Build a RESTful Web Service Using Spring 3, XML Optional

Build a RESTful Web Service Using Spring 3, XML Optional

By Chris Hardin, OCI Software Engineer

November 2010

Introduction

The concept of Representational State Transfer (REST) and its application to writing Web services has gained popularity in recent years as an alternative to SOAP-based Web services. Unlike SOAP, REST is an architecture and not a protocol. A RESTful Web service can be built using existing Web standards such as HTTP, URL, and XML. Writing a RESTful Web service in Java generally involves writing a servlet that handles HTTP POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE requests to create, retrieve, update, and delete resources. Spring is now one of several frameworks that provides support for writing and consuming these types of services.

Spring 3 was released for production in December 2009 and introduced many new features while repackaging some existing ones. The examples presented below use some of these new features, including the REST support added to Spring MVC (Spring's Model View Controller Web framework), the object-to-XML mapping tools (OXM) that are now included in the main Spring framework, and the new Java-based container configuration.

When they think of Spring, many developers envision an extensive XML configuration that is difficult to write, debug, and maintain. With the release of Spring 3, there are now three options for configuring a Spring application—XML, annotations, and Java-based configuration. The employee application presented here uses the new Java-based configuration to illustrate how Spring 3 can be used to quickly set up a REST service and a client with minimal configuration and almost no XML.

The following examples will build a complete web application with a RESTful service and then show the creation of a simple client application. The client application will use the service to create, read, update, and delete employee data. The code and configuration for the data layer of the Web application are not shown but are included in the attached source code available in the References section at the end of this article.

Build the Service

Add Spring MVC to the Web Application

Because REST support is built into Spring MVC, the first step is to configure the application for Spring MVC. Adding Spring MVC to a web application is as simple as adding a special servlet to the web.xml file and mapping URLs to it. The XML below maps all requests starting with service/ to the Spring MVC dispatcher servlet.

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>employee</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
 
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>employee</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/service/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

The next step is to add an XML file named "employee-servlet.xml" to the application in the WEB-INF directory. The dispatcher servlet configured above automatically detects the file if the naming convention of "servletName-servlet.xml" is followed. Because this example is using as little XML as possible, this file only has two elements. The import element loads the Spring configuration for the data layer of the application—Data-Access Objects and the service classes that wrap them. That configuration is not relevant to setting up the Web service and will not be shown, but please note that the data layer does not have to be configured using XML or even using Spring. The context:component-scan element configures Spring to scan the provided package looking for all classes with annotations marking them as Spring beans (all Spring-managed objects are referred to as beans).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
         xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="
                     http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
                     http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
                     http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
                     http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">
 
    <import resource="classpath:/spring/employee-service.xml"></import>
 
    <context:component-scan 
        base-package="com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.web.controller"></context:component>
 
</beans>

Java-based configuration is one of the new features included in Spring 3. It moves the traditional XML bean configuration into Java code. If you are familiar with Spring XML bean configurations, you will notice that each @Bean annotated method in the example below directly corresponds to an XML bean element. The advantage of writing the bean definitions in code is that you get compile-time checking and don't need XML tool support to get content-assistance and validation of your finished configuration.

The RESTConfig class below contains all of the bean configurations necessary to set up the Web application for Spring MVC and RESTful services. The configuration class itself is also a Spring-managed bean and the @Configuration annotation marks it as both a bean and a configuration source for other beans.

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
import org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.http.converter.xml.MarshallingHttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.HandlerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.HandlerMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver;
 
@Configuration
public class RESTConfig {
 
    @Autowired
    private ApplicationContext ctx;
 
    @Bean
    public CastorMarshaller castorMarshaller(){
        CastorMarshaller marshaller = new CastorMarshaller();
        marshaller.setMappingLocations(new Resource[]{
            ctx.getResource("classpath:/castor/employee.xml"), 
            ctx.getResource("classpath:/castor/resultMessage.xml")});
        return marshaller;
    }
 
    @Bean
    public HttpMessageConverter<Object> marshallingMessageConverter(){
        CastorMarshaller marshaller = castorMarshaller();
        return new MarshallingHttpMessageConverter(marshaller, marshaller);
    }
 
    @Bean
    public HandlerMapping handlerMapping(){
        return new DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping();
    }
 
    @Bean
    public HandlerAdapter handlerAdapter(){
        AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter adapter = 
            new AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter();
        adapter.setMessageConverters(
            new HttpMessageConverter[]{marshallingMessageConverter()});
        return adapter;
    }
 
    @Bean
    public ViewResolver viewResolver(){
        InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver = 
            new InternalResourceViewResolver();
        viewResolver.setViewClass(InternalResourceView.class);
        return viewResolver;
    }
}

Write a RESTful Web Service

The Web application is now fully configured to provide RESTful Web services using Spring MVC. The following example builds a simple service that provides create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations for an employee entity. The first code listing below shows a complete implementation that provides a read operation.

A Read-Only Web Service

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
 
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.domain.Employee;
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.service.EmployeeService;
 
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/registration")
public class EmployeeRESTController {
 
    @Autowired
    private EmployeeService employeeService;       
 
    @RequestMapping(value="/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public ResponseEntity<?> readEmployee(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
        Employee emp = employeeService.getEmployee(id);
        if(emp != null){
            return new ResponseEntity<Employee>(emp, HttpStatus.OK);
        } else {
            ResultMessage resultMessage = 
                new ResultMessage(20, "Employee with id: " + id + " not found.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
                resultMessage, HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
        }
    } 
}

Browser view of an employee returned by the service:

Browser view of an employee returned by the service


Browser view of the error returned when employee number 80 is not found:

Browser view of the error returned when employee number 80 is found

Add Exception Handling

    @ExceptionHandler
    public String exceptionHandler(Exception e){
        return "serviceError"; 
    }
 
    @RequestMapping("/serviceError")
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> serverError(){
        ResultMessage resultMessage = new ResultMessage(50, 
                "An internal error occurred while processing your request.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
            resultMessage, HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
    }

Add a Create Operation

    @RequestMapping(method=RequestMethod.POST)
    public ResponseEntity<?> createEmployee(@RequestBody Employee employee){
        ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> errorResponse = validateEmployee(employee);
 
        if(errorResponse != null){
            return errorResponse;
        }
 
        employeeService.addEmployee(employee);
        return new ResponseEntity<Employee>(employee, HttpStatus.OK);
    }
 
    private ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> validateEmployee(Employee emp){
        if(StringUtils.isBlank(emp.getFirstName())){
            ResultMessage rm = 
                new ResultMessage(30, "Employee name is a required field.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
        }    
        return null;
    }

Add an Update Operation

    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.PUT)
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> updateEmployee(
                @RequestBody Employee employee){
 
        ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> errorResponse = validateEmployee(employee);
        if(errorResponse != null){
            return errorResponse;
        }
 
        employeeService.updateEmployee(employee);
        ResultMessage rm = new ResultMessage(0, "Employee update successful.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

The updateEmployee method handles incoming HTTP PUT requests in much the same way as the createEmployee method handles POST requests. The only difference is that the updateEmployee method updates an existing employee entry in the database and does not create a new one.

Add a Delete Operation

    @RequestMapping(value="/{id}", method=RequestMethod.DELETE)
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> deleteEmployee(
                @PathVariable("id") long id){
 
        Employee emp = employeeService.getEmployee(id);
        if(emp == null){
            ResultMessage resultMessage = 
                new ResultMessage(20, "Employee with id: " + id + " not found.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
                resultMessage, HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
        }
 
        employeeService.deleteEmployee(emp);
        ResultMessage rm = new ResultMessage(0, "Employee delete successful.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

The deleteEmployee method handles incoming HTTP DELETE requests containing an ID number at the end of the URL. As with the readEmployee method, the ID number is stripped off the URL and passed in as the id parameter to the deleteEmployee method. The method attempts to find and delete the employee and returns a ResultMessage indicating success or failure.

The Completed EmployeeRESTController Class

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
 
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.domain.Employee;
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.service.EmployeeService;
 
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/registration")
public class EmployeeRESTController {
 
    @Autowired
    private EmployeeService employeeService;
 
    @RequestMapping(method=RequestMethod.POST)
    public ResponseEntity<?> createEmployee(@RequestBody Employee employee){
        ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> errorResponse = validateEmployee(employee);
 
        if(errorResponse != null){
            return errorResponse;
        }
 
        employeeService.addEmployee(employee);
        return new ResponseEntity<Employee>(employee, HttpStatus.OK);
    }    
 
    @RequestMapping(value="/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public ResponseEntity<?> readEmployee(@PathVariable("id") long id) {
        Employee emp = employeeService.getEmployee(id);
        if(emp != null){
            return new ResponseEntity<Employee>(emp, HttpStatus.OK);
        } else {
            ResultMessage resultMessage = 
                new ResultMessage(20, "Employee with id: " + id + " not found.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
                resultMessage, HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
        }
    }    
 
    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.PUT)
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> updateEmployee(
                @RequestBody Employee employee){
 
        ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> errorResponse = validateEmployee(employee);
        if(errorResponse != null){
            return errorResponse;
        }
 
        employeeService.updateEmployee(employee);
        ResultMessage rm = new ResultMessage(0, "Employee update successful.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.OK);
    }
 
    @RequestMapping(value="/{id}", method=RequestMethod.DELETE)
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> deleteEmployee(
                @PathVariable("id") long id){
 
        Employee emp = employeeService.getEmployee(id);
        if(emp == null){
            ResultMessage resultMessage = 
                new ResultMessage(20, "Employee with id: " + id + " not found.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
                resultMessage, HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
        }
 
        employeeService.deleteEmployee(emp);
        ResultMessage rm = new ResultMessage(0, "Employee delete successful.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.OK);
    }
 
    @RequestMapping("/serviceError")
    public ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> serverError(){
        ResultMessage resultMessage = new ResultMessage(50, 
                "An internal error occurred while processing your request.");
        return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(
            resultMessage, HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
    }
 
    @ExceptionHandler
    public String exceptionHandler(Exception e){
        return "serviceError"; 
    }
 
    private ResponseEntity<ResultMessage> validateEmployee(Employee emp){
        if(StringUtils.isBlank(emp.getFirstName())){
            ResultMessage rm = 
                new ResultMessage(30, "Employee name is a required field.");
            return new ResponseEntity<ResultMessage>(rm, HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
        }    
        return null;
    }
}

The Web service is now complete and the web application is configured and ready to start processing requests.

Build a Client

It is also simple to use Spring 3 to build a client application that consumes a RESTful Web Service. Spring 3 provides a RestTemplate class that handles the details of this interaction. The following example builds a simple client application with a main method that performs each of the CRUD operations on an Employee object.

Configure Spring Beans

The client application is configured using a RESTConfig class that has some similarities to the one in the Web application. Notice that the castorMarshaller and marshallingMessageConverter bean definitions are identical to those in the Web application.

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
 
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
import org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.http.converter.xml.MarshallingHttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;
 
@Configuration
public class RESTConfig {
 
    private String serviceBaseURL = 
        "http://localhost:8080/employee/service/registration/";
 
    @Autowired
    private ApplicationContext ctx;
 
    @Bean
    public CastorMarshaller castorMarshaller(){
        CastorMarshaller marshaller = new CastorMarshaller();
        marshaller.setMappingLocations(new Resource[]{
                ctx.getResource("classpath:/castor/employee.xml"), 
                ctx.getResource("classpath:/castor/resultMessage.xml")});
        return marshaller;
    }
 
    @Bean
    public MarshallingHttpMessageConverter marshallingMessageConverter(){
        CastorMarshaller marshaller = castorMarshaller();
        return new MarshallingHttpMessageConverter(marshaller, marshaller);
    }
 
    @Bean
    public RestTemplate restTemplate() {
        RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
        List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> converters = 
            new ArrayList<HttpMessageConverter<?>>();
        converters.add(marshallingMessageConverter());
        restTemplate.setMessageConverters(converters);
        return restTemplate;
    }
 
    @Bean
    public RestTemplate restTemplateNoError() {
        RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
        List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> converters = 
            new ArrayList<HttpMessageConverter<?>>();
        converters.add(marshallingMessageConverter());
        restTemplate.setMessageConverters(converters);
        restTemplate.setErrorHandler(new NoOpResponseErrorHandler());
        return restTemplate;
    }
 
    @Bean
    public EmployeeRegistrationService employeeService() {
        return new EmployeeRegistrationService(serviceBaseURL, restTemplate(), 
                restTemplateNoError());
    }   
}        
import java.io.IOException;
 
import org.springframework.http.client.ClientHttpResponse;
import org.springframework.web.client.ResponseErrorHandler;
 
public class NoOpResponseErrorHandler implements ResponseErrorHandler {
 
    public void handleError(ClientHttpResponse response) throws IOException {
        //do nothing
    }
 
    public boolean hasError(ClientHttpResponse response) throws IOException {
        return false;
    }
}

By default, whenever the RestTemplate receives anything other than an OK status from the Web service, it throws an exception. This behavior is fine if the client is not concerned about inspecting application-specific error messages and codes returned from the Web service. However, because the employee Web service does return application error objects for any error condition (ResultMessage), the NoOpResponseErrorHandler prevents the RestTemplate from handling the error so that the EmployeeRegistrationService (the caller) has the opportunity to inspect the ResultMessage and handle the error more gracefully. The EmployeeRegistrationService is injected with two RestTemplate beans in order to illustrate both types of error handling.

Write a Service Class to Interact With the Web Service

The service class uses the methods provided in RestTemplate to interact with the remote Web service. RestTemplate provides a set of convenience methods that follow a naming convention wherein the first part of the name represents the HTTP protocol and the second part of the name represents what the method will return. For example, getForObject will issue a GET request and then unmarshall the response into an object that it returns to the caller. RestTemplate also contains more general methods that require the caller to pass in more information, such as the protocol, but give the caller more control over the request being made.

In the example below, the first four methods use a RestTemplate instance, template, that has not been configured with any custom error handling. If the Web service returns an error status or there is a problem unmarshalling the response, the method called on template will throw an exception. The service methods below catch the exception and return null or false to the caller. With this default behavior, there is no way to view any application-specific error messages that were returned by the Web service. The last method in this example, createEmployee2, shows an alternative way of calling the Web service that allows the caller to inspect the application error object, ResultMessage, returned by the Web service when the request fails. To accomplish this, createEmployee2 uses a different RestTemplate instance that is configured to ignore errors. It then uses the exchange method, which gives it more control over the request and returns more information about the response.

import org.springframework.http.HttpEntity;
import org.springframework.http.HttpMethod;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;
 
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.domain.Employee;
 
public class EmployeeRegistrationService {
    private final String SERVICE_URL;
    private final String SERVICE_URL_TEMPLATE;
 
    private final RestTemplate template;
    private final RestTemplate templateNoErrorHandling;
 
    public EmployeeRegistrationService(String serviceURL, RestTemplate template, 
            RestTemplate templateNoErrorHandling) {
        SERVICE_URL = serviceURL;
        SERVICE_URL_TEMPLATE = SERVICE_URL + "{id}";
        this.template = template;
        this.templateNoErrorHandling = templateNoErrorHandling;
    }
 
 
    public Employee getEmployee(long id){
        try {
            return template.getForObject(SERVICE_URL_TEMPLATE, Employee.class, id);
 
        } catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace(); 
            return null;
        }
    }
 
    public Employee createEmployee(Employee emp){
        try {
            return template.postForObject(SERVICE_URL, emp, Employee.class);
 
        } catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace(); 
            return null;
        }
    }
 
    public boolean updateEmployee(Employee emp) {
        try {
            template.put(SERVICE_URL_TEMPLATE, emp, emp.getId());
            return true;
 
        } catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace(); 
            return false;
        }
    }
 
    public boolean deleteEmployee(long id){
        try {
            template.delete(SERVICE_URL_TEMPLATE, id);
            return true;
 
        } catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace(); 
            return false;
        }
    }
 
    public Employee createEmployee2(Employee emp){
        HttpEntity<Employee> requestEntity = new HttpEntity<Employee>(emp);
        ResponseEntity<Object> response = 
            templateNoErrorHandling.exchange(SERVICE_URL, HttpMethod.POST, 
                    requestEntity, Object.class);
        if(response.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.OK){
            return  (Employee)response.getBody();
        } 
 
        ResultMessage rm = (ResultMessage) response.getBody();
        System.out.println(rm.getMessage()); 
        return null;
    }   
}

Use the Service

The configuration and code to use the Web service is now complete and can be pulled into any application that works with Employee objects and needs to interact with the Web service. The ClientDemo class below contains a simple main method that will illustrate the use of the methods in the EmployeeRegistrationService class to create, retrieve, update, and delete Employee objects.

Create and Read an Employee

import java.util.Date;
 
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;
 
import com.ociweb.corespring.examples.employee.domain.Employee;
 
public class ClientDemo {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ApplicationContext ac = 
            new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(RESTConfig.class);
 
        EmployeeRegistrationService service = 
            ac.getBean(EmployeeRegistrationService.class);
 
        Employee e1 = new Employee();
        e1.setFirstName("John");
        e1.setLastName("smith");
        e1.setAddress("105 Easy St.");
        e1.setCity("Saint Louis");
        e1.setJobTitle("Programmer");
        e1.setHireDate(new Date());
        e1.setState("MO");
        e1.setZip("63101");
 
        e1 = service.createEmployee2(e1);
 
        Employee emp = service.getEmployee(e1.getId());
    }
}

The first thing ClientDemo has to do is load the Spring container. Because this is not a Web application and there is no XML configuration, ClientDemo uses the AnnotationConfigApplicationContext implementation of ApplicationContext to load the Spring container from the configuration found in the RESTConfig class. Next, the EmployeeRegistrationService bean is retrieved from the container and stored in the local variable service, which is then used to send a new Employee object to the Web service. The Employee object returned by createEmployee2 contains a valid identifier that can be used later to retrieve the same employee information from the service. It is important to note that this example assumes the employee will be successfully created. If it is not, then a NullPointerException will get thrown when getId is called on e1.

Update the Employee

        emp.setFirstName("Jim");
        service.updateEmployee(emp);

Delete the Employee

        service.deleteEmployee(emp.getId());

Handle Errors

        System.out.println("UNHAPPY PATH 1:");
        emp = new Employee();
        emp = service.createEmployee(emp); 
        if(emp == null){
            System.out.println("employee not created\n");
        }
 
        System.out.println("UNHAPPY PATH 2:");
        emp = new Employee();
        emp = service.createEmployee2(emp); 
        if(emp == null){
            System.out.println("employee not created\n");
        }

The example above shows two attempts to create an employee record by passing an unpopulated Employee to the service. In both cases, the Web service's response contains an HTTP status of 400 (bad request) and a ResultMessage containing the application-specific validation error, "Employee name is a required field." However, notice the difference in output shown in the image below. The first attempt uses the createEmployee method, which uses the RestTemplate with the default error handling. This RestTemplate sees the 400 status and throws an exception without giving the application an opportunity to inspect the contents of the response, the ResultMessage. The second attempt uses the createEmployee2 method, which uses the RestTemplate that has been configured to ignore errors. This allows the application to inspect the response body and print the validation error that was returned from the Web service.

Output Difference

Security

The one glaring omission in these examples is security. As shown, the ClientDemo application is able to cause the modification of the Web service's database without supplying any authentication credentials. In a production application, the URL for the Web service would be secured by the Web application, typically by using a filter that checks the request headers for authentication information. The use of Spring to implement the Web service does not dictate how security must be implemented. However, Spring does provide a security framework that can be used, if desired.

The issue that needs to be addressed in these examples is how to send authentication information with the request. This is harder than it should be and is one area in which the immaturity of this new feature shows. When using the convenient protocol-specific methods in RestTemplate, there is currently no way to configure authentication credentials or modify the request headers directly to insert them. There is currently an open request (SPR_7497) to provide this capability by adding an interceptor mechanism that can be used with RestTemplate. Until that issue is resolved, the simplest way to add authentication is to use the exchange method in RestTemplate for all calls that require authentication. The exchange method takes an HttpEntity parameter, which can be populated with any request headers that need to be sent. In the EmployeeRegistrationService shown previously, the createEmployee2 method illustrates the use of the exchange method, though it does not actually set any request headers in this example.

Summary

Whether you are already using Spring or are thinking about adding Spring to an existing application, Spring 3 provides some useful new features and simplified configuration options. Setting up a new Spring configuration to support a feature, such as a Web service, can be quick and relatively painless. If previous Spring versions have sent you running away with visions of endless XML and dependencies on massive jar files, give Spring 3 another look. Its new configuration options and restructured code-base, in addition to its ever-expanding feature set, may change your mind.

Version

This article is based on features present in version 3.0.4 of the Spring framework.

References

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