How to have a @PATCH annotation for JAX-RS?

Question

JAX-RS has annotations for HTTP verbs such as GET (@GET) and POST (@POST) but there is no @PATCH annotation. How can I have an annotation for the PATCH HTTP verb?

Something like the following:

@PATCH public Response someCode() {     // Code to handle the request } 

Answer 1

I got answer here.

One will just have to define a custom Patch annotation, what that means is that you will have to write a PATCH.java file with following code:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD}) @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @HttpMethod("PATCH") public @interface PATCH { } 

Import the package containing PATCH.java and then you can use it like other HTTP method annotations:

@PATCH @Path("/data/{keyspace}") @Produces({ "application/json" }) public void patchRow(@PathParam("keyspace") String keyspace, String body)  throws Exception 

I used this @PATCH to send some JSON to my REST service.

Answer 2

Using JAX-RS 2.1?

JAX-RS 2.1 added @PATCH to the list of supported HTTP methods.

Using Swagger?

When using Swagger to document a REST API, you could use the existing @PATCH annotation defined in the io.swagger.jaxrs package.

Using Jersey and Dropwizard?

Dropwizard defines a @PATCH annotation in the io.dropwizard.jersey package.

Write your own

If the above mentioned approaches don't work for you, you can write your own @PATCH annotation:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD}) @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @HttpMethod("PATCH") public @interface PATCH { } 

The @HttpMethod annotation is used to associate the name of a HTTP method with an annotation, creating a what the JAX-RS specification calls resource method designator.

Your own @PATCH annotation should work fine in Swagger.