Custom Serializers and Parsers

A very easy-to-use API is provided for defining your own serializers and parsers at both the servlet and method levels.

The following examples show a custom serializer and parser defined at the method level. It's the PhotosResource class pulled from the Samples project. It shows an example of defining a serializer and parser to handle images.

/** * Sample resource that allows images to be uploaded and retrieved. */ @RestResource( path="/photos", messages="nls/PhotosResource", title="Photo REST service", description="Use a tool like Poster to upload and retrieve jpeg and png images.", htmldoc=@HtmlDoc( navlinks={ "options: ?method=OPTIONS" } ) ) public class PhotosResource extends BasicRestServlet { // Our cache of photos private Map<Integer,Photo> photos = new TreeMap<Integer,Photo>(); /** Bean class for storing photos */ public static class Photo { private int id; BufferedImage image; Photo(int id, BufferedImage image) { this.id = id; this.image = image; } public URI getURI() throws URISyntaxException { return new URI("photos/"+id); } public int getID() { return id; } } /** GET request handler for list of all photos */ @RestMethod(name=GET, path="/") public Collection<Photo> getAllPhotos(RestRequest req, RestResponse res) throws Exception { res.setPageTitle("Photo REST service"); res.setPageText("Use a tool like Poster to upload and retrieve jpeg and png images."); return photos.values(); } /** GET request handler for single photo */ @RestMethod(name=GET, path="/{id}", serializers=ImageSerializer.class) public BufferedImage getPhoto(RestRequest req, @Path("id") int id) throws Exception { Photo p = photos.get(id); if (p == null) throw new RestException(SC_NOT_FOUND, "Photo not found"); return p.image; } /** PUT request handler */ @RestMethod(name=PUT, path="/{id}", parsers=ImageParser.class) public String addPhoto(RestRequest req, @Path("id") int id, @Body BufferedImage image) throws Exception { photos.put(id, new Photo(id, image)); return "OK"; } /** POST request handler */ @RestMethod(name=POST, path="/", parsers=ImageParser.class) public Photo setPhoto(RestRequest req, @Body BufferedImage image) throws Exception { int id = photos.size(); Photo p = new Photo(id, image); photos.put(id, p); return p; } /** DELETE request handler */ @RestMethod(name=DELETE, path="/{id}") public String deletePhoto(RestRequest req, @Path("id") int id) throws Exception { Photo p = photos.remove(id); if (p == null) throw new RestException(SC_NOT_FOUND, "Photo not found"); return "OK"; } /** OPTIONS request handler */ @RestMethod(name=OPTIONS, path="/*") public Swagger getOptions(RestRequest req) { return req.getSwagger(); } /** Serializer for converting images to byte streams */ @Produces("image/png,image/jpeg") public static class ImageSerializer extends OutputStreamSerializer { @Override /* Serializer */ public void serialize(Object o, OutputStream out, SerializerSession session) throws IOException, SerializeException { RenderedImage image = (RenderedImage)o; String mediaType = ctx.getMediaType(); ImageIO.write(image, mediaType.substring(mediaType.indexOf('/')+1), out); } } /** Parser for converting byte streams to images */ @Consumes("image/png,image/jpeg") public static class ImageParser extends InputStreamParser { @Override /* Parser */ public <T> T parse(InputStream in, ClassMeta<T> type, ParserSession session) throws ParseException, IOException { BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(in); return (T)image; } } }