Note
|
This repository contains the guide documentation source. To view the guide in published form, view it on the Open Liberty website. |
Explore how to access a simple RESTful web service and consume its resources in Java using JSON-B and JSON-P.
Hello this is a test
artists.json
link:finish/src/resources/artists.json[role=include]
testing conversion 14:05
You will learn how to access a REST service, serialize a Java object that contains a list of artists and their albums, and use two different approaches to deserialize the returned JSON resources. The first approach consists of using the Java API for JSON Binding (JSON-B) to directly convert JSON messages into Java objects. The second approach consists of using the Java API for JSON Processing (JSON-P) to process the JSON.
The REST service that provides the artists and albums resources has already been written
for you and is accessible at the following link when the server is running http://localhost:9080/artists, which responds with the artists.json
.
You will implement the following two endpoints using the two deserialization approaches:
-
…/artists/total
to return the total number of artists in the JSON -
…/artists/total/<artist>
to return the total number of albums in the JSON for the particular artist
If you are interested in learning more about REST services and how you can write them, read Creating a RESTful web service.
You can find your service at http://localhost:9080/artists.
Now, you can access the endpoint at http://localhost:9080/artists/total to see the total number of artists, and you can access the endpoint at http://localhost:9080/artists/total/<artist>
to see a particular artist’s total number of albums.
Navigate to the start
directory to begin.
This guide is already setup with a general application. As you progress through the guide, you will update the code directly and automatically see the results by using development mode.
Start Open Liberty in development mode, which starts the Open Liberty server and listens for file changes:
mvn liberty:dev
When the server is running, you can find your service at the http://localhost:9080/artists URL.
Artist.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/model/Artist.java[role=include]
Album.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/model/Album.java[role=include]
To deserialize a JSON message, start with creating Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) that represent what is in the JSON and whose instance members map to the keys in the JSON.
For the purpose of this guide, you are given two POJOs.
The Artist
object has two instance members name
and albums
,
which map to the artist name and the collection of the albums they have written. The Album
object represents a
single object within the album collection, and contains three instance members title
, artistName
, and totalTracks
, which map to the album title, the artist who wrote the album, and the number of tracks the album contains.
JSON-B is a feature introduced with Java EE 8 and strengthens Java support for JSON. With JSON-B you directly serialize and deserialize POJOs. This API gives you a variety of options for working with JSON resources.
In contrast, you need to use helper methods with JSON-P to process a JSON response. This tactic is more straightforward, but it can be cumbersome with more complex classes.
JSON-B is built on top of the existing JSON-P API. JSON-B can do everything that JSON-P can do and allows for more customization for serializing and deserializing.
Artist.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/model/Artist.java[role=include]
JSON-B requires a POJO to have a public default no-argument constructor for deserialization and binding to work properly.
The JSON-B engine includes a set of default mapping rules, which can be run without any customization annotations or custom configuration. In some instances, you might find it useful to deserialize a JSON message with only certain fields, specific field names, or classes with custom constructors. In these cases, annotations are necessary and recommended:
-
The
@JsonbProperty
annotation to map JSON keys to class instance members and vice versa. Without the use of this annotation, JSON-B will attempt to do POJO mapping, matching the keys in the JSON to the class instance members by name. JSON-B will attempt to match the JSON key with a Java field or method annotated with@JsonbProperty
where the value in the annotation exactly matches the JSON key. If no annotation exists with the given JSON key, JSON-B will attempt to find a matching field with the same name. If no match is found, JSON-B attempts to find a matching getter method for serialization or a matching setter method for de-serialization. A match occurs when the property name of the method matches the JSON key. If no matching getter or setter method is found, serialization or de-serialization, respectively, fails with an exception. The Artist POJO does not require this annotation because all instance members match the JSON keys by name. -
The
@JsonbCreator
and@JsonbProperty
annotations to annotate a custom constructor. These annotations are required for proper parameter substitution when a custom constructor is used. -
The
@JsonbTransient
annotation to define an object property that does not map to a JSON property. While the use of this annotation is good practice, it is only necessary for serialization.
For more information on customization with JSON-B, see the official JSON-B site.
Artist.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/model/Artist.java[role=include]
Album.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/model/Album.java[role=include]
Consumer.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/Consumer.java[role=include]
The Artist
and Album
POJOs are ready for deserialization.
Next, we’ll learn to consume the JSON response from your REST service.
Create theConsumer
class.src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/Consumer.java
Consumer.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/Consumer.java[role=include]
pom.xml
link:finish/pom.xml[role=include]
JSON-B is a Java API that is used to serialize Java objects to JSON messages and vice versa.
Open Liberty’s JSON-B feature on Maven Central includes the JSON-B provider through transitive dependencies.
The JSON-B APIs are provided by the MicroProfile dependency in your pom.xml
file.
Look for the dependency with the microprofile
artifact ID.
The consumeWithJsonb()
method in the Consumer
class makes a GET
request to the
running artist service and retrieves the JSON. To bind the JSON into an Artist
array, use the Artist[]
entity type in the readEntity
call.
Consumer.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/Consumer.java[role=include]
The consumeWithJsonp()
method in the Consumer
class makes a GET
request
to the running artist service and retrieves the JSON. This method then uses the
collectArtists
and collectAlbums
helper methods. These helper methods will
parse the JSON and collect its objects into individual POJOs. Notice that you can
use the custom constructors to create instances of Artist
and Album
.
Consumer.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/Consumer.java[role=include]
ArtistResource.java
link:finish/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/service/ArtistResource.java[role=include]
Now that you can consume a JSON resource you can put that data to use.
Replace theArtistResource
class.src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/service/ArtistResource.java
-
The
getArtists()
method provides the raw JSON data service that you accessed at the beginning of this guide. -
The
getJsonString()
method uses JSON-B to return the JSON as a string that will be used later for testing. -
The
getTotalAlbums()
method uses JSON-B to return the total number of albums present in the JSON for a particular artist. The method returns -1 if this artist does not exist. -
The
getTotalArtists()
method uses JSON-P to return the total number of artists present in the JSON.
The methods that you wrote in the Consumer
class could be written directly in the
ArtistResource
class. However, if you are consuming a REST resource from a third
party service, you should separate your GET
/POST
requests from your data consumption.
The Open Liberty server was started in development mode at the beginning of the guide and all the changes were automatically picked up.
You can find your service at http://localhost:9080/artists.
Now, you can access the endpoint at http://localhost:9080/artists/total to see the total number of artists,
and you can access the endpoint at http://localhost:9080/artists/total/<artist>
to see a particular artist’s total number of albums.
ConsumingRestIT.java
link:finish/src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/ConsumingRestIT.java[role=include]
Create theConsumingRestIT
class.src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/ConsumingRestIT.java
Maven finds and executes all tests under the src/test/java/it/
directory,
and each test method must be marked with the @Test
annotation.
You can use the @BeforeAll
and @AfterAll
annotations to perform any one-time setup and teardown
tasks before and after all of your tests run. You can also use the @BeforeEach
and @AfterEach
annotations
to perform setup and teardown tasks for individual test cases.
ConsumingRestIT.java
link:finish/src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/ConsumingRestIT.java[role=include]
pom.xml
link:finish/pom.xml[role=include]
The yasson
dependency was added in your pom.xml
file so that your test classes have access to JSON-B.
The testArtistDeserialization
test case checks that Artist
instances created from
the REST data and those that are hardcoded perform the same.
The assertResponse
helper method ensures that the response code you receive is valid (200).
ConsumingRestIT.java
link:finish/src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/ConsumingRestIT.java[role=include]
The testJsonBAlbumCount
and testJsonBAlbumCountForUnknownArtist
tests both use the total/{artist}
endpoint which invokes JSON-B.
The testJsonBAlbumCount
test case checks that deserialization with JSON-B was done correctly
and that the correct number of albums is returned for each artist in the JSON.
The testJsonBAlbumCountForUnknownArtist
test case is similar to testJsonBAlbumCount
but instead checks an artist that does not exist in the JSON and ensures that a
value of -1
is returned.
ConsumingRestIT.java
link:finish/src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/consumingrest/ConsumingRestIT.java[role=include]
The testJsonPArtistCount
test uses the total
endpoint which invokes JSON-P. This test
checks that deserialization with JSON-P was done correctly and that the correct number
of artists is returned.
Since you started Open Liberty in development mode at the start of the guide, press the enter/return
key to run the tests.
If the tests pass, you see a similar output to the following example:
-------------------------------------------------------
T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running it.io.openliberty.guides.consumingrest.ConsumingRestIT
Tests run: 4, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.59 sec - in it.io.openliberty.guides.consumingrest.ConsumingRestIT
Results :
Tests run: 4, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
When you are done checking out the service, exit development mode by typing q
in the command-line session where you ran the server,
and then press the enter/return
key.
If you are satisfied with your application, run the Maven package
goal to build the WAR file in the target
directory:
mvn package
You just accessed a simple RESTful web service and consumed its resources by using JSON-B and JSON-P in Open Liberty.