Spring RestTemplate GET with parameters

Question

I have to make a REST call that includes custom headers and query parameters. I set my HttpEntity with just the headers (no body), and I use the RestTemplate.exchange() method as follows:

HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
headers.set("Accept", "application/json");

Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
params.put("msisdn", msisdn);
params.put("email", email);
params.put("clientVersion", clientVersion);
params.put("clientType", clientType);
params.put("issuerName", issuerName);
params.put("applicationName", applicationName);

HttpEntity entity = new HttpEntity(headers);

HttpEntity<String> response = restTemplate.exchange(url, HttpMethod.GET, entity, String.class, params);

This fails at the client end with the dispatcher servlet being unable to resolve the request to a handler. Having debugged it, it looks like the request parameters are not being sent.

When I do a an exchange with a POST using a request body and no query parameters it works just fine.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

In Spring Web 4.3.6 I also see

public <T> T getForObject(String url, Class<T> responseType, Object... uriVariables)

That means you don't have to create an ugly map

So if you have this url

http://my-url/action?param1={param1}&param2={param2}

You can either do

restTemplate.getForObject(url, Response.class, param1, param2)

or

restTemplate.getForObject(url, Response.class, param [])

Answer 2

public static void main(String[] args) {
         HttpHeaders httpHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
         httpHeaders.set("Accept", MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
         final String url = "https://host:port/contract/{code}";
         Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
         params.put("code", "123456");
         HttpEntity<?> httpEntity  = new HttpEntity<>(httpHeaders); 
         RestTemplate restTemplate  = new RestTemplate();
         restTemplate.exchange(url, HttpMethod.GET, httpEntity,String.class, params);
    }

Answer 3

Since at least Spring 3, instead of using UriComponentsBuilder to build the URL (which is a bit verbose), many of the RestTemplate methods accept placeholders in the path for parameters (not just exchange).

From the documentation:

Many of the RestTemplate methods accepts a URI template and URI template variables, either as a String vararg, or as Map<String,String>.

For example with a String vararg:

restTemplate.getForObject(
   "http://example.com/hotels/{hotel}/rooms/{room}", String.class, "42", "21");

Or with a Map<String, String>:

Map<String, String> vars = new HashMap<>();
vars.put("hotel", "42");
vars.put("room", "21");

restTemplate.getForObject("http://example.com/hotels/{hotel}/rooms/{hotel}", 
    String.class, vars);

Reference: https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/integration.html#rest-resttemplate-uri

If you look at the JavaDoc for RestTemplate and search for "URI Template", you can see which methods you can use placeholders with.