Rest API Example

Question

I have an implementation of a simple REST server written in Java. Every API call return data in XML format, what should i do if i wanted the format to be JSON? Do i need external libraries? Here's my code:

User.java:

package com.leo;

import java.io.Serializable;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement(name = "user")
public class User implements Serializable
{

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private int id;
private String name;
private String profession;

public User()
{
}

public User(int id, String name, String profession)
{
    this.id = id;
    this.name = name;
    this.profession = profession;
}

public int getId()
{
    return id;
}

@XmlElement
public void setId(int id)
{
    this.id = id;
}

public String getName()
{
    return name;
}

@XmlElement
public void setName(String name)
{
    this.name = name;
}

public String getProfession()
{
    return profession;
}

@XmlElement
public void setProfession(String profession)
{
    this.profession = profession;
}
}

UserDao.java

    package com.leo;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class UserDao
{
    public List<User> getAllUsers()
    {
        List<User> userList = null;
        try
        {
            File file = new File("Users.dat");
            if (!file.exists())
            {
                User user = new User(1, "Mahesh", "Teacher");
                userList = new ArrayList<User>();
                userList.add(user);
                saveUserList(userList);
            }
            else
            {
                FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
                ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis);
                userList = (List<User>) ois.readObject();
                ois.close();
            }
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch (ClassNotFoundException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return userList;
    }

    public User getUser(int id){
          List<User> users = getAllUsers();

          for(User user: users){
             if(user.getId() == id){
                return user;
             }
          }
          return null;
       }

    public int addUser(User pUser)
    {
        List<User> userList = getAllUsers();
        boolean userExists = false;
        for (User user : userList)
        {
            if (user.getId() == pUser.getId())
            {
                userExists = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (!userExists)
        {
            userList.add(pUser);
            saveUserList(userList);
            return 1;
        }
        return 0;
    }

    public int updateUser(User pUser)
    {
        List<User> userList = getAllUsers();

        for (User user : userList)
        {
            if (user.getId() == pUser.getId())
            {
                int index = userList.indexOf(user);
                userList.set(index, pUser);
                saveUserList(userList);
                return 1;
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }

    public int deleteUser(int id)
    {
        List<User> userList = getAllUsers();

        for (User user : userList)
        {
            if (user.getId() == id)
            {
                int index = userList.indexOf(user);
                userList.remove(index);
                saveUserList(userList);
                return 1;
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }

    private void saveUserList(List<User> userList)
    {
        try
        {
            File file = new File("Users.dat");
            FileOutputStream fos;

            fos = new FileOutputStream(file);

            ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
            oos.writeObject(userList);
            oos.close();
        }
        catch (FileNotFoundException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

UserService.java

    package com.leo;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.List;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.ws.rs.Consumes;
import javax.ws.rs.DELETE;
import javax.ws.rs.FormParam;
import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.OPTIONS;
import javax.ws.rs.POST;
import javax.ws.rs.PUT;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.PathParam;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Context;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

@Path("/UserService")
public class UserService {

   UserDao userDao = new UserDao();
   private static final String SUCCESS_RESULT="<result>success</result>";
   private static final String FAILURE_RESULT="<result>failure</result>";

   @GET
   @Path("/users")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   public List<User> getUsers(){
      return userDao.getAllUsers();
   }    

   @GET
   @Path("/users/{userid}")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   public User getUser(@PathParam("userid") int userid){
      return userDao.getUser(userid);
   }

   @PUT
   @Path("/users")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
   public String createUser(@FormParam("id") int id,
      @FormParam("name") String name,
      @FormParam("profession") String profession,
      @Context HttpServletResponse servletResponse) throws IOException{
      User user = new User(id, name, profession);
      int result = userDao.addUser(user);
      if(result == 1){
         return SUCCESS_RESULT;
      }
      return FAILURE_RESULT;
   }

   @POST
   @Path("/users")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
   public String updateUser(@FormParam("id") int id,
      @FormParam("name") String name,
      @FormParam("profession") String profession,
      @Context HttpServletResponse servletResponse) throws IOException{
      User user = new User(id, name, profession);
      int result = userDao.updateUser(user);
      if(result == 1){
         return SUCCESS_RESULT;
      }
      return FAILURE_RESULT;
   }

   @DELETE
   @Path("/users/{userid}")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   public String deleteUser(@PathParam("userid") int userid){
      int result = userDao.deleteUser(userid);
      if(result == 1){
         return SUCCESS_RESULT;
      }
      return FAILURE_RESULT;
   }

   @OPTIONS
   @Path("/users")
   @Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
   public String getSupportedOperations(){
      return "<operations>GET, PUT, POST, DELETE</operations>";
   }
}

EDIT: i included the jackson jars in my project, specifically jackson-core-2.7.0.jar, jackson-databind-2.7.0.jar, jackson-annotations-2.2.1.jar but now i get this exception from Tomcat:

javax.servlet.ServletException: org.glassfish.jersey.server.ContainerException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper
    org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.WebComponent.serviceImpl(WebComponent.java:489)
    org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.WebComponent.service(WebComponent.java:427)
    org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:388)
    org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:341)
    org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:228)
    org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)

Answer 1

I'm answering interpreting your question as pertaining to the REST service (UserService.java), please comment if that is not what was intended.

You must first ensure that the calls in the methods do in fact return results as JSON. This will require the appropriate changes to User.java and UserDao.java to return JSON instead of XML.

The User class example you have is using the Java JAXB library, based on those annotations @XMLRootElement, @XMLElement.

You would need to rewrite this class using a Java library that supports creating JSON objects.

A good choice is the Jackson library. Here is the home page for Jackson wiki which is pretty well documented.

As far as the REST service itself goes, in your UserService.java, you would need to change the media type that the service produces.

Change all instances of method annotations where you want to produce JSON from

@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)

to

@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)