Spring Interceptors are used to intercept client requests before they are handled by the controller. They can also be used to intercept the response before the response is sent back to the client.
Interceptors are part of the Spring Web MVC framework and provide a way to add pre/post-processing logic to your application's request-response lifecycle.
Some of the the common use cases for interceptors include tasks, such as:
- Logging: Interceptors can be used to log HTTP requests and responses. This can be useful for debugging or tracking the performance of an application.
- Security: Interceptors can be used to enforce security policies. For example, an interceptor could be used to check that a user is authenticated before allowing them to access a resource.
- Caching: Interceptors can be used to cache HTTP requests and responses. This can improve the performance of an application by reducing the number of times that requests need to be made to the underlying resources.
- Transformation: Interceptors can be used to transform HTTP requests and responses. For example, an interceptor could be used to convert JSON requests to XML responses.