How do I remove the "#!" from Vaadin 8 URL's?

Question

We have a Vaadin 8 application that is running with SpringBoot (1.5.9-RELEASE).

I have two views that are "view1" and "view2".

The problem is that Vaadin only recognizes "example.com/#!view1" and "example.com/#!view2".

What I want is "example.com/view1" and "example.com/view2". Despite using SpringViews, etc. I can't seem to make it work. All I get are 404's if I remove the "#!" from the path.

Here are some of my configuration settings. Please let me know if you need more.

Thanks!

pom.xml

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.9.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>
....
<properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
    <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    <vaadin.version>8.3.1</vaadin.version>
</properties>
....
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
    <artifactId>vaadin-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
</dependency>

AppConfiguration.java

@SpringBootConfiguration
@ComponentScan("com.example")
@EntityScan("com.example")
@EnableVaadin
@EnableVaadinServlet
public class AppConfiguration {
}

AppUI.java

@SpringUI
@Theme("valo")
public class AppUI extends UI {
    ....
    @PostConstruct
    private void setup() {
        Navigator navigator = new Navigator(this, this);
        navigator.addView("", welcomeView);
        navigator.addView("view1", view1View);
        navigator.addView("view2", view2View);
    }

View1 and View2

@SpringComponent
@UIScope
@SpringView(name = View1View.NAME, ui = AppUI.class)
public class View1View extends VerticalLayout implements View, Serializable {
    public static final String NAME = "view1";
    ....

@SpringComponent
@UIScope
@SpringView(name = View2View.NAME, ui = AppUI.class)
public class View2View extends VerticalLayout implements View, Serializable {
    public static final String NAME = "view2";
    ....

Answer 1

Oh my word. Been looking all day and I stumbled on my own answer.

Adding @PushStateNavigation to your UI element fixes the issue.

Hope this answer helps someone else.