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} JAX-RS : Redirection



Table of Contents

With RequestDispatcherProvider

RequestDispatcherProvider is a JAXRS MessageBodyWriter which can redirect to JSP pages, named or default servlets. It can be used to serve all the responses from a given resource class or restricted to serving a limited set of classes only using a classResources map property.

Starting from CXF 2.5.0 and 2.4.4 it is also possible to specify that only responses to requests with matching URIs that will be processed.

At the moment, this provider is statically configured to support text/html content types, but it can be easily configured to support other content types if needed.

In addition to 'resourcePath' and 'dispatcherName' properties, one can set a 'scope' property which has two possible values, 'request' and 'session' with 'request' being the default value. It affects the way the JSP code can retrieve parameters passed to it by the RequestDispatcherProvider. If it is a 'request' scope then all the parameters are set as the attributes on the current HTTP request. If session scope then they're set as the attributes on the current HTTP session.

RequestDispatcherProvider sets the following parameters :

  • JAXRS method response object. The name of this parameter is either a simple class name of this object (lower case) or a value retrieved from a beanNames map property using the fully qualified class name of this object.
  • All the path, query and matrix parameters which have been initialized during the method execution
  • "absolute.path", "base.path" and "relative.path" obtained from the current UriInfo

Here are some examples. Lets assume we have a book.war web application deployed.

Code Block
xml
xml
<jaxrs:server id="bookservice1" address="/bookstore1">
    <jaxrs:serviceBeans>
      <bean class="org.apache.cxf.systest.jaxrs.BookStoreDispatch"/>
    </jaxrs:serviceBeans>		  
    <jaxrs:providers>
       <ref bean="dispatchProvider"/>
    </jaxrs:providers> 
</jaxrs:server>

<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
      <property name="resourcePath" value="/book.html"/>
</bean>

The above redirects the response to a default book.html page which is available directly in the /webapps/book folder. Typically one would do it to return some static confirmation to the client. For example, consider a POST form request that has been processed by a given JAX-RS method and the only thing that needs to be done now is to return the HTML confirmation view. Note that JAX-RS MessageBodyWriters are not invoked if the resource method returns no custom object - which is not needed in the case of the static confirmation, so for RequestDispatcherProvider be able to redirect to book.html one should simply introduce say an EmptyConfirmation bean with no properties and return it from the resource method.

Here is another example (omitting jaxrs:server declaration for brewity):

Code Block
xml
xml
 Redirection {span}

{toc}

h1. With RequestDispatcherProvider

[RequestDispatcherProvider|http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cxf/trunk/rt/frontend/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/apache/cxf/jaxrs/provider/RequestDispatcherProvider.java] is a JAXRS MessageBodyWriter which can redirect to JSP pages, named or default servlets. It can be used to serve all the responses from a given resource class or restricted to serving a limited set of classes only using a classResources map property.

Starting from CXF 2.5.0 and 2.4.4 it is also possible to specify that only responses to requests with matching URIs that will be processed.

At the moment, this provider is statically configured to support text/html content types, but it can be easily configured to support other content types if needed.  

Here are some examples. Lets assume we have a book.war web application deployed.

{code:xml}
<jaxrs:server id="bookservice1" address="/bookstore1">
    <jaxrs:serviceBeans>
      <bean class="org.apache.cxf.systest.jaxrs.BookStoreDispatch"/>
    </jaxrs:serviceBeans>		  
    <jaxrs:providers>
       <ref bean="dispatchProvider"/>
    </jaxrs:providers> 
</jaxrs:server>

<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
      <property name="resourcePath" value="/book.html"/>
</bean>

{code}

The above redirects the response to a default book.html page which is available directly in the /webapps/book folder. Typically one would do it to return some static confirmation to the client. For example, consider a POST form request that has been processed by a given JAX-RS method and the only thing that needs to be done now is to return the HTML confirmation view. Note that JAX-RS MessageBodyWriters are not invoked if the resource method returns no custom object - which is not needed in the case of the static confirmation, so for RequestDispatcherProvider be able to redirect to book.html one should simply introduce say an EmptyConfirmation bean with no properties and return it from the resource method.

Here is another example (omitting jaxrs:server declaration for brewity):

{code:xml}

<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
      <property name="resourcePath" value="/book.jsp"/>
</bean>

{code}

The

...

only

...

difference

...

from

...

the

...

previous

...

example

...

is

...

that

...

"/book.jsp"

...

will

...

be

...

delegated

...

to

...

with

...

the

...

task

...

of

...

creating

...

a

...

view.

...

This

...

is

...

a

...

more

...

interesting

...

example

...

and

...

we

...

presume

...

that

...

the

...

resource

...

method

...

returns

...

say

...

an

...

instance

...

of

...

the

...

"org.bar.Book"

...

bean:

{
Code Block
java
java
:java}
@Path("/books")
public Resource {
    @GET
    @Produces({"text/html", "application/xml"})
    @Path("{id}")
    public Book getBook(@PathParam("id") String id) {
        // return the book
    }
}
{code}

Note

...

how

...

non-intrusive

...

RequestDispatcherProvider

...

is

...

as

...

far

...

as

...

writing

...

the

...

JAX-RS

...

resource

...

code

...

is

...

concerned,

...

you

...

simply

...

list

...

supported

...

media

...

types

...

in

...

@Produces

...

as

...

usual.

...

RequestDispatcherProvider

...

will

...

make

...

an

...

instance

...

of

...

Book

...

available

...

as

...

an

...

HttpServletRequest

...

attribute

...

named

...

"org.bar.Book"

...

by

...

default.

...

this

...

can

...

be

...

customized.

...

If

...

a

...

"beanName"

...

property

...

is

...

set,

...

for

...

example

...

to

...

"book",

...

then

...

book.jsp

...

will

...

access

...

a

...

Book

...

instance

...

as

...

a

...

"book"

...

attribute.

...

If

...

you

...

have

...

say

...

2

...

resource

...

methods

...

returning

...

instances

...

of

...

different

...

bean

...

classes,

...

possibly

...

for

...

different

...

view

...

handlers

...

then

...

a

...

beanNames

...

map

...

property

...

can

...

be

...

used,

...

for

...

example:

Code Block
xml
xml
 

{code:xml}

<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
      <property name="classResources">
          <map>
             <entry key="org.bar.Book"  value="/book.jsp"/>
             <entry key="org.bar.Customer"  value="/customer.jsp"/>
          </map>
      </property>
      <property name="beanNames">
          <map>
             <entry key="org.bar.Book"  value="book"/>
             <entry key="org.bar.Customer"  value="customer"/>
          </map>
      </property>
</bean>

{code}

The

...

above

...

configuration

...

says

...

that

...

a

...

"book.jsp"

...

resource

...

will

...

handle

...

an

...

instance

...

of

...

Book

...

by

...

accessing

...

it

...

as

...

a

...

"book"

...

attribute

...

and

...

a

...

"customer.jsp"

...

-

...

an

...

instance

...

of

...

Customer

...

by

...

retrieving

...

it

...

as

...

a

...

"customer"

...

attribute.

...

Note

...

you

...

don't

...

need

...

to

...

use

...

the

...

"beanNames"

...

property

...

in

...

such

...

cases,

...

a

...

simpler

...

"beanName"

...

property

...

can

...

do

...

unless

...

you

...

have

...

a

...

single

...

(jsp)

...

resource

...

dealing

...

with

...

both

...

Book

...

and

...

Customer.

...

Apart

...

from

...

making

...

an

...

instance

...

of

...

response

...

class

...

available

...

as

...

HttpServletRequest

...

attribute,

...

RequestDispatcherProvider

...

will

...

also

...

make

...

all

...

the

...

Path,

...

Query

...

and

...

Matrix

...

parameters

...

available

...

as

...

HttpServletRequest

...

parameters

...

(as

...

opposed

...

to

...

attributes)

...

by

...

default.

...

For

...

example,

...

given

...

the

...

above

...

code

...

fragment,

...

an

...

HttpServletRequest

...

parameter

...

named

...

"id"

...

representing

...

a

...

@PathParam("id")

...

available

...

to

...

the

...

view

...

handler,

...

as

...

well

...

as

...

all

...

other

...

query

...

and

...

matrix

...

parameters.

...


Note

...

that

...

RequestDispatcherProvider

...

can

...

be

...

configured

...

to

...

save

...

all

...

these

...

request

...

parameters

...

as

...

HttpServletRequest

...

attributes

...

by

...

setting

...

a

...

boolean

...

saveParametersAsAttributes

...

property

...

to

...

true.

...

Now,

...

imagine

...

a

...

scenario

...

like

...

this:

...

we

...

have

...

two

...

resource

...

methods

...

returning

...

a

...

ReservationStatus

...

bean.

...

The

...

first

...

method

...

returns

...

a

...

successful

...

confirmation

...

or

...

uses

...

Response.seeOther(...)

...

to

...

redirect

...

to

...

a

...

method

...

handling

...

the

...

failed

...

reservation.

...

So

...

both

...

methods

...

return

...

the

...

same

...

ReservationStatus

...

bean

...

but

...

we

...

will

...

have

...

two

...

different

...

views

...

handling

...

successful

...

and

...

failed

...

reservations

...

respectively.

...

Here

...

is

...

one

...

way

...

to

...

manage

...

it:

Code Block
xml
xml


{code:xml}
<bean id="reserveRegistrationViews" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
         <property name="resourcePaths">
            <map>
              <entry key="/reservations/reserve/complete" value="/forms/reservationConfirm.jsp"/>
              <entry key="/reservations/reserve/failure" value="/forms/reservationFailure.jsp"/>
   /reservationConfirm.jsp"/>
              <entry key="/reservations/reserve/failure" value="/forms/reservationFailure.jsp"/>
            </map>
         </property>
         <property name="beanName" value="data"/>
</bean>

Given that the same ReservationStatus bean is returned in both cases, it is actually the original request URI fragments which are used to match which view handler will deal with a given ReservationStatus, example, a response to request URI "http://localhost:8080/reservations/reserve/complete" will be handled by "/forms/reservationConfirm.jsp".

Note that RequestDispatcherProvider has a 'dispatcherName' property - that can be handy when redirecting to named servlets (example, MyServlet) including
such ones as "jsp" or "default", especially when CXFServlet handling a given invocation has a uri pattern (typically, wildcard) that may also capture the redirection request, see the next section for more information.

Next, imagine a scenario like this: we have a single resource method accepting some data and the response view will need to be different depending on the status of the request processing. Using enumerations is the most effective option in this case:

Code Block
java
java
package resource;

public class Status {
    UPDATE_SUCCESS,
    UPDATE_FAILURE
}

@Path("/")
public class Resource {

  @PUT
  @Produces("text/html")
  public Response update(SomeData data) {
     if (update(data)) {
         return Response.ok(Status.UPDATE_SUCCESS).build();
     } else {
         return Response.ok(Status.UPDATE_FAILURE).build();  
     }
  } 
} 

Next, you may have a single JSP handler which will check whether it is Status.UPDATE_SUCCESS or Status.UPDATE_FAILURE and format the response accordingly. In this case a basic RequestDispatcherProvider configuration will do:

Code Block
xml
xml
<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
      <property name="resourcePath" value="/updateStatus.jsp"/>
</bean>

Alternatively you may have a dedicated view handler dealing with the specific status, in this case either:

Code Block
xml
xml
<bean id="reserveRegistrationViews" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
         <property name="classResources">
            <map>
              <entry key="resource.Status.UPDATE_SUCCESS" value="/forms/updateSuccess.jsp"/>
              <entry key="resource.Status.UPDATE_FAILURE" value="/forms/updateFailure.jsp"/>
            </map>
         </property>
</bean>

or, starting from CXF 2.7.1,

Code Block
xml
xml
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
      xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util.xsd">

<bean id="reserveRegistrationViews" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
         <property name="enumResources">
            <map>
              <entry 
                 <key>
                    <util:constant static-field="resource.Status.UPDATE_SUCCESS"/>
                 </key> 
                 <value>/forms/updateSuccess.jsp</value>
              </entry>
              <entry 
                 <key>
                    <util:constant static-field="resource.Status.UPDATE_FAILURE"/>
                 </key> 
                 <value>/forms/updateFailure.jsp</value>
              </entry> 
            <map>
         </property>
</bean>
</beans>

will help.

Starting from CXF 2.6.1 it is possible to configure the provider to check if the current class has an associated view handler or not, for example:

Code Block
xml
xml
<bean id="viewHandler" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
         <property name="dispatcherName" value=jsp""/>
         <property name="useClassNames" value="true"/>
</bean>

For example, given a simple class name such as "BookInfo", RequestDispatcherProvider will check if a "/WEB-INF/bookInfo.jsp" handler is available or not. The provider will likely be extended to check few more locations as needed.

RequestDispatcherProvider also checks a "redirect.resource.path" property on the outbound message. If this property is set then it will try to find a RequestDispatcher available on a given path.

A new property, "includeResource" is available starting from CXF 3.0.4: RequestDispatcher.include() instead of RequestDispatcher.forward() will be used if this property is set to true.

Finally, a 'servletContextPath' property can be used to have some other ServletContext (as opposed to the current one) be used for RequestDispatcher look-ups. If set then the current ServletContext.getContext(servletContextPath) will be used to get the needed ServletContext.

Logging redirects

To get RequestDispatcherProvider log the information about redirects, please set a 'logRedirects' property:

Code Block
xml
xml
<bean id="reserveRegistrationViews" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
         </map>
         </property>
         <property name="beanNamelogRedirects" value="data"/>
</bean>
{code}

Given that the same ReservationStatus bean is returned in both cases, it is actually the original request URI fragments which are used to match which view handler will deal with a given ReservationStatus.

Finally, a 'servletContextPath' property can be used to have some other ServletContext (as opposed to the current one) be used for RequestDispatcher look-ups. If set then the current ServletContext.getContext(servletContextPath) will be used to get the needed ServletContext.

h1. With CXFServlet

Please see the "Redirection" section on the [Servlet Transport|Servlet Transport] page.

Note that both CXFServlet and JAXRS RequestDispatcherProvider can work together effectively on executing the redirection requests as described at that page.

If you have CXFServlet listening on "/" (thus effectively catching all the requests) and also would like to use RequestDispatcher, then make sure that a 'dispatcherName' property is also set, for example :
{code:xml}
<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
    <property name="dispatcherName" value="jsp"/>
    <property name="resourcePath" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/test.jsp"/>
</bean> 
{code}

If resources which are redirected to can be made public (i.e, moved out of /WEB-INF) then alternative option (instead of adding a 'dispatcherName' property to RequestDispatcherProvider and still have CXFServlet listening on '/') is to configure both RequestDispatcherProvider and CXFServlet to redirect to resources such as "/jsp/test.jsp".

h1. Custom Redirection

One can borrow some of the code from RequestDispatcherProvider and do the custom redirection from CXF in interceptors or custom invokers, if you will try to do it then you will also need to set an AbstractHTTPDestination.REQUEST_REDIRECTED property with a 'true' value on a current input message.
true"/>
         <!-- other properties as needed --> 
</bean>

You will see the logging entry like this one:

Code Block
java
java
23-Jul-2012 11:26:13 org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider logRedirection

INFO: Setting an instance of "oauth2.common.ConsumerRegistration" as HttpServletRequest attribute "newClient" and redirecting the response to "/forms/registerAppConfirm.jsp"

With CXFServlet

Please see the "Redirection" section on the Servlet Transport page.

Note that both CXFServlet and JAXRS RequestDispatcherProvider can work together effectively on executing the redirection requests as described at that page.

If CXFServlet URI pattern does not match the resource URIs RequestDispatcherProvider is redirecting to then there's nothing to worry about.

If you have CXFServlet listening on "/" (thus effectively catching all the requests) and also would like to use RequestDispatcherProvider, then make sure that a 'dispatcherName' property is also set, for example:

Code Block
xml
xml
<bean id="dispatchProvider" class="org.apache.cxf.jaxrs.provider.RequestDispatcherProvider">
    <property name="dispatcherName" value="jsp"/>
    <property name="resourcePath" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/test.jsp"/>
</bean> 

If resources which are redirected to can be made public (i.e, moved out of /WEB-INF) then alternative option (instead of adding a 'dispatcherName' property to RequestDispatcherProvider and still have CXFServlet listening on '/') is to configure both RequestDispatcherProvider and CXFServlet to redirect to resources such as "/jsp/test.jsp".

Also if you have many public view handlers then rather than having a "dispatcherName" property set on every dispatcher bean, you can get it set only once on CXFServlet:

Code Block
xml
xml
<servlet>
        <servlet-name>RESTServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
    	   <param-name>redirects-list</param-name>
	   <param-value>/forms/.*</param-value>
	</init-param>
	<init-param>
    	   <param-name>redirect-servlet-name</param-name>
	   <param-value>jsp</param-value>
	</init-param>
	<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>RESTServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

Here we have all the requests targeted at /form/* (example, /form/book.jsp, etc) handled by a jsp handler.

Custom Redirection

One can borrow some of the code from RequestDispatcherProvider and do the custom redirection from CXF in interceptors or custom invokers, if you will try to do it then you will also need to set an AbstractHTTPDestination.REQUEST_REDIRECTED property with a 'true' value on a current input message.