With Spring 3.0, can I make an optional path varia

Question

With Spring 3.0, can I have an optional path variable?

For example

@RequestMapping(value = "/json/{type}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean testAjax(
        HttpServletRequest req,
        @PathVariable String type,
        @RequestParam("track") String track) {
    return new TestBean();
}

Here I would like /json/abc or /json to call the same method.
One obvious workaround declare type as a request parameter:

@RequestMapping(value = "/json", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean testAjax(
        HttpServletRequest req,
        @RequestParam(value = "type", required = false) String type,
        @RequestParam("track") String track) {
    return new TestBean();
}

and then /json?type=abc&track=aa or /json?track=rr will work

Answer 1

$.ajax({
            type : 'GET',
            url : '${pageContext.request.contextPath}/order/lastOrder',
            data : {partyId : partyId, orderId :orderId},
            success : function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) });

@RequestMapping(value = "/lastOrder", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody OrderBean lastOrderDetail(@RequestParam(value="partyId") Long partyId,@RequestParam(value="orderId",required=false) Long orderId,Model m ) {}

Answer 2

You can't have optional path variables, but you can have two controller methods which call the same service code:

@RequestMapping(value = "/json/{type}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean typedTestBean(
        HttpServletRequest req,
        @PathVariable String type,
        @RequestParam("track") String track) {
    return getTestBean(type);
}

@RequestMapping(value = "/json", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean testBean(
        HttpServletRequest req,
        @RequestParam("track") String track) {
    return getTestBean();
}

Answer 3

It's not well known that you can also inject a Map of the path variables using the @PathVariable annotation. I'm not sure if this feature is available in Spring 3.0 or if it was added later, but here is another way to solve the example:

@RequestMapping(value={ "/json/{type}", "/json" }, method=RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean typedTestBean(
    @PathVariable Map<String, String> pathVariables,
    @RequestParam("track") String track) {

    if (pathVariables.containsKey("type")) {
        return new TestBean(pathVariables.get("type"));
    } else {
        return new TestBean();
    }
}

Answer 4

Spring 5 / Spring Boot 2 examples:

blocking

@GetMapping({"/dto-blocking/{type}", "/dto-blocking"})
public ResponseEntity<Dto> getDtoBlocking(
        @PathVariable(name = "type", required = false) String type) {
    if (StringUtils.isEmpty(type)) {
        type = "default";
    }
    return ResponseEntity.ok().body(dtoBlockingRepo.findByType(type));
}

reactive

@GetMapping({"/dto-reactive/{type}", "/dto-reactive"})
public Mono<ResponseEntity<Dto>> getDtoReactive(
        @PathVariable(name = "type", required = false) String type) {
    if (StringUtils.isEmpty(type)) {
        type = "default";
    }
    return dtoReactiveRepo.findByType(type).map(dto -> ResponseEntity.ok().body(dto));
}

Answer 5

Check this Spring 3 WebMVC - Optional Path Variables. It shows an article of making an extension to AntPathMatcher to enable optional path variables and might be of help. All credits to Sebastian Herold for posting the article.

Answer 6

If you are using Spring 4.1 and Java 8 you can use java.util.Optional which is supported in @RequestParam, @PathVariable, @RequestHeader and @MatrixVariable in Spring MVC -

@RequestMapping(value = {"/json/{type}", "/json" }, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody TestBean typedTestBean(
    @PathVariable Optional<String> type,
    @RequestParam("track") String track) {      
    if (type.isPresent()) {
        //type.get() will return type value
        //corresponds to path "/json/{type}"
    } else {
        //corresponds to path "/json"
    }       
}