REST, POST & XML Marshaller

[marco.plebani@gmail.com]

Hi,
I'm trying new features of Spring 3. I'm creating a simple application with MVC. The application is composed by

1. A controller with new REST feature (MarcoController)

================
package it.mplebani.spring.rest.controller;

import it.mplebani.spring.rest.data.Person;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBod y;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMap ping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMet hod;

@Controller
public class MarcoController {

@RequestMapping(value="/people/get" ,method = RequestMethod.GET)
public void all(){
System.out.println("ALL");
}


@RequestMapping(value="/people/new",method = RequestMethod.POST)
public void newPerson(@RequestBody Person person){
System.out.println("I am here");
}
}

================

2. A simple Domain Object (Person)

================
package it.mplebani.spring.rest.data;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class Person {

public String name;
public String surname;
}

================

3. The servlet associated spring context

================

<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotat ion.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping" />
<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotat ion.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter">
<property name="messageConverters">
<list>
<ref bean="marshallingHttpMessageConverter"/>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="marshallingHttpMessageConverter"
class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.Mars hallingHttpMessageConverter"
p:marshaller-ref="jaxb2Marshaller" p:unmarshaller-ref="jaxb2Marshaller" />

<bean id="jaxb2Marshaller" class="it.mplebani.spring.rest.marshaller.MyJaxb2M arshaller">
<property name="classesToBeBound">
<list>
<value>it.mplebani.spring.rest.data.Person</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<context:component-scan base-package="it.mplebani.spring.rest" />

================

4. the web.xml that associates the servletDispatcher with the spring context.

Now, I'm testing the servlet endpoint with RESTClient. Calling the GET endpoint all works fine. Calling the POST endpoint I retrieve a "HTTP/1.1 415 Unsupported Media Type".

Modifying the application changing the method newPerson the this new one

@RequestMapping(value="/people/new",method = RequestMethod.POST)
public void newPerson(String person){
System.out.println("I am here");
}

All works fine. In debugging mode I can see the application stack passing through this method.

I think this is a problem with @RequestBody or with the Marshaller.

Any idea?

Thanks
-- Marco

[scottyfred]

Sending a POST request to a service endpoint that uses @RequestBody requires a bit more setup on the client side than is required for sending a GET request. This is due to the MessageConverter and OXM mechanisms that are used to implement @RequestBody.

I think you need to set the "Accept" and "Content-Type" HTTP headers on the client side before sending the request. How you do this is specific to the test client you are using. I'm not familiar with RESTClient so I can't help there.

Using Spring's web unit testing support classes, you would set up the request like this:

  MockHttpServletRequest request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
  request.addHeader("Accept", "application/xml");
  request.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml");
  request.setMethod("POST");
  request.setRequestURI("/people/new");
  request.setContent("<person>...</person>");

The addHeader() calls are the important part here.

Scott

[trommelmeister]

I think you need to set the "Accept" and "Content-Type" HTTP headers on the client side before sending the request.

I had a similar problem with the XML-marshalling when using RequestMethod.POST. Your hint about setting Content-Type and Accept explicitly to "application/xml" solved the problem. Thank you very much! M.

[sohilmaru]

Is it required to define the @XmlType annotation on the bean object? I found that that was the reason my jaxb2Marshaller.supports(<Entity>.class) was returning false and I was getting a 415 error. I had the @XmlRootElement annotation on my entity already.