Significance of @Produces, @GET, @Path and @QueryParam before function definition

Question

I am new to java. I was looking the below code.

@Produces("text/xml")
@GET
@Path("/xml/search")
public Object searchXML(@QueryParam("query") String query,
        @QueryParam("granularity") String granularity) {
    return search(query, granularity);
}

I couldn't understand the uses of @Produces, @GET, @Path and @QueryParam before function definition in above code. Can anybody put some light on this. Thanks

Answer 1

Those anotations are defined by JAX-RS, a Standard for RESTful Web Services.

In the example above, it mean the method will handle a:

• GET request

• on path "/xml/search"

• and map the query argument "query" to String query argument,

• as well as the "granularity" to granularity

• the resulting content-type will be "text/xml"

(and it will probably call a custom marshaller for this)

(see this page for a reference)