REST with Java (JAX-RS) using Jersey - Tutorial

http://www.vogella.com/articles/REST/article.html

REST with Java (JAX-RS) using Jersey - Tutorial

Lars Vogel

Version 2.2

Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Lars Vogel

06.12.2012

Revision History
Revision 0.1	11.05.2009	Lars Vogel	created
Revision 0.2 - 2.2	10.10.2009 - 06.12.2012	Lars Vogel	bug fixes and enhancements

RESTful Webservices with Java (Jersey / JAX-RS)

This tutorial explains how to develop RESTful web services in Java with the JAX-RS reference implementation Jersey.

In this tutorial Eclipse 4.2 (Juno), Java 1.6, Tomcat 6.0 and JAX-RS 1.1. (Jersey 1.5) is used.

1. REST - Representational State Transfer

1.1. Overview

REST is an architectural style which is based on web-standards and the HTTP protocol. REST was first described by Roy Fielding in 2000.

In a REST based architecture everything is a resource. A resource is accessed via a common interface based on the HTTP standard methods.

In a REST based architecture you typically have a REST server which provides access to the resources and a REST client which accesses and modify the REST resources.

Every resource should support the HTTP common operations. Resources are identified by global IDs (which are typically URIs).

REST allows that resources have different representations, e.g. text, xml, json etc. The rest client can ask for specific representation via the HTTP protocol (content negotiation).

1.2. HTTP methods

The PUT, GET, POST and DELETE methods are typical used in REST based architectures.

The following table gives an explanation of these operations.

• GET defines a reading access of the resource without side-effects. The resource is never changed via a GET request, e.g. the request has no side effects (idempotent).

• PUT creates a new resource, must also be idempotent.

• DELETE removes the resources. The operations are idempotent, they can get repeated without leading to different results.

• POST updates an existing resource or creates a new resource.

1.3. RESTFul webservices

A RESTFul webservices are based on the HTTP methods and the concept of REST. A RESTFul webservice typically defines the base URI for the services, the supported MIME-types (XML, Text, JSON, user-defined,..) and the set of operations (POST, GET, PUT, DELETE) which are supported.

2. JAX-RS with Jersey

2.1. JAX-RS and Jersey

Java defines REST support via the Java Specification Request 311 (JSR). This specificiation is called JAX-RS (The Java API for RESTful Web Services). JAX-RS uses annotations to define the REST relevance of Java classes.

Jersey is the reference implementation for this specification. Jersey contains basically a REST server and a REST client. The core client can be used provides a library to communicate with the server.

On the server side Jersey uses a servlet which scans predefined classes to identify RESTful resources. Via the web.xmlconfiguration file for your web application, registers this servlet which is provided by the Jersey distribution

The base URL of this servlet is:

http://your_domain:port/display-name/url-pattern/path_from_rest_class 

This servlet analyzes the incoming HTTP request and selects the correct class and method to respond to this request. This selection is based on annotations in the class and methods.

A REST web application consists therefore out of data classes (resources) and services. These two types are typically maintained in different packages as the Jersey servlet will be instructed via the web.xml to scan certain packages for data classes.

JAX-RS supports the creation of XML and JSON via the Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB).

JAXB is described in the JAXB Tutorial .

2.2. JAX-RS annotations

The most important annotations in JAX-RS are listed in the following table.

Table 1. JAX-RS annotations

Annotation	Description
@PATH(your_path)	Sets the path to base URL + /your_path. The base URL is based on your application name, the servlet and the URL pattern from the web.xml" configuration file.
@POST	Indicates that the following method will answer to a HTTP POST request
@GET	Indicates that the following method will answer to a HTTP GET request
@PUT	Indicates that the following method will answer to a HTTP PUT request
@DELETE	Indicates that the following method will answer to a HTTP DELETE request
@Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN [, more-types ])	@Produces defines which MIME type is delivered by a method annotated with @GET. In the example text ("text/plain") is produced. Other examples would be "application/xml" or "application/json".
@Consumes(type [, more-types ])	@Consumes defines which MIME type is consumed by this method.
@PathParam	Used to inject values from the URL into a method parameter. This way you inject for example the ID of a resource into the method to get the correct object.

The complete path to a resource is basd on the base URL and the @PATh annotation in your class.

http://your_domain:port/display-name/url-pattern/path_from_rest_class 

3. Installation

3.1. Jersey

Download Jersey from the Jersey Homepage.

http://jersey.java.net/ 

As of the time of writing the file is called A zip of Jersey containing the Jersey jars, core dependencies (it does not provide dependencies for third party jars beyond the those for JSON support) and JavaDoc. Download this zip; it contains the jar files required for the REST functionality.

3.2. Eclipse and Tomcat

This tutorial is using Tomcat as servlet container and Eclipse WTP as a development environment. Please seeEclipse WTP and Apache Tomcat for instructions on how to install and use Eclipse WTP and Apache Tomcat.

Alternative you could also use the Google App Engine for running the server part of the following REST examples. If you use the Google App Engine you do not have to setup Tomcat. If you are using GAE/J you have to create App Engine projects instead of Dynamic Web Project.

4. Prerequisites

The following description assumes that you are familiar with creating web applications in Eclipse. See Eclipse WTP development for an introduction into creating web applications with Eclipse.

5. Create your first RESTful Webservice

5.1. Create project with Jersey libraries

Create a new Dynamic Web Project called de.vogella.jersey.first.

Copy all jars from your Jersey download into the WEB-INF/lib folder.

5.2. Java Class

Create the following class.

package de.vogella.jersey.first;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

// Plain old Java Object it does not extend as class or implements 
// an interface

// The class registers its methods for the HTTP GET request using the @GET annotation. 
// Using the @Produces annotation, it defines that it can deliver several MIME types,
// text, XML and HTML. 

// The browser requests per default the HTML MIME type.

//Sets the path to base URL + /hello
@Path("/hello")
public class Hello {

  // This method is called if TEXT_PLAIN is request
  @GET
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
  public String sayPlainTextHello() {
    return "Hello Jersey";
  }

  // This method is called if XML is request
  @GET
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_XML)
  public String sayXMLHello() {
    return "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>" + "<hello> Hello Jersey" + "</hello>";
  }

  // This method is called if HTML is request
  @GET
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_HTML)
  public String sayHtmlHello() {
    return "<html> " + "<title>" + "Hello Jersey" + "</title>"
        + "<body><h1>" + "Hello Jersey" + "</body></h1>" + "</html> ";
  }

} 

This class register itself as a get resource via the @GET annotation. Via the @Produces annotation it defines that it delivers the text and the HTML MIME types. It also defines via the @Path annotation that its service is available under the hello URL.

The browser will always request the html MIME type. To see the text version you can use tool like curl .

5.3. Define Jersey Servlet dispatcher

You need to register Jersey as the servlet dispatcher for REST requests. Open the file web.xml and modify the file to the following.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>de.vogella.jersey.first</display-name>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
      <param-value>de.vogella.jersey.first</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app> 

The parameter "com.sun.jersey.config.property.package" defines in which package jersey will look for the web service classes. This property must point to your resources classes. The URL pattern defines part of the base URL your application will be placed.

5.4. Run your rest service

Run you web application in Eclipse. See Eclipse WTP for details on how to run dynamic web applications.

Test your REST service under: "http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.first/rest/hello". This name is derived from the "display-name" defined in the web.xml file, augmented with the servlet-mapping url-pattern and the "hello" @Path annotation from your class file. You should get the message "Hello Jersey".

The browser requests the HTML representation of your resource. In the next chapter we are going to write a client which will read the XML representation.

5.5. Create a client

Jersey contains a REST client library which can be used for testing or to build a real client in Java. Alternative you could use Apache HttpClient to create a client.

Create a new Java "de.vogella.jersey.first.client" and add the jersey jars to the project and the project build path. Create the following test class.

package de.vogella.jersey.first.client;

import java.net.URI;

import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.UriBuilder;

import com.sun.jersey.api.client.Client;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.ClientResponse;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.WebResource;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.ClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.DefaultClientConfig;

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);
    WebResource service = client.resource(getBaseURI());
    // Fluent interfaces
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("hello").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN).get(ClientResponse.class).toString());
    // Get plain text
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("hello").accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN).get(String.class));
    // Get XML
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("hello").accept(MediaType.TEXT_XML).get(String.class));
    // The HTML
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("hello").accept(MediaType.TEXT_HTML).get(String.class));

  }

  private static URI getBaseURI() {
    return UriBuilder.fromUri("http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.first").build();
  }

} 

6. Restful webservices and JAXB

JAX-RS supports the automatic creation of XML and JSON via JAXB. For an introduction into XML please see Java and XML - Tutorial . For an introduction into JAXB please see JAXB. You can continue this tutorial without reading these tutorials but they contain more background information.

6.1. Create project

Create a new Dynamic Web Project called de.vogella.jersey.jaxb and copy all jersey jars into the WEB-INF/lib folder.

Create your domain class.

package de.vogella.jersey.jaxb.model;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
// JAX-RS supports an automatic mapping from JAXB annotated class to XML and JSON
// Isn't that cool?
public class Todo {
  private String summary;
  private String description;
  public String getSummary() {
    return summary;
  }
  public void setSummary(String summary) {
    this.summary = summary;
  }
  public String getDescription() {
    return description;
  }
  public void setDescription(String description) {
    this.description = description;
  }

  
} 

Create the following resource class. This class simply return an instance of the Todo class.

package de.vogella.jersey.jaxb;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

import de.vogella.jersey.jaxb.model.Todo;

@Path("/todo")
public class TodoResource {
  // This method is called if XMLis request
  @GET
  @Produces({ MediaType.APPLICATION_XML, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON })
  public Todo getXML() {
    Todo todo = new Todo();
    todo.setSummary("This is my first todo");
    todo.setDescription("This is my first todo");
    return todo;
  }
  
  // This can be used to test the integration with the browser
  @GET
  @Produces({ MediaType.TEXT_XML })
  public Todo getHTML() {
    Todo todo = new Todo();
    todo.setSummary("This is my first todo");
    todo.setDescription("This is my first todo");
    return todo;
  }

} 

Change web.xml to the following.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
  id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>de.vogella.jersey.jaxb</display-name>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
      <param-value>de.vogella.jersey.jaxb</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app> 

Run you web application in Eclipse and validate that you can access your service. Your application should be available under the following URL.

http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.jaxb/rest/todo 

6.2. Create a client

Create a new Java "de.vogella.jersey.jaxb.client" and add the jersey jars to the project and the project build path. Create the following test class.

package de.vogella.jersey.jaxb.client;


import java.net.URI;

import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.UriBuilder;

import com.sun.jersey.api.client.Client;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.WebResource;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.ClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.DefaultClientConfig;

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);
    WebResource service = client.resource(getBaseURI());
    // Get XML
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todo").accept(MediaType.TEXT_XML).get(String.class));
    // Get XML for application
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todo").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).get(String.class));
    // Get JSON for application
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todo").accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).get(String.class));
  }

  private static URI getBaseURI() {
    return UriBuilder.fromUri("http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.jaxb").build();
  }

} 

7. CRUD RESTful webservice

This section creates a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) restful web service. It will allow to maintain a list of todos in your web application via HTTP calls.

7.1. Project

Create a new dynamic project called de.vogella.jersey.todo and add the jersey libs. Change the web.xml file to the following.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>de.vogella.jersey.todo</display-name>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
      <param-value>de.vogella.jersey.todo.resources</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>Jersey REST Service</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app> 

Create the following data model and a Singleton which serves as the data provider for the model. We use the implementation based on an enumeration. Please see the link for details. The Todo class is annotated with a JAXB annotation. See Java and XML to learn about JAXB.

package de.vogella.jersey.todo.model;


import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class Todo {
  private String id;
  private String summary;
  private String description;
  
  public Todo(){
    
  }
  public Todo (String id, String summary){
    this.id = id;
    this.summary = summary;
  }
  public String getId() {
    return id;
  }
  public void setId(String id) {
    this.id = id;
  }
  public String getSummary() {
    return summary;
  }
  public void setSummary(String summary) {
    this.summary = summary;
  }
  public String getDescription() {
    return description;
  }
  public void setDescription(String description) {
    this.description = description;
  }
  
  
} 

package de.vogella.jersey.todo.dao;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import de.vogella.jersey.todo.model.Todo;

public enum TodoDao {
  instance;
  
  private Map<String, Todo> contentProvider = new HashMap<String, Todo>();
  
  private TodoDao() {
    
    Todo todo = new Todo("1", "Learn REST");
    todo.setDescription("Read http://www.vogella.com/articles/REST/article.html");
    contentProvider.put("1", todo);
    todo = new Todo("2", "Do something");
    todo.setDescription("Read complete http://www.vogella.com");
    contentProvider.put("2", todo);
    
  }
  public Map<String, Todo> getModel(){
    return contentProvider;
  }
  
} 

7.2. Create a simple HTML form

The rest service can be used via HTML forms. The following HTML form will allow to post new data to the service. Create the following page called create_todo.html in the WebContent folder.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Form to create a new resource</title>
 </head>
<body>
  <form action="../de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos" method="POST">
  <label for="id">ID</label>
  <input name="id" />
  <br/>
  <label for="summary">Summary</label>
  <input name="summary" />
  <br/>
  Description:
  <TEXTAREA NAME="description" COLS=40 ROWS=6></TEXTAREA>
  <br/>
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
  </form>
</body>
</html> 

7.3. Rest Service

Create the following classes which will be used as REST resources.

package de.vogella.jersey.todo.resources;

import javax.ws.rs.Consumes;
import javax.ws.rs.DELETE;
import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.PUT;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Context;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Request;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.UriInfo;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement;

import de.vogella.jersey.todo.dao.TodoDao;
import de.vogella.jersey.todo.model.Todo;

public class TodoResource {
  @Context
  UriInfo uriInfo;
  @Context
  Request request;
  String id;
  public TodoResource(UriInfo uriInfo, Request request, String id) {
    this.uriInfo = uriInfo;
    this.request = request;
    this.id = id;
  }
  
  //Application integration     
  @GET
  @Produces({MediaType.APPLICATION_XML, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON})
  public Todo getTodo() {
    Todo todo = TodoDao.instance.getModel().get(id);
    if(todo==null)
      throw new RuntimeException("Get: Todo with " + id +  " not found");
    return todo;
  }
  
  // For the browser
  @GET
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_XML)
  public Todo getTodoHTML() {
    Todo todo = TodoDao.instance.getModel().get(id);
    if(todo==null)
      throw new RuntimeException("Get: Todo with " + id +  " not found");
    return todo;
  }
  
  @PUT
  @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
  public Response putTodo(JAXBElement<Todo> todo) {
    Todo c = todo.getValue();
    return putAndGetResponse(c);
  }
  
  @DELETE
  public void deleteTodo() {
    Todo c = TodoDao.instance.getModel().remove(id);
    if(c==null)
      throw new RuntimeException("Delete: Todo with " + id +  " not found");
  }
  
  private Response putAndGetResponse(Todo todo) {
    Response res;
    if(TodoDao.instance.getModel().containsKey(todo.getId())) {
      res = Response.noContent().build();
    } else {
      res = Response.created(uriInfo.getAbsolutePath()).build();
    }
    TodoDao.instance.getModel().put(todo.getId(), todo);
    return res;
  }
  
  

} 

package de.vogella.jersey.todo.resources;


import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.ws.rs.Consumes;
import javax.ws.rs.FormParam;
import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.POST;
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;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Request;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.UriInfo;

import de.vogella.jersey.todo.dao.TodoDao;
import de.vogella.jersey.todo.model.Todo;


// Will map the resource to the URL todos
@Path("/todos")
public class TodosResource {

  // Allows to insert contextual objects into the class, 
  // e.g. ServletContext, Request, Response, UriInfo
  @Context
  UriInfo uriInfo;
  @Context
  Request request;


  // Return the list of todos to the user in the browser
  @GET
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_XML)
  public List<Todo> getTodosBrowser() {
    List<Todo> todos = new ArrayList<Todo>();
    todos.addAll(TodoDao.instance.getModel().values());
    return todos; 
  }
  
  // Return the list of todos for applications
  @GET
  @Produces({MediaType.APPLICATION_XML, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON})
  public List<Todo> getTodos() {
    List<Todo> todos = new ArrayList<Todo>();
    todos.addAll(TodoDao.instance.getModel().values());
    return todos; 
  }
  
  
  // retuns the number of todos
  // Use http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos/count
  // to get the total number of records
  @GET
  @Path("count")
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
  public String getCount() {
    int count = TodoDao.instance.getModel().size();
    return String.valueOf(count);
  }
  
  @POST
  @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_HTML)
  @Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
  public void newTodo(@FormParam("id") String id,
      @FormParam("summary") String summary,
      @FormParam("description") String description,
      @Context HttpServletResponse servletResponse) throws IOException {
    Todo todo = new Todo(id,summary);
    if (description!=null){
      todo.setDescription(description);
    }
    TodoDao.instance.getModel().put(id, todo);
    
    servletResponse.sendRedirect("../create_todo.html");
  }
  
  
  // Defines that the next path parameter after todos is
  // treated as a parameter and passed to the TodoResources
  // Allows to type http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos/1
  // 1 will be treaded as parameter todo and passed to TodoResource
  @Path("{todo}")
  public TodoResource getTodo(@PathParam("todo") String id) {
    return new TodoResource(uriInfo, request, id);
  }
  
} 

This TodosResource uses the @PathParam "annotation to define that the id is inserted as parameter.

7.4. Run

Run you web application in Eclipse and test the availability of your REST service under: "http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos". You should see the XML representation of your Todo items.

To see the count of Todo items use "http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos/count" to see an exiting todo use "http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos/{id}", e.g. "http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo/rest/todos/1" to see the todo with ID 1. We currently have only todos with the id's 1 and 2, all other requests will result an HTTP error code.

Please note that with the browser you can only issue HTTP GET requests. The next chapter will use the jersey client libraries to issue get, post and delete.

7.5. Create a client

Create a new Java project called de.vogella.jersey.todo.client. Create a lib folder and place all jersey libs in this folder. Add the jars to the classpath of the project.

Create the following class.

package de.vogella.jersey.todo.client;

import java.net.URI;

import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.UriBuilder;

import com.sun.jersey.api.client.Client;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.ClientResponse;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.WebResource;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.ClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.client.config.DefaultClientConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.representation.Form;

import de.vogella.jersey.todo.model.Todo;

public class Tester {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);
    WebResource service = client.resource(getBaseURI());
    // Create one todo
    Todo todo = new Todo("3", "Blabla");
    ClientResponse response = service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .path(todo.getId()).accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
        .put(ClientResponse.class, todo);
    // Return code should be 201 == created resource
    System.out.println(response.getStatus());
    // Get the Todos
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .accept(MediaType.TEXT_XML).get(String.class));
    // Get JSON for application
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).get(String.class));
    // Get XML for application
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).get(String.class));

    // Get the Todo with id 1
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos/1")
        .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).get(String.class));
    // get Todo with id 1
    service.path("rest").path("todos/1").delete();
    // Get the all todos, id 1 should be deleted
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).get(String.class));

    // Create a Todo
    Form form = new Form();
    form.add("id", "4");
    form.add("summary", "Demonstration of the client lib for forms");
    response = service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .type(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
        .post(ClientResponse.class, form);
    System.out.println("Form response " + response.getEntity(String.class));
    // Get the all todos, id 4 should be created
    System.out.println(service.path("rest").path("todos")
        .accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).get(String.class));

  }

  private static URI getBaseURI() {
    return UriBuilder.fromUri("http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.jersey.todo").build();
  }
} 

7.6. Using the rest service via HTML page

The above example contains a form which calls a post method of your rest service.

7.7. Using the rest service via X

Usually every programming language provide somewhere libraries for creating HTTP get, post, put and delete requests. For Java the project Apache HttpClient.

8. Thank you

Please help me to support this article:

9. Questions and Discussion

If you find errors in this tutorial please notify me (see the top of the page). Please note that due to the high volume of feedback I receive, I cannot answer questions to your implementation. Ensure you have read the vogella FAQ, I also don't answer questions answered in the FAQ.

10. Links and Literature

10.1. Source Code

Source Code of Examples

10.2. Rest Resources

Jersey Homepage

JSR 311

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-aj-tomcat/ IBM Article about Rest with Tomcat and Jersey

10.3. vogella Resources

vogella Training Android and Eclipse Training from the vogella team

Android Tutorial Introduction to Android Programming

GWT Tutorial Program in Java and compile to JavaScript and HTML

Eclipse RCP Tutorial Create native applications in Java

JUnit Tutorial Test your application

Git Tutorial Put everything you have under distributed version control system