The point is, how exactly to identify a Spring MVC implementing RESTful web services? Assuming use of Spring 3.x, use of which all annotations in the project will indicate that the project implements RESTful web services?
2 Answers
If the controller is annotated with @RestController or the @RequestMapping methods has @ResponseBody on return type then those are REST Service.
Comments
Assuming you are using Spring 3.x
All the Spring MVC components has to use the common @Controller annotation to mark that as the controller servlet.
In short controller servlet should be annotated with @Controller
When you implement a RESTful web services in Spring 3.x, the response would be always sent with the response body.
In short Controllers which implement a REST API should be annotated with @Controller+@ResponseBody
Additional information
Spring 4.0 has provided a specialized version of controller- @RestController.
@RestController is a stereotype annotation that combines @ResponseBody and @Controller. @RestController annotation itself annotated with @Controller and @ResponseBody.
@Target(value=TYPE)
@Retention(value=RUNTIME)
@Documented
@Controller
@ResponseBody
public @interface RestController
