Implementing Hypermedia in RESTful JAX-RS Apache CXF - rest

Question

I am working in a RESTful application developed in Apache CXF and I would like to introduce hypermedia functionality to it.
Most of our jaxrs:serviceBeans follow this template:
#GET
#Path("/{exampleId}")
public ExampleJSON get(#PathParam("exampleId") Integer exampleId) {
ExampleJSON example;
// Load data from repository here...
// Add link to self.
String href = javax.ws.rs.core.Link.fromResource(ExampleService.class).build().getUri().toString();
// HypermediaLink is a custom object to hold a "href" and "rel" strings
HypermediaLink linkToSelf = new HypermediaLink();
linkToSelf.setHref(href + example.getId());
linkToSelf.setRel("self");
// Inherited method, just adds a HypermediaLink to a collection in the parent class
example.addHypermediaLink(linkToSelf);
// Return JSON compatible object, JACKSON will serialize it nicely.
return example;
}
This is the basic concept. Keep in mind that I simplified this code for explanation purposes; so, it can be easily understood.
This code works fine; but I am wondering if there is a better way to do this with Apache CXF. I have some ideas for how to enhancing it; however, it will require some custom annotations.
I see some examples using Jersey, but I would like to stick with Apache CXF.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

I would leverage some features of JAX-RS and / or Jackson to implement the link adding under the hood at the serialization level. So you wouldn't need to have a specific field for the link within the bean itself.
You could implement a custom MessageBodyWriter to generate a different JSON payload (for example) for your POJOs than the default. So you could dynamically add the link.
See this answer for more details: How to write an XML MessageBodyWriter provider with jersey.
If you use Jackson for the serialization, you could implement a custom serializer. Note that this is generic and will work for all supported format of Jackson.
Below is a sample code:
public class LinkBeanSerializer extends JsonSerializer<SomeBean> {
#Override
public void serialize(SomeBean bean, JsonGenerator jgen,
SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException,
JsonProcessingException {
jgen.writeStartObject();
// Fields
jgen.writeNumberField("id", bean.getId());
// Things could be generic using reflection
// Link
String href = javax.ws.rs.core.Link.fromResource(SomeBean.class).build().getUri().toString();
HypermediaLink linkToSelf = new HypermediaLink();
linkToSelf.setHref(href + bean.getId());
linkToSelf.setRel("self");
jgen.writeObjectField("hypermediaLink", linkToSelf);
jgen.writeEndObject();
}
}
Note that we could make this serializer more generic I think (something like extends JsonSerializer<Object>)
See this answer for more details: Processing JSON response using JAX-RS (how to register the custom serializer within JAX-RS, ...).
Perhaps implementing a WriterInterceptor could solve your problem but there is impact on the beans since you need to have field hypermediaLink. The interceptor could be responsible of filling the field.
See this answer for more details: Jersey Update Entity Property MessageBodyWriter.
IMO the more convenient solution is the second one. It's transparent and support all the formats supported by Jackson.
Hope it helps you,
Thierry