How to POST a JSON payload to a @RequestParam in Spring MVC

Question

I'm using Spring Boot (latest version, 1.3.6) and I want to create a REST endpoint which accepts a bunch of arguments and a JSON object. Something like:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/endpoint \ -d arg1=hello \ -d arg2=world \ -d json='{"name":"john", "lastNane":"doe"}' 

In the Spring controller I'm currently doing:

public SomeResponseObject endpoint( @RequestParam(value="arg1", required=true) String arg1,  @RequestParam(value="arg2", required=true) String arg2, @RequestParam(value="json", required=true) Person person) {    ... } 

The json argument doesn't get serialized into a Person object. I get a

400 error: the parameter json is not present. 

Obviously, I can make the json argument as String and parse the payload inside the controller method, but that kind of defies the point of using Spring MVC.

It all works if I use @RequestBody, but then I loose the possibility to POST separate arguments outside the JSON body.

Is there a way in Spring MVC to "mix" normal POST arguments and JSON objects?

Answer 1

Yes,is possible to send both params and body with a post method: Example server side:

@RequestMapping(value ="test", method = RequestMethod.POST) @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.OK) @ResponseBody public Person updatePerson(@RequestParam("arg1") String arg1,         @RequestParam("arg2") String arg2,         @RequestBody Person input) throws IOException {     System.out.println(arg1);     System.out.println(arg2);     input.setName("NewName");     return input; } 

and on your client:

curl -H "Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8"      -X POST      'http://localhost:8080/smartface/api/email/test?arg1=ffdfa&arg2=test2'      -d '{"name":"me","lastName":"me last"}' 

Enjoy