Update documentation for URI parsing types

See gh-33639

framework-docs/modules/ROOT/partials/web/web-uris.adoc

@@ -234,6 +234,34 @@ Kotlin::
 ======
 
 
+[[uri-parsing]]
+= URI Parsing
+[.small]#Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux#
+
+`UriComponentsBuilder` supports two URI parser types:
+
+1. RFC parser -- this parser type expects URI strings to conform to RFC 3986 syntax,
+and treats deviations from the syntax as illegal.
+
+2. WhatWG parser -- this parser is based on the
+https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/tree/master/url[URL parsing algorithm] in the
+https://url.spec.whatwg.org[WhatWG URL Living standard]. It provides lenient handling of
+a wide range of cases of unexpected input. Browsers implement this in order to handle
+leniently user typed URL's. For more details, see the URL Living Standard and URL parsing
+https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/tree/master/url[test cases].
+
+By default, `RestClient`, `WebClient`, and `RestTemplate` use the RFC parser type, and
+expect applications to provide with URL templates that conform to RFC syntax. To change
+that you can customize the `UriBuilderFactory` on any of the clients.
+
+Applications and frameworks may further rely on `UriComponentsBuilder` for their own needs
+to parse user provided URL's in order to inspect and possibly validated URI components
+such as the scheme, host, port, path, and query. Such components can decide to use the
+WhatWG parser type in order to handle URL's more leniently, and to align with the way
+browsers parse URI's, in case of a redirect to the input URL or if it is included in a
+response to a browser.
+
+
 [[uri-encoding]]
 = URI Encoding
 [.small]#Spring MVC and Spring WebFlux#

spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/DefaultUriBuilderFactory.java

@@ -97,10 +97,12 @@ public class DefaultUriBuilderFactory implements UriBuilderFactory {
 
 	/**
 	 * Set the {@link UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType} to use.
-	 * <p>By default, if the parser type is not specified,
-	 * {@link UriComponentsBuilder} uses {@link UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType#RFC}.
+	 * <p>By default, {@link UriComponentsBuilder} uses the
+	 * {@link UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType#RFC parser type}.
 	 * @param parserType the parser type
 	 * @since 6.2
+	 * @see UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType
+	 * @see UriComponentsBuilder#fromUriString(String, UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType)
 	 */
 	public void setParserType(UriComponentsBuilder.ParserType parserType) {
 		this.parserType = parserType;

spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/UriComponentsBuilder.java

@@ -42,19 +42,23 @@ import org.springframework.web.util.HierarchicalUriComponents.PathComponent;
 import org.springframework.web.util.UriComponents.UriTemplateVariables;
 
 /**
- * Builder for {@link UriComponents}.
- *
- * <p>Typical usage involves:
+ * Builder for {@link UriComponents}. Use as follows:
  * <ol>
- * <li>Create a {@code UriComponentsBuilder} with one of the static factory methods
- * (such as {@link #fromPath(String)} or {@link #fromUri(URI)})</li>
- * <li>Set the various URI components through the respective methods ({@link #scheme(String)},
- * {@link #userInfo(String)}, {@link #host(String)}, {@link #port(int)}, {@link #path(String)},
- * {@link #pathSegment(String...)}, {@link #queryParam(String, Object...)}, and
- * {@link #fragment(String)}.</li>
- * <li>Build the {@link UriComponents} instance with the {@link #build()} method.</li>
+ * <li>Create a builder through a factory method, e.g. {@link #fromUriString(String)}.
+ * <li>Set URI components (e.g. scheme, host, path, etc) through instance methods.
+ * <li>Build the {@link UriComponents}.</li>
+ * <li>Expand URI variables from a map or array or variable values.
+ * <li>Encode via {@link UriComponents#encode()}.</li>
+ * <li>Use {@link UriComponents#toUri()} or {@link UriComponents#toUriString()}.
  * </ol>
  *
+ * <p>By default, URI parsing is based on the {@link ParserType#RFC RFC parser type},
+ * which expects input strings to conform to RFC 3986 syntax. The alternative
+ * {@link ParserType#WHAT_WG WhatWG parser type}, based on the algorithm from
+ * the WhatWG <a href="https://url.spec.whatwg.org">URL Living Standard</a>
+ * provides more lenient handling of a wide range of cases that occur in user
+ * types URL's.
+ *
  * @author Arjen Poutsma
  * @author Rossen Stoyanchev
  * @author Phillip Webb
@@ -785,43 +789,39 @@ public class UriComponentsBuilder implements UriBuilder, Cloneable {
 	}
 
 
-	private interface PathComponentBuilder {
-
-		@Nullable
-		PathComponent build();
-
-		PathComponentBuilder cloneBuilder();
-	}
-
-
 	/**
-	 * Enum to represent different URI parsing mechanisms.
+	 * Enum to provide a choice of URI parsers to use in {@link #fromUriString(String, ParserType)}.
+	 * @since 6.2
 	 */
 	public enum ParserType {
 
 		/**
-		 * Parser that expects URI's conforming to RFC 3986 syntax.
+		 * This parser type expects URI's to conform to RFC 3986 syntax.
 		 */
 		RFC,
 
 		/**
-		 * Parser based on algorithm defined in the WhatWG URL Living standard.
-		 * Browsers use this algorithm to align on lenient parsing of user typed
-		 * URL's that may deviate from RFC syntax.
-		 * <p>For more details, see:
-		 * <ul>
-		 * <li><a href="https://url.spec.whatwg.org">URL Living Standard</a>
-		 * <li><a href="https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#url-parsing">Section 4.4: URL parsing</a>
-		 * <li><a href="https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/tree/master/url">web-platform-tests</a>
-		 * </ul>
-		 * <p>Use this if you need to leniently handle URL's that don't conform
-		 * to RFC syntax, or for alignment with browser parsing.
+		 * This parser follows the
+		 * <a href="https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#url-parsing">URL parsing algorithm</a>
+		 * in the WhatWG URL Living standard that browsers implement to align on
+		 * lenient handling of user typed URL's that may not conform to RFC syntax.
+		 * @see <a href="https://url.spec.whatwg.org">URL Living Standard</a>
+		 * @see <a href="https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/tree/master/url">URL tests</a>
 		 */
 		WHAT_WG
 
 	}
 
 
+	private interface PathComponentBuilder {
+
+		@Nullable
+		PathComponent build();
+
+		PathComponentBuilder cloneBuilder();
+	}
+
+
 	private static class CompositePathComponentBuilder implements PathComponentBuilder {
 
 		private final Deque<PathComponentBuilder> builders = new ArrayDeque<>();