CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaweb-serviceshttprest
Knight of Ni
Knight of Ni

Reputation: 1830

Multiple @GET for different MIME - how to consume this with plain HttpURLConnection()

I just realized that it is possible to define something like this in my RESTful resource .java file:

@GET
@Produces("text/plain")
public String getPlainTextHello() { ... }

@GET
@Produces("application/json")
public String getJSONHello() { ... }

Isn't that fantastic? But wait the moment....

PROBLEM

I am consuming my API with simple client. Something like this code with help of HttpURLConnection:

URL obj = new URL("http://some.url/res/hello");
HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) obj.openConnection();
conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
... /* get response ... conn.getInputStream() */

How the server 'know' which one method call to serve the client?

Regards.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2135

Answers (3)

emgsilva
emgsilva

Reputation: 3065

First of all you should consider using the same method for different types of "produces":

@GET 
@Produces({ "application/xml", "text/plain"}) 
public String getHello() { ... }

The different types of "produces" could be handled by JAXB (in case the response is an object...).

You can define the client side "accept" mime type by using:

String uri = 
    "http://localhost:8080/hello/";
URL url = new URL(uri);
HttpURLConnection connection = 
    (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
connection.setRequestMethod("GET");
connection.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");

This question provides more insights (and other client side frameworks) related with this problem: REST. Jersey. How to programmatically choose what type to return: JSON or XML?

Upvotes: 1

Knight of Ni
Knight of Ni

Reputation: 1830

I made some more checks on this and what works for me is just settings Accept:

...
conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
conn.setRequestProperty("Accept", mime);
...

where mime is "text/plain" or "application/json". This way my server calls one of the GET function.

Anyway I am confused why most answers suggest to use a common one function to serve a @GET and check for type inside this function...

Upvotes: 0

bluedevil2k
bluedevil2k

Reputation: 9491

You'd probably want a generic function to do all the common work, and then simply pass this work to the response specific functions you outlined.

getHello(String responseType)
{
   // do all your work you'd end up doing in both functions
   switch (responseType):
       case ("json") {
                        return getJSONHello(work);    
                     }
       case ("text") {
                        return getPlainTextHello(work);
                     }

}

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions