JAX-RS @PathParam

last modified January 10, 2023

JAX-RS @PathParam tutorial shows how use the @PathParam annotation in a RESTful Java web application with Jersey framework.

Jersey

Jersey is a framework for developing RESTful Web Services in Java. It is a reference implementation of the Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) specification.

JAX-RS @PathParam

The JAX-RS @PathParam annotation binds the value of a URI template parameter or a path segment containing the template parameter to a resource method parameter, resource class field, or resource class bean property.

JAX-RS @PathParam example

The following example is a simple RESTful application, which returns a reversed word back to the clien in plain text.

├── pom.xml
└── src
    ├── main
    │   ├── java
    │   │   └── com
    │   │       └── zetcode
    │   │           ├── conf
    │   │           │   └── ApplicationConfig.java
    │   │           └── ws
    │   │               └── ReverseResource.java
    │   └── webapp
    │       └── META-INF
    │           └── context.xml
    └── test
        └── java

This is the project structure.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.zetcode</groupId>
    <artifactId>JerseyPathParam</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <name>JerseyPathParam</name>

   <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>
    
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId>
            <version>2.25</version>
        </dependency>
        
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-server</artifactId>
            <version>2.25</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

This is the Maven POM file. It contains the jersey-container-servlet and jersey-server dependencies.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context path="/JerseyPathParam"/>

In the Tomcat's context.xml configuration file, we define the application context path.

package com.zetcode.conf;

import com.zetcode.ws.HelloResource;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;
import javax.ws.rs.ApplicationPath;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Application;

@ApplicationPath("rest")
public class ApplicationConfig extends Application {

    @Override
    public Set<Class<?>> getClasses() {
        Set<Class<?>> set = new HashSet<>();
        set.add(ReverseResource.class);
        return set;
    }
}

This is the application configuration class. Since Servlet 3.0 it is possible to deploy application without the web.xml file. In Jersey, we create a configuration class that extends the abstract Application and use the @ApplicationPath annotation. The Application defines the components of a JAX-RS application and supplies additional meta-data. Here we register resource classes, providers, or properties the application needs.

@ApplicationPath("rest")

With the @ApplicationPath annotation, we set the path to RESTful web services.

@Override
public Set<Class<?>> getClasses() {
    Set<Class<?>> set = new HashSet<>();
    set.add(ReverseResource.class);
    return set;
}

Inside the getClasses method, we add the resource classes. In our case, we have one ReverseResource class.

package com.zetcode.ws;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.PathParam;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

@Path("reverse")
public class ReverseResource {
    
    @GET
    @Path("/{word}")
    @Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
    public Response getMsg(@PathParam("word") String msg) {

        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(msg);
        String output = builder.reverse().toString();

        return Response.status(200).entity(output).build();
    }    
}

This is the ReverseResource class.

@Path("reverse")
public class ReverseResource {

The @Path specifies the URL to which the resource responds.

@GET
@Path("/{word}")
@Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
public Response getMsg(@PathParam("word") String msg) {

The @PathParam("word") binds the value from the path segment to the msg method parameter.

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(msg);
String output = builder.reverse().toString();

return Response.status(200).entity(output).build();

We reverse the received value and send it back to the client as plain text.

$ curl http://localhost:8084/JerseyPathParam/rest/reverse/summer
remmus

After the application is deployed to Tomcat, we send a GET request to the application with curl. The summer world is read from the path segment by the @PathParam annotation.

In this tutorial, we have used the JAX-RS @PathParam annotation.