jsr339-experts@jax-rs-spec.java.net

[jsr339-experts] Re: [jax-rs-spec users] Re: Hypermedia Proposals

From: Marek Potociar <marek.potociar_at_oracle.com>
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:23:32 +0200

Hi Guilherme

On 07/13/2011 07:22 PM, Guilherme Silveira wrote:
> This is connected with the proposal you asked me to send in. Time to
> send it although the schedule has changed... here it is:
>
> 1. A simple request action. Will render the clients using conneg.
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R24
> 1.b. Same thing, optional Path so one can use multiple verbs (if it makes sense)
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R31

Maybe I am missing the context - what is the above supposed to showcase?

>
> 2. Serializing links in the controller: not mixing view concerns with
> the model, leaving it at the controller.
> Typesafe. Refactor friendly.
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R37
>

I am interested in how "serializer.link("self").to(this).find(id);" is supposed to work:

- does the proxy (I just presume it's a proxy) returned by ".to(this)" actually invoke the "find" method on "this"? If
yes, what about cases when the redundant method invocation is expensive? If not, what if the proxy is accidentally used
in place of the actual instance of <T>?

> 3. Interceptor example
> If you return File, InputStream or similar ones, its a download. An
> example of how custom conventions can be created using interceptors.
> Conventions like this one can be created for one JAX-RS implementation
> and used in *any* of them without any change of code... different from
> string based features.
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R46
>

Again, I am perhaps missing the context. Or maybe I don't see where/how the convention you refer to is established.

> 4. Explicit variable mapping
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R44
> I prefer implicit one, but people might argue that reading debug
> information is nasty. So we can give the option, of course

How would the implicit variable mapping look like in this case?

>
> 5. Explicit entity unmarshalling
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R50
> With the use of an extra interceptor (as the previous one) one can
> handle generic cases such as 404, 401, etc

I am sorry, but again, what is the context here? What is the purpose of the @Consumes annotation introduced in the example?

>
> 6. Header based link generation
> This one generates 303, a hyperlink to another part of the system.
> Again, type safe. Refactor friendly. Non annotation based. No need
> for an extra description language (that will offer the same limits of
> other annotation based expression languages):
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L11R55
>

The pattern used here raises the same questions as the example 2. Also, I wonder what is the true purpose of Result and
where its instances come from.

> 7. Programmatic route configuration
> If the user likes it. Mostly used by plugin providers to add the
> conventions they wish.
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L14R11
>
> 8. Default parameter names
> Explicit linking. Implementor can generalize it to use the debug
> information, the type name, an annotation or anything else. The JAX-RS
> spec can force one option (such as the annotation) and leave room for
> implementors to add support for, i.e. the debug information one. The
> first vendor to support it is also providing the same support to all
> other vendors, without too much effort.
> https://github.com/caelum/jaxrs2-caelum/commit/9ba9179e9f2dce71e0a36c8e7c7ab857579ce0bb#L14R20

I think we discussed this quite a long time ago and I still believe that such low level details on the server-side
should not be part of the spec because of the constraints they impose upon the impl. providers. Also, I found it
somewhat challenging to understand functionality of the examples above, which I would attribute mainly to the
customizable conveniences aspect of the whole thing. As a matter of fact, I prefer to keep JAX-RS more strict to ensure
it's consistently readable without any surprises caused by some customization hidden in a small class in the project's
class hierarchy or worse, in some of the libraries used by the project.

> Of course, the main reason that I see on running away from annotation
> based languages is that we already have Java. We ran away from XML as
> a description language for configuration only to arrive at Annotations
> as a description language for configuration... hmmm..

I don't share such view - even with annotations a XML config file still plays an important role once the application is
deployed to production and it needs to be configured externally. Annotation-based configuration is primarily meant for
the development phase, so that developers do not have to switch back and forth between Java & XML files.

Marek

>
> So those are multiple examples of how linking can be done and - on the
> way - I've ended up creating the interfaces for the MVC part so we
> don't force users to break MVC or DDD concepts.
>
> Regards
>
> Guilherme Silveira
> Caelum | Ensino e Inovação
> http://www.caelum.com.br/
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Santiago Pericas-Geertsen
> <Santiago.PericasGeertsen_at_oracle.com> wrote:
>> Markus, Guilherme,
>>
>>> Same point of view on Annotation based link generation: annotations
>>> are (way too) limited and usually imply in using yet another language
>>> for describing "cases".
>>
>> If we don't use something like EL, then I think a Java API sans annotations would be preferable. However, I'm not convinced that such an alternative provides the same level of ease of use.
>>
>> Guilherme: Is there a RestFulie example in which a model is serialized using links that we can look at?
>>
>> -- Santiago
>>
>>> 2011/7/7 Markus KARG <markus_at_headcrashing.eu>:
>>>> Thank you for coming up with this proposal, which seems as a good starting
>>>> point for the discussion but looks a bit complex to the average user. I want
>>>> to propose the following "defaults", which helps a lot people and is less
>>>> complex than supplying all that parameters:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Ref.resource -- It should be possible to omit this, and instead declare
>>>> *once* the sole resource used for resolving this reference. That means,
>>>> rather than always giving the resource here, I instead would prefer to mark
>>>> one resource as the "main resolver" for references of this type in *all*
>>>> @Refs. Reason: An apple is an apple and will not become a peach at some
>>>> particular link. So it makes no sense to enforce repeating of the apple
>>>> resolver. In our already shipping application we solved this using a
>>>> registry that maps resources on reference types, but obviously it is much
>>>> smarter to just mark a resource using an annotation as "the apple resolver".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Ref.style -- Typically in the web resources are virtually always relatively
>>>> addressed (ever wrote http:// into <img src>?), so the default should be
>>>> RELATIVE. Also I think it is not dependend of the particular link but should
>>>> be a global setting. That means, I want to omit this parameter and instead
>>>> tell the resource "whenever you need to resolve @Ref, then please use
>>>> RELATIVE links". This reduces a lot of clutter. If anybody would ever want
>>>> ABSOLUTE style I assume he wants it for anything the resource does, not just
>>>> for one particular link.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Ref.bindings -- In our already shipping application we are not using
>>>> implicit bindings, i. e. we expect (unless otherwise specified) that the
>>>> parameter names are matching the JAXB's property names. It would reduce a
>>>> lot of clutter if we could agree upon such a fallback, so people only need
>>>> to give the bindings parameter in case of differing names.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Using this defaults it would be possible to enable HATEOAS with just an
>>>> unparameterized @Ref written into the JAXB document. This is how we
>>>> implemented it in our current app, and we would be not very happy to get a
>>>> more flexible but more cluttering standard… :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Ref.condition -- Interesting idea, but the question is, whether there will
>>>> be any other conditions besides "is null"? If not, we can omit that, since
>>>> null will not get rendered by a JAXB marshaller anyways. If there are more
>>>> conditions, I would be more happy with a Java API than a String based
>>>> syntax. In our application we solved this by the general invention of a
>>>> "Constraint" interface (which is not HATEOAS dependend, but more general
>>>> like java.lang or java.util things are). This would not only run faster, but
>>>> also allows to syntax-check for typos (which always is hard to find).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Binding -- I would prefer not using String syntax here, too, due to the
>>>> same reasons.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> @Link -- Actually this looks scary. If I want to make the JAXB marshaller
>>>> render LINK headers instead of XML URLs, it should be sufficient to
>>>> configure that in one line instead of that huge code block. Something like a
>>>> boolean parameter set at the marshaller or like that. I do not think that it
>>>> should be part of the representation class itself, but more a general
>>>> rendering configuration.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> Markus
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Santiago Pericas-Geertsen [mailto:Santiago.PericasGeertsen_at_oracle.com]
>>>> Sent: Mittwoch, 6. Juli 2011 21:09
>>>>
>>>> To: jsr339-experts_at_jax-rs-spec.java.net
>>>> Subject: [jsr339-experts] Re: Hypermedia Proposals
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I've updated the wiki [1] to describe the type of declarative hyperlinking
>>>> supported in Jersey using @Ref and @Link. Declarative hyperlinking in Jersey
>>>> supports both links in representations and link headers.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hyperlinking is a first step, but HATEOAS is more than that. I've also
>>>> added some links to related work towards the end of the page. Please feel
>>>> free to include other links there.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Guilherme: I came across [2]. Is this the latest on your research in this
>>>> area?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- Santiago
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://java.net/projects/jax-rs-spec/pages/Hypermedia
>>>>
>>>> [2] https://github.com/caelum/restfulie-java/wiki/java_hypermedia
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jul 5, 2011, at 12:47 PM, Guilherme Silveira wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Cant we support link headers? Would already incentivate people doing rest...
>>>> Even if limited to links.
>>>>
>>>> Cant we also incentivate response based links and forms as in
>>>>
>>>> Response.getLinksFor(myEntity)
>>>>
>>>> An http api withou hypermedia is, in the best case, an http api - not a rest
>>>> one.
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> Guilherme Silveira
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2011. 7. 5. 오후 12:40에 "Bill Burke" <bburke_at_redhat.com>님이 작성:
>>>>
>>>> Hypermedia is entity body driven, so, other than Link header support, I
>>>> don't see what we can be done in regards to a specification. XML/JAXB is
>>>> the only standardized media type JCP has dealt with and I'm very doubtful
>>>> meaningful integration can be done with it considering JAXB's limitations.
>>>>
>>>> On 7/1/11 1:47 PM, Santiago Pericas-Geertsen wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hello Experts,
>>>>>
>>>>> Even though we are stil...
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Bill Burke
>>>> JBoss, a division of Red Hat
>>>> http://bill.burkecentral.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>