spring mvc - whilst still keeping thymeleaf for mail templates.

see spring boot source code here.

edit:

Furthermore, it seems necessary to disable the default error controller registered by Spring Boot: see here.

One can for instance implement a custom error controller as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25362790/536299