Thus may not actually be called nested resources from a Rest perspective, but I am interested in how to structure a Jersey class as a rest provider, so it can respond to chained requests.
i.e I am ok with the basic /users, I am ok with /users/123 to get a specific user, but how to then branch down to properties of the user.... /users/123/cars, /users/123/cars/23 etc.
Sorry for the lack of information, but saw this as an example in the Restangular documentation for Angular.
https://github.com/mgonto/restangular#production-apps-using-
restangular
// Restangular returns promises
Restangular.all('users').getList() // GET: /users
.then(function(users) {
// returns a list of users
$scope.user = users[0]; // first Restangular obj in list: { id: 123 }
})
// Later in the code...
// Restangular objects are self-aware and know how to make their own RESTful requests
$scope.user.getList('cars'); // GET: /users/123/cars
// You can also use your own custom methods on Restangular objects
$scope.user.sendMessage(); // POST: /users/123/sendMessage
// Chain methods together to easily build complex requests
$scope.user.one('messages', 123).one('from', 123).getList('unread');
// GET: /user/123/messages/123/from/123/unread
I think resource locators should do the job. In general they're re-locating the request to a different resource, which is able to consume it.
In your case You'll have one root resource UserResource, which will handle users and sub-resources for cars, messages - CarsResource, MessagesResource.
The root resource:
@Path("users")
class UsersResource {
// GET: /users
@GET
@Path("{id}")
public User getById(@PathParam("id") long id) {...}
@Path("{id}/cars")
public CarResource getCarResource(@PathParam("id") long userId) {
return new CarResource(uesrId);
}
@Path("{id}/sendMessage")
public MessagesResource getMessagesResourceForSend(@PathParam("id") long userId) {
return new MessagesResource(userId);
}
@Path("{id}/messages")
public MessagesResource getMessagesResourceForRead(@PathParam("id") long userId) {
return new MessagesResource(userId);
}
}
Cars and Messages resources:
class CarsResource {
long userId
// GET: /users/123/cars
@GET
public Car getAllCars() {
/*retrieve all cars for user userId*/
}
// GET: /users/123/cars/3
@GET
@Path("{carId}")
public Car getById(@PathParam("carId") carId) {
/*retrieve car for id carId*/
}
}
class MessagesResource {
long userId
// POST: /users/123/sendMessage
@POST
public void sendMessage(@FormParam("content") String content) {
/*send message to user userId*/
}
// GET: /user/123/messages/123/from/123/unread
@GET
@Path("{id1}/from/{id2}/unread")
public void getUnread(@PathParam("id1") long id1, @PathParam("id2") long id2) {
/*return unread messages*/
}
}
Sub-resources shouldn't be annotated with @Path on class level and they need to be registered with the JAX-RS runtinme in an Application class
in addition to Thomas Bartalos answer, it is possible to use the path parameter id in sub-resources
@GET
@Path("{id1}/from/{id2}/unread")
public void getUnread(@PathParam("id") long userId,@PathParam("id1") long id1, @PathParam("id2") long id2)
{
/*return unread messages for user with userId*/
}
this is usefull in case you are using statless beans, it avoids passing the parameter userId during instanciation.
Example: Root resource:
@Path("users")
@Stateless
class UsersResource {
@Inject CarResource cr;
@Inject MessageResource mr;
// GET: /users
@GET
@Path("{id}")
public User getById(@PathParam("id") long id) {...}
@Path("{userId}/cars")
public CarResource getCarResource() {
return cr;
}
@Path("{userId}/sendMessage")
public MessagesResource getMessagesResourceForSend() {
return mr;
}
@Path("{userId}/messages")
public MessagesResource getMessagesResourceForRead() {
return mr;
}
}
sub resources:
@Stateless
@Path("/")
class CarsResource {
@GET
public Car getAllCars(@PathParam("userId") long userId) {//the path param is retrieved from parent path
/*retrieve all cars for user userId*/
}
@GET
@Path("{carId}")
public Car getById(@PathParam("userId") long userId,@PathParam("carId") carId) {
/*retrieve car for id carId fr the user with userId*/
}
}
@Stateless
@Path("/")
class MessagesResource {
@POST
public void sendMessage(@PathParam("userId") long userId,@FormParam("content") String content) {
/*send message to user userId*/
}
@GET
@Path("{id1}/from/{id2}/unread")
public void getUnread(@PathParam("userId") long userId,@PathParam("id1") long id1, @PathParam("id2") long id2) {
/*return unread messages*/
}
}