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RESTful Java Web Services
RESTful Java Web Services

RESTful Java Web Services: A pragmatic guide to designing and building RESTful APIs using Java , Third Edition

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Profile Icon Bogunuva Mohanram
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Profile Icon Bogunuva Mohanram
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Paperback Nov 2017 420 pages 3rd Edition
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RESTful Java Web Services

Java APIs for JSON Processing

In the previous chapter, you were introduced to the REST architectural style. Remember that REST does not prescribe any specific message format for client-server communication. One can use an appropriate format for representing messages as long as the chosen format is supported by HTTP. XML and JSON are the two popular formats used by RESTful web services today. Within these two formats, JSON is widely adopted by many vendors because of its simplicity and light weight. In this chapter, you will learn more about the JSON message format, how to represent real-life business data in the JSON format, and various processing tools and frameworks related to JSON.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

  • A brief overview of JSON
  • Using the JSR 353 – Java API for processing JSON
  • Using the Jackson API for processing JSON
  • Using the Gson API for...

A brief overview of JSON

JSON is a lightweight, text-based, platform-neutral data interchange format in which objects are represented in the attribute-value pair format. Historically, JSON originated from JavaScript. However, nowadays, it is considered to be a language-independent format because of its wide adoption by all modern programming languages. In this section, you will learn the basics of the JSON format.

Understanding the JSON data syntax

The JSON format is very simple by design. It is represented by the following two data structures:

  • An unordered collection of the name-value pairs (representing an object):
    • Attributes of an object and their values are represented in the name-value pair format; the name and the...

Processing JSON data

If you use Java RESTful web service frameworks, such as JAX-RS, for building RESTful web APIs, the serialization and deserialization of the request and response messages will be taken care of by the framework. However, understanding the JSON structure and tools for processing JSON will definitely help you when the default offering by the framework does not meet your requirements. The following diagram illustrates the role of the JSON marshalling (converting Java object to JSON format) and unmarshalling components (converting JSON format to Java Object) in a typical Java RESTful web service implementation:

This section will teach you the various processing models for JSON data. By the term processing, we mean reading, writing, querying, and modifying JSON data. Two widely adopted programming models for processing JSON are as follows:

  • Object model: In this...

Using JSR 353 – Java API for processing JSON

There are many Java-based frameworks available today for processing JSON. In this section, we will learn the APIs available in the Java EE platform for processing JSON. Java EE 7 has standardized the JSON processing APIs with Java Specification Request (JSR), that is, JSR 353 – Java API for JSON Processing. This JSR offers portable APIs to parse, generate, transform, and query the JSON data. The JSR 353 APIs can be classified into two categories on the basis of the processing model followed by the APIs:

  • Object model API
  • Streaming model API

We had a generic discussion on these two processing models in the previous section, Processing JSON data. In this section, we will see how these processing models are implemented in JSR 353.

...

Using the Jackson API for processing JSON

Jackson is a multipurpose data processing Java library. The primary capability of this tool is the support for processing JSON. It also has additional modules for processing the data encoded in other popular formats, such as Apache Avro (a data serialization system), Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR), a binary JSON format, Smile (a binary JSON format), XML, comma-separated values (CSV), and YAML. In this section, you will learn how to use Jackson APIs to process JSON.

Jackson provides the following three methods for processing JSON:

  • Tree model APIs: This method provides APIs for building a tree representation of a JSON document
  • Data binding API: This method provides APIs for converting a JSON document into and from Java objects
  • Streaming API: This method provides streaming APIs for reading and writing a JSON document

We will...

Using the Gson API for processing JSON

Gson is an open source Java library that can be used for converting Java objects into JSON representations and vice versa. The Gson library was originally developed by Google for its internal use and later open sourced under the terms of Apache License 2.0.

To learn the dependencies of Gson APIs, refer to https://github.com/google/gson/blob/master/UserGuide.md#TOC-Gson-With-Maven.

Processing JSON with object model APIs in Gson

The main class in the Gson library that you will use for building an object model from the JSON data is the com.google.gson.Gson class. Here is a list of the core Gson classes from the object model API category:

Class

Description

com.google.gson.GsonBuilder...

Java EE 8 enhancements for processing JSON

While Java EE8 is on its way and expected by the end of 2017, one of the most-awaited enhancement in Java EE 8 is related to JSON processing, covered by JSR 374 – Java API for JSON Processing 1.1.

With JSON becoming widely used in service-oriented patterns (such as reusable contract and lightweight endpoint), another key feature planned in Java EE8 is the JSR 367 Java API for JSON Binding (JSON-B). Similar to GSON, JSR 367 brings in the capability of marshalling/unmarshalling Java objects to JSON representation. JSON-B will be the standard binding layer for converting Java objects to/from JSON messages, similar to JAXB for XML binding.

Service-oriented patterns cover a variety of design patterns used to address the pain points that inhibit adopting Service-oriented principles. For example, reusable contract pattern avoids tight...

Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to the various processing models for the JSON content and some of the popular Java-based JSON processing frameworks available today. We also explored the upcoming enhancements for processing JSON in Java EE8. This chapter is essential for understanding how the JSON-based request and response messages are bound to the Java model while building REST APIs later in the book.

This chapter is not meant to recommend any specific JSON framework for your application but to help you understand the popular frameworks available today for processing JSON, and their offerings in general.

In the next chapter, we will build our first REST service by using JAX-RS APIs.

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Key benefits

  • Build efficient and secure RESTful web APIs in Java..
  • Design solutions to produce, consume and visualize RESTful web services using WADL, RAML, and Swagger
  • Familiarize the role of RESTful APIs usage in emerging technology trends like Cloud, IoT, Social Media.

Description

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a simple yet powerful software architecture style to create lightweight and scalable web services. The RESTful web services use HTTP as the transport protocol and can use any message formats, including XML, JSON(widely used), CSV, and many more, which makes it easily inter-operable across different languages and platforms. This successful book is currently in its 3rd edition and has been used by thousands of developers. It serves as an excellent guide for developing RESTful web services in Java. This book attempts to familiarize the reader with the concepts of REST. It is a pragmatic guide for designing and developing web services using Java APIs for real-life use cases following best practices and for learning to secure REST APIs using OAuth and JWT. Finally, you will learn the role of RESTful web services for future technological advances, be it cloud, IoT or social media. By the end of this book, you will be able to efficiently build robust, scalable, and secure RESTful web services using Java APIs.

Who is this book for?

If you are a web developer with a basic understanding of the REST concepts and envisage to get acquainted with the idea of designing and developing RESTful web services, this is the book for you. As all the code samples for the book are written in Java, proficiency in Java is a must.

What you will learn

  • Introduce yourself to the RESTful software architectural style and the REST API design principles
  • Make use of the JSR 353 API, JSR 374 API, JSR 367 API and Jackson API for JSON processing
  • Build portable RESTful web APIs, making use of the JAX-RS 2.1 API
  • Simplify API development using the Jersey and RESTEasy extension APIs
  • Secure your RESTful web services with various authentication and authorization mechanisms
  • Get to grips with the various metadata solutions to describe, produce, and consume RESTful web services
  • Understand the design and coding guidelines to build well-performing RESTful APIs
  • See how the role of RESTful web services changes with emerging technologies and trends

Product Details

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Publication date : Nov 17, 2017
Length: 420 pages
Edition : 3rd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788294041
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Product Details

Publication date : Nov 17, 2017
Length: 420 pages
Edition : 3rd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788294041
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
Introducing the REST Architectural Style Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Java APIs for JSON Processing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Introducing the JAX-RS API Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Features in the JAX-RS APIs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Introducing JAX-RS Implementation Framework Extensions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing RESTful Web Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Description and Discovery of RESTful Web Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
RESTful API Design Guidelines Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Role of RESTful APIs in Emerging Technologies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Useful Features and Techniques Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.8
(5 Ratings)
5 star 80%
4 star 20%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Joanna Rybak Nov 22, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
good book for a reasonable price
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Paulo Diaz Dec 01, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excelente libro para desarrollar Servicios Web basadas en Java
Amazon Verified review Amazon
hegp Aug 29, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
none
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Claveman Jan 12, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Up to date and well organized. I found this book a nice respite after getting a headache from reading dozens of fragmented, overlapping web articles, blogs, videos, and other material on the web. This is just a great reference on web services to have on your desk. For only a few bucks more you can have the searchable Kindle edition as well.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Simone Jan 15, 2021
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
È un ottimo libro per ripassare il protocollo http, servlet ecc. Come sappiamo rest è solo un derivato da questo e quindi risulta molto semplice da comprendere anche per come è spiegato. Possiamo trovare anche riferimenti alle varie librerie utilizzabili per la trasformazione in jspn come gson. Siccome molte aziende seguono la moda, forse sarebbe stato meglio optare per un libro su springboot anche se io personalmente trovo quest'ultimo un modo ulteriore per complicarsi la vita (visto anche tutti i framework che poi devi utilizzare per farlo girare bene).Tralasciando il mio divagare in questioni professionali, ho trovato questo libro molto utile per creare servizi in puro java! Consigliatissimo.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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