Question

I’m trying to edit my create method in my REST webservice so it should return the newly created ID from the object. I’ve been trying for the past two days but I must be doing something terribly wrong…

This is the edited create method on the server side:

@POST
@Consumes({"application/xml", "application/json"})
@Path("withID")
@Produces("text/plain")
public String create2(Users entity) {
    getEntityManager().persist(entity);
    getEntityManager().flush();
    System.out.println("new id: " + entity.getId());
    return String.valueOf(entity.getId());
}

It is based on a (by netbeans) generated count() method as shown below:

@GET
@Path("count")
@Produces("text/plain")
public String countREST() {
    return String.valueOf(super.count());
}

If I do a request from my client to add a new Users object, it works like as expected. The new user is beeing added to the database. In the GlassFish server log, I see the newly created ID shown by the System.out.println command. However, if I do a test via the TestRestful Web Services in netbeans, paste the client generated XML code at the correct window and hit the TEST button, I receive a HTTP Status 415 – Unsupported Media Type error.

I did some research and found this question. So my guess instead of returning a String, I should return a Response object with a 201 CREATED status and adjust the header or something? I checked out the spring example but as I am not using spring, I have no clue how to adjust the create2 method code… however I did a try but I’m missing some pieces:

@POST
@Consumes({"application/xml", "application/json"})
@Path("withID")
@Produces("text/plain") //should this change to application/xml?
public Response create2(Users entity) {
    getEntityManager().persist(entity);
    getEntityManager().flush();
    System.out.println("new id: " + entity.getId());

    //Response response = Response.created(... + "withID/" + entity.getId()); //response need an URI, can I get this through the entity object?

    return Response.status(200).entity(entity.getId().toString()).build();    
}

I hope that I’m on the right track. Sorry for the long post, hope someone can help me out here. Thanks in advance!

Edit: working example now:

@POST
@Consumes({"application/xml"})
@Path("withID")
@Produces({"application/xml"})
public Response create2(Users entity) {
    getEntityManager().persist(entity);
    getEntityManager().flush();
    return Response.status(201).entity(entity.getId().toString()).build();
}

Answer 1

I don’t know about the NetBeans stuff, we’re using Spring.. But returning a Response object is a good idea, we always do that and we also return the ID for a create:

return Response.status(200).entity(createdObject.getId().toString()).build();

Unsupported MediaType is quite annoying.. Not sure what you’re talking about when you mention client generated xml data.. We’re using JSON and even though the response is just a simple string, we tell the create method to produce json:

@POST
@Consumes(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
@Transactional
public Response create(T source) {
}

Simple test we use on the command line:

$ curl -v -H "Accept: application/json" -H "Content-type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"id":95, "additional":"stuff..."}' "http://localhost:8080/rest/resource"

Well, good luck. Looks like you’re on the right track.