WAS v8.5 > Develop applications > Develop web services - RESTful services > Develop JAX-RS web applicationsGet started with IBM JAX-RS
JAX-RS is a collection of interfaces and Java annotations that simplifies development of server-side REST applications. By using JAX-RS technology, Representational State Transfer (REST) applications are easier to develop and easier to consume when compared to other types of distributed systems. JAX-RS is a Java API for developing REST applications quickly. While JAX-RS provides a faster way of developing web applications than servlets, the primary goal of JAX-RS is to build RESTful services. JAX-RS 1.0 defines a server-side component API to build REST applications. The IBM implementation of JAX-RS provides an implementation of the JAX-RS (JSR 311) specification.
Use this Getting Started guide to help quickly develop and deploy a simple JAX-RS web application.
This procedure illustrates developing a simple Hello World service that is packaged inside a WAR module.
- Create a Java class. This class is used to represent a type of resource.
package com.ibm.jaxrs.sample; public class HelloWorldResource { }- Annotate the Java class with a javax.ws.rs.Path annotation. The value of the annotation is the relative part of the URL after the application context. The application context is fully defined during deployment. In JAX-RS terminology, this class is known as a root resource.
package com.ibm.jaxrs.sample; @javax.ws.rs.Path("/helloworld") public class HelloWorldResource { }- Create a Java method that returns a Hello World! response. It is intended for the method to be invoked when an HTTP request is received.
package com.ibm.jaxrs.sample; @javax.ws.rs.Path("/helloworld") public class HelloWorldResource { public String sayHelloWorld() { return "Hello World!"; }}
- Add a javax.ws.rs.GET annotation to the Java method.
Now, whenever an HTTP GET request is received by the application to the /helloworld path, the sayHelloWorld Java method is invoked. The response message body will contain Hello World! as its content.
package com.ibm.jaxrs.sample; @javax.ws.rs.Path("/helloworld") public class HelloWorldResource { @javax.ws.rs.GET public String sayHelloWorld() { return "Hello World!"; }}The resource implementation is now complete.
- You must create the JAX-RS javax.ws.rs.core.Application configuration subclass. This subclass needs to return the set of Java classes that is relevant to the JAX-RS runtime environment.
package com.ibm.jaxrs.sample; public class HelloWorldAppConfig extends javax.ws.rs.core.Application { public Set<Class<?>> getClasses() { Set<Class<?>> classes = new HashSet<Class<?>>(); classes.add(com.ibm.jaxrs.sample.HelloWorldResource.class); return classes; }}- Create the web.xml web module configuration file.
The file tells the web container the web module contains the IBM JAX-RS REST servlet. You must initialize the IBM JAX-RS Rest servlet with the application configuration class.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <web-app id="WebApp_9" version="2.4" xmlns=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"> <servlet> <servlet-name>HelloWorldApp</servlet-name> <servlet-class>com.ibm.websphere.jaxrs.server.IBMRestServlet</servlet-class> <init-param> <param-name>javax.ws.rs.Application</param-name> <param-value>com.ibm.jaxrs.sample.HelloWorldAppConfig</param-value> </init-param> <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>HelloWorldApp</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> </web-app>See the servlet mapping specified in the previous example. The pattern is used to help determine the final URL of the RESTful service.
- Add the j2ee.jar file to the classpath.
Get the j2ee.jar file from the app_server_root/dev/JavaEE directory and add the JAR file to the classpath. Compile the classes.
- Assemble the web application.
By using the jar command-line tool that is included with the JDK, run the following command:
jar cvf helloworld-jaxrs.war *
This command creates a WAR file.- Deploy the application onto the application server.
When deploying the application, you might be prompted to provide a value for the context root of the module. The context root is used to define the application context.
When using the IBM JAX-RS servlet, the following URL defines the application context:
http://<your_hostname>:<your Web_container_port>/<context_root_of_Web_application>/servlet_mapping_pattern
Root resource URLs specified by the @javax.ws.rs.Path values are relative to the application context root. If the context root is defined as myapplication during deployment, the URL pattern is defined in web.xml as /rest/*, and the Java root resource class has a @javax.ws.rs.Path value of /helloworld. An example of the final URL is:http://localhost:9080/myapplication/rest/helloworld
Now, we can send a client request to the final URL using a web browser or any other HTTP client.
Results
You have developed and deployed a JAX-RS web application on the application server.
Related concepts:
Overview of IBM JAX-RS
Related
Planning to use JAX-RS to enable RESTful services
Implement JAX-RS web applications
Reference
Directory conventions