javaresourcesrestletmashup

Java Restlet - How do I dynamically attach resources to the router?


Here's the basics of what I'm trying to do. I'm working on a project where I'm creating a mashup page from various web APIs. The mashup page contains country information.

I have a BLL layer where I create the mashup page (html page with country input using Chunk Library). This is the method used to set up the template

public String GetTemplate(Country country) throws IOException {
    ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    URL resource = classLoader.getResource("BLL/themes/page.html");
    Theme theme = new Theme("src/BLL", "themes");

    Chunk html = theme.makeChunk("page", "html");

    html.set("countryName", country.getName());
    html.set("countryCode", country.getCode());
    html.set("countryContinent", country.getContinent());
    html.set("countryCapital", country.getCapital());
    html.set("countryAreaInSqKm", country.getAreaInSqKm());
    html.set("countryPopulation", country.getPopulation());
    html.set("countryCurrencyCode", country.getCurrencyCode());
    html.set("countryExchangeRate", country.getExchangeRate());
    html.set("countryFlagUrl", country.getFlagUrl());
    html.set("countryDescription", country.getDescription());
    html.set("countryMap", country.getMapLocation());

    return html.toString();
}

Eventually I'll be using a database for all available countries.

So what I want to do on the Restlet server is iterate through all countries, like so, or in a similar manner?

public Restlet createInboundRoot() {
    Router router = new Router(getContext());
    router.attach("/countries/", Countries.class);
    for (Country country : cm.GetAllCountries()) {
         router.attach("/countries/" + country.getName(), new CountryTemplate(country)); 
         // Obviously this doesn't work, and it doesn't work with getClass() either.
    }

    return router;
}

As such I'm trying to get my resource to return the html in the get method (from the TemplateManager):

public class CountryTemplate extends ServerResource {
    CountryManager cm = null;
    TemplateManager tm = null;
    Country country = null;

    public CountryTemplate(Country _country) throws Exception {
        cm = new CountryManager();
        tm = new TemplateManager();
        country = _country;
    }

    @Get("html")
    public String getTemplate() throws IOException, RemoteException, UnsupportedCurrencyException {
        return tm.GetTemplate(country);
    }
}

Is there indeed a way to do it like this, or am I approaching this all wrong?

If anyone else should find themselves here, Tim's code worked exactly as required. The posted code was altered to his version.


Solution

  • Instead of trying to hard-code dynamic dynamic behaviors of your REST resources, you should be using a query parameter.

    First, you can create a new REST resource /countries/html/ and bind it to the class CountryResource. This resource will accept a query parameter countryID corresponding to the country whose HTML you want to access:

    public Restlet createInboundRoot() {
        Router router = new Router(getContext());
        router.attach("/countries/", Countries.class);
        router.attach("/countries/html/", CountryResource.class); 
    
        return router;
    }
    

    In your definition for CountryResource, you can access the query parameter countryID to get the appropriate HTML content:

    public class CountryResource extends ServerResource {
        CountryManager cm;
        TemplateManager tm;
    
        public CountryTemplate() throws Exception {
            // Note: I usually do NOT define a constructor using Restlets,
            // but you should be OK doing this
            cm = new CountryManager();
            tm = new TemplateManager();
        }
    
        @Get("html")
        public String getTemplate() throws IOException, RemoteException, UnsupportedCurrencyException {
            String countryID = getQueryValue("countryID");
            Country country = tm.getCountry(countryID);
    
            return tm.GetTemplate(country);
        }
    }
    

    I assume that the CountryManager has a method getCountry() which can return a Country object based on an input String. If such a method does not currently exist, then you will need to find a way to map incoming query parameters to actual Country objects in your code.