Maven Dependency

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
  <artifactId>cxf-rt-rs-client</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.15</version>
</dependency>

In CXF 2.7.x no JAX-RS 2.0 Client API is supported and CXF specific Client API is located in the cxf-rt-frontend-jaxrs module.

CXF Apache HttpClient based transport is required to get the asynchronous invocations working correctly:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
  <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http-hc</artifactId>
  <!-- 2.7.8 or 3.0.15 --> 
  <version>${cxf.version}</version>
</dependency>

JAX-RS 2.0 Client API

CXF 3.0.0 implements JAX-RS 2.0 Client API. Internally it is implemented in terms of CXF specific WebClient.

The javax.ws.rs.client provides a short overview of how JAX-RS 2.0 Client API works.

Typically, one starts from ClientBuilder in order to create a Client.
Next WebTarget is created and further customized as needed.

Next, Invocation.Builder is initialized and the request can be made immediately using one of the SyncInvoker methods, with the builder directly implementing SyncInvoker.

Client client = ClientBuilder.newBuilder().newClient();
WebTarget target = client.target("http://localhost:8080/rs");
target = target.path("service").queryParam("a", "avalue");

Invocation.Builder builder = target.request();
Response response = builder.get();
Book book = builder.get(Book.class);

The above sequence can be easily collapsed into a single code sequence if preferred.
Note that SyncInvoker (and AsyncInvoker) expects Entity to represent the request body.

Invocation.Builder has a shortcut to Invocation via its build(...) methods to further customize the invocation.

Invocation.Builder.async() links to AsyncInvoker.

Client and WebTarget are all can be individually configured, the implement Configurable interface which can accept the providers and properties and return Configuration. Configuring the Client directly or indirectly via ClientBuilder.withConfig method affects all the WebClients spawned by a given Client.

JAX-RS 2.0 and CXF specific API

CXF proxy and WebClient client code has been retrofitted to support JAX-RS 2.0 client filters, reader and writer interceptors, new exception classes and Response API.

WebClient offers shortcuts to JAX-RS 2.0 AsyncInvoker and SyncInvoker interfaces.

WebClient.getConfig(Object client) supports JAX-RS 2.0 WebTarget and Invocation.Builder for 2.0 clients to be able to get to the lower-level CXF configuration and set up the properties such as 'receiveTimeout', etc.

Proxy-based API

With the proxy-based API, one can reuse on the client side the interfaces or even the resource classes which have already been designed for processing the HTTP requests on the server side (note that a cglib-nodeps dependency will need to be available on the classpath for proxies created from concrete classes). When reused on the client side, they simply act as remote proxies.

JAXRSClientFactory is a utility class which wraps JAXRSClientFactoryBean. JAXRSClientFactory offers a number of utility methods but JAXRSClientFactoryBean can also be used directly if desired.

For example, given these class definitions:

@Path("/bookstore")
public interface BookStore {
   @GET
   Books getAllBooks();
   
   @Path("{id}")
   BookResource getBookSubresource(@PathParam("id") long id) throws NoBookFoundException API {span}

{toc}

h1. Proxy-based API

With the proxy-based API, one can reuse on the client side the interfaces or even the resource classes which have already been designed for processing the HTTP requests on the server side (note that a cglib-nodeps dependency need to be available on the classpath for proxies created from concrete classes). When reused on the client side, they simply act as the remote proxies.

[JAXRSClientFactory|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/JAXRSClientFactory.java] is a utility class which wraps [JAXRSClientFactoryBean|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/JAXRSClientFactoryBean.java]. JAXRSClientFactory has a number of utility methods but JAXRSClientFactoryBean can be used directly when needed.

For example, given these class definitions :

{code:java}
@Path("/bookstore")
public interface BookStore {
   @GET
   Books getAllBooks();
   
   @Path("{id}")
   BookResource getBookSubresource(@PathParam("id") long id) throws NoBookFoundException;
}

public class BookStoreImpl implements BookStore {
   public Books getAllBooks() {}
   
   public BookBookResource getBookSubresource(long id) throws NoBookFoundException {}
}

public interface BookResource {
   @GET
   Book getDescriptiongetBook();
}

public class BookResourceImpl implements BookResource {
   @GET
   Book getDescriptiongetBook() {}
}

{code}

the

...

following

...

client

...

code

...

retrieves

...

a

...

Book

...

with

...

id

...

'1'

...

and

...

a

...

collection

...

of

...

books:

 

{code:java}
BookStore store = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://bookstore.com", BookStore.class);
// (1) remote GET call to http://bookstore.com/bookstore
Books books = store.getAllBooks();
// (2) no remote call
BookResource subresource = store.getBookSubresource(1);
// {3} remote GET call to http://bookstore.com/bookstore/1
Book b = subresource.getDescriptiongetBook();
{code}  

When proxies are created, initially or when subresource methods are invoked, the current URI is updated with corresponding @Path, @PathParam, @QueryParam or @MatrixParam values, while @HttpHeader and @CookieParam values contribute to the current set of HTTP headers. Same happens before the remote invocation is done.

It is important to understand that strictly speaking there is no direct relationship between a given method on the client side and the same one on the server side. The job of the proxy is to construct a correct URI according to given class and method specifications - it may or may not be the same method on the corresponding server class that will be invoked (provided of course that it is a JAX-RS annotated server resource class - but that may not be the case!) More often than not, you will see a method foo() invoked on a server resource class whenever the same method is invoked on the corresponding remote proxy - but in the presence of @Path annotations with arbitrary regular expressions this is not guaranteed, however this doesn't matter, as the most important thing is that a proxy will produce a correct URI and it will be matched as expected by a server class.

Client-side MessageBodyReaders and MessageBodyWriters are used to process request or response bodies just as they do on the server side. More specifically, method body writers are invoked whenever a remote method parameter is assumed to be a request body (that is, it has no JAX-RS annotations attached) or when a form submission is emulated with the help of either @FormParams or the JAX-RS MultivaluedMap.

You can make multiple remote invocations on the same proxy (initial or subresource), the current URI and headers will be updated properly for each call.

If you would like to proxify concrete classes such as BookStoreImpl for example (say you can not extract interfaces), then drop the cglib-nodeps.jar on a classpath. Such classes must have a default constructor. All methods which have nothing to do with JAX-RS will simply be ignored on the client side and marked as unsupported.

Customizing proxies

Proxies end up implementing not only the interface requested at proxy creation time but also a Client interface. In many cases one does not need to explicitly specify commonly used HTTP headers such as Content-Type or Accept as this information will likely be available from @Consumes or @Produces annotations. At the same time you may explicitly set either of these headers, or indeed some other header. You can use a simple WebClient utility method for converting a proxy to a base client:

   

When proxies are created, initially or when subresource methods are invoked, the current URI is updated with corresponding \@Path, \@PathParam, \@QueryParam or @MatrixParam values, while \@HttpHeader and \@CookieParam values contribute to the current set of HTTP headers. Same happens before the remote invocation is done. 

It is important to understand that strictly speaking there is no direct relationship between a given method on the client side and the same one on the server side. The job of the proxy is to construct a correct URI according to a given class and method specifications - it may or may not be the same method on the corresponding server class that will be invoked (provided of course that it is a JAX-RS annotated server resource class - but it may not be the case !). More often than not, you will see a method foo() invoked on a server resource class whenever the same method is invoked on the corresponding remote proxy - but in the presence of \@Path annotations with arbitrary regular expressions is is not guaranteed - never mind, the most important things is that a proxy will produce a correct URI and it will be matched as *expected* by a server class.   

MessageBodyReaders and MessageBodyWriters are used to process request or response bodies, same way as on the server side. More specifically. method body writers are invoked whenever a remote method parameter is assumed to be a request body (that is, it has no JAX-RS annotations attached) or when a form submission is emulated with the help of either \@FormParams or JAX-RS MultivaluedMap. 

You can make multiple remote invocations on the same proxy (initial or subresource), the current URI and headers are updated properly. 

If you would like to proxify concrete classes such as BookStoreImpl for example (say you can not extract interfaces), then drop a cglib-nodeps.jar on a classpath. Such classes must have a default constructor. All the methods which have nothing to do with JAX-RS will simply be ignored on the client side and marked as unsupported.

h2. Customizing proxies 

Proxies end up implementing not only the interface requested at the proxy creation time but also a [Client|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/Client.java] interface. In many cases one does not need to explicitly specify commonly used HTTP headers such as Content-Type or Accept as this information will likely be available from \@Consumes or \@Produces annotations. At the same time you may to explicitly set either of these headers, or indeed some other header. You can use a simple [WebClient|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/WebClient.java] utility method for converting a proxy to a base client :

{code:java}
BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class);
WebClient.client(proxy).accept("text/xml");
// continue using the proxy    
{code}

You

...

can

...

also

...

check

...

a

...

current

...

set

...

of

...

headers,

...

current

...

and

...

base

...

URIs

...

and

...

a

...

client

...

Response.

...

Converting

...

proxies

...

to

...

Web

...

Clients

...

and

...

vice

...

versa

...

Using

...

proxies

...

is

...

just

...

one

...

way to consume a service.

...

Proxies

...

hide

...

away

...

the

...

details

...

of

...

how

...

URIs

...

are

...

being

...

composed

...

while

...

HTTP-centric

...

WebClients

...

provide

...

for

...

an

...

explicit

...

URI

...

creation.

...

Both

...

proxies

...

and

...

http

...

clients

...

rely

...

on

...

the

...

same

...

base

...

information

...

such

...

as

...

headers

...

and

...

the

...

current

...

URI

...

so

...

at

...

any

...

moment

...

of

...

time

...

you

...

can

...

create

...

a

...

WebClient

...

instance

...

out

...

of

...

the

...

existing

...

proxy

...

:

Code Block
java java
{code:java} BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class); WebClientClient client = WebClient.createclient(proxy); WebClient httpClient = WebClient.fromClient(client); // continue using the http client {code}

At

...

any

...

moment

...

of

...

time

...

you

...

can

...

convert

...

an

...

http

...

client

...

into

...

a

...

proxy

...

too

...

:

Code Block
java java
BookStore proxy1 {code:java} BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class); WebClientClient client = WebClient.createclient(proxyproxy1); BookStore proxyproxy2 = JAXRSClientFactory.fromClient(client, BookStore.class); {code} h2. Handling exceptions There is a couple of ways you can handle remote exceptions with proxies. One approach is to register a [ResponseExceptionMapper|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/ResponseExceptionMapper.java] as a provider either from Spring using a jaxrs:client or using a corresponding JAXRSClientFactory utility method. This way you can map remote error codes to expected checked exceptions or runtime exceptions if needed. If no ResponseExceptionMapper is available when a remote invocation failed then an

Handling exceptions

There are a couple of ways you can handle remote exceptions with proxies.
One approach is to register a ResponseExceptionMapper as a provider either from Spring using a jaxrs:client or using a corresponding JAXRSClientFactory utility method. This way you can map remote error codes to expected checked exceptions or runtime exceptions if needed.

If no ResponseExceptionMapper is available when a remote invocation failed then an instance of javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException will be thrown (Note org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.ServerWebApplicationException is used to represent the server exceptions before CXF 2.7.0.). At this point of time you can check the actual Response and proceed from there:

 (which is an instance of JAX-RS WebApplication) will be thrown. At this point of time you can check the actual Response and proceed from there :

{code:java}
BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class);
try {
    proxy.getBook();
} catch(ServerWebApplicationExceptionWebApplicationException ex) {
  Response r = ex.getResponse();
  String message = ex.getResponse();
  String message = ex.getMessage();
}
{code}

org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.ClientWebApplicationException will be thrown if the exception has occurred for one of two reasons : 
- the remote invocation succeeded but no proper MessageBodyReader has been found on the client side; in this case the Response object representing the result of the invocation will still be available
- the remote invocation has failed for whatever reasons on the client side, example, no MessageBodyWriter is available.

h2. Configuring proxies in Spring

When creating a proxy with JAXRSClientFactory, you can pass a Spring configuration location as one of the arguments. Or you can create a default bus using a spring configuration and all proxies will pick it up :

{code:java}
SpringBusFactory bf = new SpringBusFactory();
Bus bus = bf.createBus("org/apache/cxf/systest/jaxrs/security/jaxrs-https.xml");
BusFactory.setDefaultBus(bus);
// BookStore proxy will get the configuration from Spring
.getMessage();
}

javax.ws.rs.ProcessingException will be thrown if the exception has occurred for one of two reasons:

• the remote invocation succeeded but no proper MessageBodyReader has been found on the client side; in this case the Response object representing the result of the invocation will still be available
• the remote invocation has failed for whatever reasons on the client side, example, no MessageBodyWriter is available.

Note org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.ClientWebApplicationException is used to represent the client processing exceptions before CXF 2.7.0.

Configuring proxies in Spring

When creating a proxy with JAXRSClientFactory, you can pass a Spring configuration location as one of the arguments. Or you can create a default bus using Spring configuration and all proxies will pick it up:

SpringBusFactory bf = new SpringBusFactory();
Bus bus = bf.createBus("org/apache/cxf/systest/jaxrs/security/jaxrs-https.xml");
BusFactory.setDefaultBus(bus);
// BookStore proxy will get the configuration from Spring
BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class);

Injecting proxies

For injecting proxies via a spring context, use the jaxrs:client element like:

<jaxrs:client id="restClient"
    address="http://localhost:${testutil.ports.BookServerRestSoap}/test/services/rest"
    serviceClass="org.apache.cxf.systest.jaxrs.BookStoreJaxrsJaxws"
    inheritHeaders="true">
    <jaxrs:headers>
        <entry key="Accept" value="text/xml"/>
    </jaxrs:headers>
</jaxrs:client>  

See this bean for a full example of how jaxrs:client can be used to inject a proxy. Note that WebClient can also be injected as a jaxrs:client.

Asynchronous proxy invocations

Starting from CXF 3.1.7 it is possible to do the asynchronous proxy invocations. One needs to register JAX-RS 2.0 InvocationCallback as a proxy request context property:

BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class);
{code} 

h2. Injecting proxies

For injecting proxies via a spring context, use the jaxrs:client element like:
{code:xml}
  <jaxrs:client id="restClient"
         address="http://localhost:${testutil.ports.BookServerRestSoap}/test/services/rest"
         serviceClass="org.apache.cxf.systest.jaxrs.BookStoreJaxrsJaxws"
         inheritHeaders="true">
         <jaxrs:headers>
             <entry key="Accept" value="text/xml"/>
         </jaxrs:headers>
  </jaxrs:client>  
{code}

See this [bean|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/systests/jaxrs/src/test/resources/jaxrs_soap_rest/WEB-INF/beans.xml] for a full example how jaxrs:client can be used to inject a proxy 

h2. Limitations

Proxy methods can not have \@Context method parameters and subresource methods returning Objects can not be invoked - perhaps it is actually not too bad at all - please inject contexts as field or bean properties and have subresource methods returning typed classes : interfaces, abstract classes or concrete implementations. 

When a proxy method returning JAX-RS Response is invoked, the returned Response.getEntity() will return a response InputStream by default. Starting from CXF 2.4.0-SNAPSHOT one can register an org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.ResponseReader provider and cast the Response.getEntity() to more specific application classes :

{code:java}
ResponseReader reader = new ResponseReader();
reader.setEntityClass(Book.class);
        
BookStore bs = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://localhost:8080/books", BookStore.class,
                                         Collections.singletonList(reader));
Response r1 = bs.getBook("123");
Book book = (Book)r1.getEntity();

reader.setEntityClass(Author.class);
Response r2 = bs.getBookAuthor("123");
Author book = (Author)r2.getEntity();
{code}

h1. HTTP-centric clients

HTTP centric clients are [WebClient|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/WebClient.java] instances which also implement the [Client|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/client/Client.java] interface. In addition to setting various Client request properties, you can also make an explicit HTTP invocation with an HTTP verb being the name of a given operation :

{code:java}

Book book = null;
final InvocationCallback<Book> callback = new InvocationCallback<Book>() {
  public void completed(Book response) {
     book = response;
  }
  public void failed(Throwable error) {
  }
};


WebClient.getConfig(proxy).getRequestContext().put(InvocationCallback.class.getName(), callback);
assertNull(proxy.getBook());
Thread.sleep(3);
assertNotNull(book);

If you have a proxy with different methods returning different response types then either register an Object bound InvocationCallback or register a collection of type-specific callbacks:

BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class);

// Book
Book book = null;
final InvocationCallback<Book> bookCallback = new InvocationCallback<Book>() {
  public void completed(Book response) {
     book = response;
  }
  public void failed(Throwable error) {
  }
};
// Chapter
Chapter chapter = null;
final InvocationCallback<Chapter> chapterCallback = new InvocationCallback<Chapter>() {
  public void completed(Chapter response) {
     chapter = response;
  }
  public void failed(Throwable error) {
  }
};
 
WebClient.getConfig(proxy).getRequestContext().put(InvocationCallback.class.getName(), 
                                                   Arrays.asList(bookCallback, chapterCallback));
// Get Book
assertNull(proxy.getBook(123L));
Thread.sleep(3);
assertNotNull(book);
 
// Get Book Chapter
assertNull(proxy.getBookChapter(123L));
Thread.sleep(3);
assertNotNull(chapter);

Make sure a proxy is created in a thread safe mode if it is being accessed by multiple threads for every new request thread to have its own callback.

Buffering Responses

One way to buffer proxy responses is to have a proxy method return JAX-RS Response, use its bufferEntity()  method (available in JAX-RS 2.0) and use Response.readEntity which can return typed responses if preferred.

The other option is to have a "buffer.proxy.response" property enabled on a given proxy instance.

Limitations

Proxy sub-resource methods returning Objects can not be invoked. Prefer to have sub-resource methods returning typed classes: interfaces, abstract classes or concrete implementations.

Working with user models

Proxies can be created with the external user model being applied to a proxy class, for example:

JAXRSClientFactory.createFromModel("http://books", BookNoAnnotations.class, "classpath:/resources/model.xml", null);

BookNoAnnotations is either an interface or concrete class with no JAX-RS annotations. Both client proxies and server endpoints can 'turn' it into a RESTful resource by applying an external user model.

CXF WebClient API

HTTP centric clients are WebClient instances which also implement the Client interface. In addition to setting various Client request properties, you can also make an explicit HTTP invocation with an HTTP verb being the name of a given operation :

WebClient client = WebClient.create("http://books");
Book book = client.path("bookstore/books").accept("text/xml").get(Book.class);
{code}

You

...

can

...

choose

...

to

...

get

...

an

...

explicit

...

JAX-RS

...

Response

...

instead

...

and

...

check

...

the

...

response

...

code,

...

headers

...

or

...

entity

...

body

...

if

...

any

...

:

{code:java}
WebClient client = WebClient.create("http://books");
client.path("bookstore/books");
client.type("text/xml").accept("text/xml")
Response r = client.post(new Book());
InputStreamBook isb = (InputStream)r.getEntityreadEntity();
Book b = getFromInputStreamUsingJaxb(isBook.class);
{code}

WebClient

...

lets

...

you

...

get

...

back

...

to

...

a

...

base

...

URI

...

or

...

to

...

a

...

previous

...

path

...

segment

...

and

...

move

...

forward,

...

it

...

can

...

be

...

handy

...

for

...

getting

...

a

...

number

...

of

...

individual

...

entries

...

from

...

a

...

service

...

with

...

ids

...

embedded

...

in

...

path

...

segments

...

:

{code:java}
WebClient client = WebClient.create("http://books");
List<Book> books = getBooks(client, 1L, 2L, 3L)

private List<Book> getBooks(WebClient client, Long ...ids) {
   List<Book> books = new ArrayList<Book>(); 
   for (Long id : ids) {
       books.add(client.path(id).get(Book.idsclass)) {;
   List<Book> books = new ArrayList<Book>client.back(); 
   for} (Long
 id : ids) {
       books.add(client.path(idreturn books;
}

The above code will send requests like "GET http://books/1", "GET http://books/2", etc.

If the request URI can be parameterized then you may want to use the following code:

Book book = WebClient.create("http://books").path("{year}/{id}", 2010, 123).get(Book.class));
       client.back(); 
   } 
   return books;
}
{code}

The above code will send requests like "GET http://books/1", "GET );
// as opposed to
// WebClient.create("http://books/2", ").path(2010).path(123).get(Book.class);

When reusing the same WebClient instance for multiple invocations, one may want to reset its state with the help of the reset() method, for example, when the Accept header value needs to be changed and the current URI needs to be reset to the baseURI (as an alternative to a back(true) call). The resetQuery() method may be used to reset the query values only. Both options are available for proxies too.

Asynchronous invocations

WebClient has several methods accepting JAX-RS 2.0 InvocationCallback and returning Future. Alternatively, users can also use WebClient.async() shortcut to work with a standard AsyncInvoker.

Working with explicit collections

WebClient supports GenericEntity and JAX-RS 2.0 GenericType directly and via JAX-RS 2.0 SyncInvoker and AsyncInvoker to make it easier to work with the explicit collections.

WebClient also has few collection-aware methods, example:

etc. 

When reusing the same WebClient instance for multiple invocations, one may want to reset its state with the help of the reset() method, for example, when the Accept header value needs to be changed and the current URI needs to be reset to the baseURI (as an alternative to a back(true) call). The resetQuery() method may be used to reset the query values only. Both options are available for proxies too.

h2. Working with explicit collections

Example :

{code:java}

Collection<? extends Book> books = WebClient.getCollection(Book.class);
Collection<? extends Book> books = WebClient.postAndGetCollection(new ArrayList<Book>(), Book.class);

{code}

h2. Handling exceptions


You can handle remote exceptions by either explicitly getting a Response object as shown above and handling error statuses as needed or you can catch either ServerWebApplicationException or ClientWebApplicationException exceptions, the same way it can be done with proxies. 

h2. Configuring HTTP clients in Spring

Like proxies, HTTP clients can be created using a number of WebClient static utility methods: you can pass a location to a Spring configuration bean if needed or you can set up a default bus as shown above. For example :
{code:xml}
<bean id

Handling exceptions

You can handle remote exceptions by either explicitly getting a Response object as shown above and handling error statuses as needed or you can catch either javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException or javax.ws.rs.ProcessingException exceptions, the same way it can be done with proxies.

Configuring HTTP clients in Spring

Like proxies, HTTP clients can be created using a number of WebClient static utility methods: you can pass a location to a Spring configuration bean if needed or you can set up a default bus as shown above. For example:

<bean id="myJsonProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.JSONProvider" > 
    <property name="supportUnwrapped" value="true" /> 
    <property name="wrapperName" value="nodeName" /> 
</bean> 

<util:list id="webClientProviders"> 
    <ref bean="myJsonProvider"/> 
</util:list> 

<bean id="myWebClient" ="myJsonProvider" 
class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.providerclient.JSONProviderWebClient" factory-method="create"> 
        <property name="supportUnwrapped<constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="truehttp://some.base.url.that.responds/" /> 
        <property name="wrapperName" value="nodeName<constructor-arg ref="webClientProviders" /> 
    </bean> 

Note, starting from CXF 2.7.5 it is possible to set-up WebClient instances the same way as proxies, using jaxrs:client:

<jaxrs:client
<util:list id="webClientProviderswebClient"> 
    <ref beanaddress="myJsonProvider"/> 
</util:list> 

<bean id="myWebClient" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.WebClient" 
factory-method="create"> 
        <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" 
value="http://some.base.url.that.responds/" /> https://localhost:${port}/services/rest"
    serviceClass="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.client.WebClient">
    <jaxrs:headers>
        <constructor-arg<entry refkey="webClientProvidersAccept" value="text/> 
</bean> 
{code} 

h1. XML-centric clients

XML-centric clients are WebClients using an [XMLSource|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/ext/xml/XMLSource.java] utility class. XMLSource has a number of methods facilitating the retrieval of JAXB beans, individual properties or links with the help of XPath expressions. For example :

{code:xml"/>
    </jaxrs:headers>
</jaxrs:client>

The only limitation of using this option is that some of jaxrs:client attributes ("inheritHeaders", "modelRef") and elements ("model") are not really applicable to WebClient.

XML-centric clients

XML-centric clients are WebClients using an XMLSource utility class. XMLSource has a number of methods facilitating the retrieval of JAXB beans, individual properties or links with the help of XPath expressions. For example:

java}
WebClient wc = WebClient.create("http://aggregated/data");
XMLSource source = wc.get(XMLSource.class);
source.setBuffering(true);
Book b1 = source.getNode("/books/book[position() = 1]", Book.class);
Book b2 = source.getNode("/books/book[position() = 2]", Book.class);
{code}

Note

...

that

...

an

...

XMLSource

...

instance

...

can

...

be

...

set

...

to

...

buffer

...

the

...

input

...

stream

...

thus

...

allowing

...

for

...

executing

...

multiple

...

XPath

...

queries.

...

XMlSource

...

can

...

also

...

help

...

with

...

getting the URIs representing the links or XML instances as Strings.

Support for arbitrary HTTP methods for sync invocations.

To get the arbitrary HTTP methods supported with the synchronous client calls or bypass some known Java HTTPUrlConnection issues (example it will block empty DELETE requests) add the HttpClient-based transport dependency and set a "use.async.http.conduit" contextual property.

This will work as is for asynchronous calls given that the HttpClient-based transport is required.

Thread Safety

Proxies and web clients (clients) are not thread safe by default. In some cases this can be a limitation, especially when clients are injected; synchronizing on them can cause performance side effects.

One way to 'make' clients thread-safe is to use WebClient.fromClient(Client)

...

for

...

web

...

clients

...

or

...

JAXRSClientFactoryBean.fromClient()

...

factory

...

methods

...

which

...

copy

...

all

...

the

...

original

...

configuration

...

properties

...

and

...

can

...

be

...

used

...

to

...

create

...

new

...

client

...

instances

...

per

...

every

...

request.

...

A

...

single

...

client

...

doing

...

multiple

...

invocations

...

without

...

changing

...

the

...

current

...

URI

...

or headers is thread-safe (while creating a Invocation.Builder instances concurrently is not thread-safe since the shared instance of non-thread-safe class ClientProviderFactory is used under the hood). The only limitation in this case applies to proxies, in that they can not get "out of band" headers without synchronizing, ex :

 headers is thread-safe. The only limitation in this case applies to proxies, in that they can not get "outofband" headers without synchronizing, ex :
{code:java}
// get some response headers passed to us 'outofbandout of band', which is not thread-safe for a plain proxy : 
String bookHeader = WebClient.toClientclient(injectedBookStoreProxy).getHeaders().getFirst("BookHeader"); 
{code}  

Final option is to use a 

Final option is to use a 'threadSafe'

...

boolean

...

property

...

when

...

creating

...

proxies

...

or

...

web

...

clients

...

(either

...

from

...

Spring

...

or

...

programmatically),

...

see

...

this

...

test

...

for

...

more

...

details.

...

Thread-safe

...

clients

...

created

...

this

...

way

...

keep

...

their

...

state

...

in

...

a

...

thread-local

...

storage.

...

If

...

a

...

number

...

of

...

incoming

...

threads

...

is

...

limited

...

then

...

one

...

option

...

is

...

just

...

do

...

nothing,

...

while

...

the

...

other

...

option

...

is

...

to

...

reset

...

the

...

thread

...

local

...

state

...

:

{code:java}
try { 
   webClient.path("bar") 
   webClient.header("bar", baz); 
   webClient.invoke(...); 
} finally { 
   // if using a proxy : WebClient.client(proxy).reset(); 
   webClient.reset(); 
} 
{code}

Yet

...

another option is to use JAXRSClientFactoryBean and a 'secondsToKeepState' property for creating thread-safe clients - this will instruct clients to clean-up the thread-local state periodically.

Configuring Clients at Runtime

Proxy and http-centric clients are typically created by JAXRSClientFactory or WebClient factory methods but JAXRSClientFactoryBean can also be used for pre-configuring clients before they are created.

Sometimes, you may want to configure a client instance after it is been created. For example, one may want to configure HTTPConduit programmatically, as opposed to setting its properties using Spring. ClientConfiguration represents a client-specific configuration state and can be accessed like this :

Book proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", Book.class);
ClientConfiguration config = WebClient.getConfig(proxy);
HTTPConduit conduit1 = (HTTPConduit)config.getConduit();

WebClient webclient = WebClient.create("http://books");
HTTPConduit conduit2 = (HTTPConduit)WebClient.getConfig(webclient).getConduit();

When working with JAX-RS 2.0 Client API one can set some low-level HTTP properties via Configurable interface:

//http.connection.timeout
//http.receive.timeout
//http.proxy.server.uri
//http.proxy.server.port
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.property("http.receive.timeout", 1000000); 

Creating clients programmatically with no Spring dependencies

Example :

JAXRSClientFactoryBean sf = new JAXRSClientFactoryBean();
sf.setResourceClass(CustomerService.class);
sf.setAddress("http://localhost:9000/");
BindingFactoryManager manager = sf.getBus().getExtension(BindingFactoryManager.class);
JAXRSBindingFactory factory = new JAXRSBindingFactory();
factory.setBus(sf.getBus());
manager.registerBindingFactory(JAXRSBindingFactory.JAXRS_BINDING_ID, factory);
CustomerService service = sf.create(CustomerService.class);
WebClient wc = sf.createWebClient();

Configuring an HTTP Conduit from Spring

There's a number of ways to configure HTTPConduits for proxies and WebClients.

It is possible to have an HTTPConduit configuration which will apply to all clients using different request URIs or only to those with using a specific URI. For example:

<http:conduit name="http://books:9095/bookstore.*"/> 

This configuration will affect all proxies and WebClients which have requestURIs starting from 'http://books:9095/bookstore'. Note the trailing '.*' suffix in the name of the http:conduit element.

Please see this configuration file for more examples.

Alternatively you can just do:

<http:conduit name="*.http-conduit"/> 

This configuration will affect all the clients, irrespective of the URIs being dealt with.

If you work with proxies then you can have the proxy-specific configuration using the expanded QName notation:

<http:conduit name="{http://foo.bar}BookService.http-conduit"/> 

In this example, 'foo.bar' is a reverse package name of the BookService proxy class.

Similarly, for WebClients you can do:

<http:conduit name="{http://localhost:8080}WebClient.http-conduit"/> 

In this example, 'http://localhost:8080' is the base service URI.

Please see jaxrs-https-client1.xml and jaxrs-https-client2.xml configuration files for more examples.

Also see this wiki page on how to configure HTTPConduits.

Clients and Authentication

Proxies and HTTP-centric clients can have the HTTP Authorization header set up explicitly:

// Replace 'user' and 'password' by the actual values
String authorizationHeader = "Basic " 
    + org.apache.cxf.common.util.Base64Utility.encode("user:password".getBytes());

// proxies
WebClient.client(proxy).header("Authorization", authorizationHeader);

// web clients
webClient.header("Authorization", authorizationHeader);

or by providing a username and password pair at client creation time, for example:

BookStore proxy = JAXRSClientFactory.create("http://books", BookStore.class, "username", "password", "classpath:/config/https.xml");

WebClient client = WebClient.create("http://books", "username", "password", "classpath:/config/https.xml");

When injecting clients from Spring, one can add 'username' and 'password' values as attributes to jaxrs:client elements or add them to WebClient factory create methods.

Clients in Spring Boot

Please see JAXRSClientSpringBoot documentation on how CXF JAX-RS Clients can be used in a SpringBoot Application.

Clients and HTTP(s)

The default HttpClientHTTPConduit conduit by default supports the following HTTPS protocols: TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2, TLSv1.3. Since Apache CXF 4.0.4 / 3.6.3 release, the default HttpClientHTTPConduit respects https.protocols system property (see please https://blogs.oracle.com/java/post/diagnosing-tls-ssl-and-https) and if set, would use the provided protocols. This behavior could be turned off by setting https.protocols.ignored system property to "true" (the default value is "false").