json-command-servlet

Java servlet that processes REST requests and returns JSON responses.

To include in your project:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.cedarsoftware</groupId>
  <artifactId>json-command-servlet</artifactId>
  <version>1.9.0</version>
</dependency>

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REST calls can be sent as HTTP GET or POST requests. To make a POST request, it should be formatted like this:

HTTP://mycompany.com/Context/controller/method [HTTP HEADERS] CR LF CR LF [arguments]

where:

'controller' is the bean name of a controller that exposes methods that can be publicly called. 'method' is the name of the method to be called on the controller. [arguments] is a JSON array of arguments matching the arguments required by the method.

The method will be called, and then the return value from the method will be written in JSON format, like this:

{"status":true,"data": [result value in JSON]}   # Result not in array brackets unless result is array

where 'status' is true if the method called returned without exception, otherwise 'status' is false. The 'result' is the JSON string-ified version of the method's return value. If the method throws an exception, the exception message is the "result" and the status is false, and there will be an exception field in the response envelope. See json-io for a Java-script call() method that makes the REST request for you with a very simple notation. Use call("FooController.barMethod", [])

In order for a Controller class (That is the standard name of classes that are callable externally) to be called, it must have the Spring annotation @RestController. This can be added directly to the class, or to an interface that the class inherits from.

By default, marking a class as @RestController, all public methods are available to be called externally (through this servlet). If you have a public method that you do not want called, place the Java annotation @ControllerMethod on the method with allow=false [@ControllerMethod(allow = false)]. The JsonCommandServlet will honor this annotation and return a JSON error message indicating that a method cannot be accessed remotely via this command servlet.

No special annotations have to be added to your methods to be called externally. Simply add the @RestController annotation to the Controller or its interface, and the public methods will be accessible.

This effectively makes all Controller method's like mini-servlets. If you need access to the HttpServletRequest or HttpServletResponse objects within your Controller method, you can access JsonCommandServlet.servletRequest.get() or JsonCommandServlet.servletResponse.get(). The command servlet places the request and response objects on a ThreadLocal and makes it available for the lifespace of your method call.

If you need to stream data back (instead of having a normal return value from a controller method), you can use the JsonCommandServlet.servletResponse.get() to obtain the HttpServletResponse object, and then use the response object set HTTP Response headers and to get the OutputStream to write to. You may be wondering, how do I prevent the JsonCommandServlet from writing a JSON standard response object instead of the streamed data? JsonCommandServlet will detect that the output stream has been written to, and will not write the standard return (JSON) envelope.

Setup

Configure JsonCommandServlet using either web.xml or UrlRewrite.xml (tuckey.org). Example urlrewrite.xml configuration:

<urlrewrite>
    <rule match-type="regex">
        <note>
            Redirect inbound requests using n-cube's sys.classpath
        </note>
        <from>^/sys/[^/]+/.*$</from>
        <set name="sys.classpath.prefix">sys</set>
        <run class="com.cedarsoftware.util.ProxyRouter" method="route" />
        <to>null</to>
    </rule>

    <!-- Route all HTTP GET/PUT JSON commands to the JsonCommandServlet -->
    <rule match-type="regex">
        <note>
            Redirect inbound requests using n-cube's sys.classpath
        </note>
        <from>^/cmd/[^/]+/.*$</from>
        <run class="com.cedarsoftware.servlet.JsonCommandServlet" method="route"/>
        <to>null</to>
    </rule>

</urlrewrite>

See the jsonUtil.js file that ships with json-io for an easy way to make REST calls from Javascript.

See changelog.md for revision history.

By: John DeRegnaucourt