play-jaxrs is providing an alternative router for play 2.1.2 (and above) java apps by implementing (a subset of) the JAX-RS specification on top of play.

tl;dr

use this router instead of the built-in one if you are interested in a native java solution that also significantly improves build times. The price you will need to pay for this is lack of reverse routing and compile time routing checks.

play-jaxrs tradeoffs

• using reflection for action dispatching instead of matching generated route rules

• since there are no router files to compile and sbt can not invalidate big parts of the object graph, compile times are significantly better than using the standard solution

• only supports java projects for two reasons:

  • annotations are primary used in java
  • scala users already have a very scala-centric routing solution

• route definitions are provided inline. Some people prefer this over an external DSL, especially in a backend service-only context

• reflection based dispatching means no reverse routing or compile time checks for route matching

• since there is no route file, assets controller is configured via the config file

what's supported?

• @GET,@POST, @PUT, @DELETE, @OPTIONS

• @ApplicationPath on your Global class can define a context (think servlet context)

• @Path works both on classes and methods

• URI parts can be captured (i.e. /user/id/{id})

• the captured field can only be a String i.e.

    @GET
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public static Result id(@PathParam("id") String id) {
        ...        
    }

• @QueryParam captured as com.google.common.base.Optional i.e.

@GET
@Path("/id/{id}")
public static Result id(@PathParam("id") String id, @QueryParam("foo") Optional<String> foo) {
    return ok("id=" + id + " query=" + foo.or("booo"));
}

• @Provides
• @Consumes

plus all the standard play features should be working (i.e. action composition, dependency injection, assets serving etc.).

Curious?

• check out the [examples] (https://github.com/pk11/play-jaxrs/blob/master/app/controllers/Application.java)/[specs] (https://github.com/pk11/play-jaxrs/tree/master/test)

How to install

you can install play-jaxrs in three easy steps:

1. delete conf/routes

2. in project/Build.scala add

"org.pk11" %% "jax-rs" % "0.6"

to your project/Build.scala file's app dependencies section.

3. also

resolvers += "pk11" at "http://pk11-scratch.googlecode.com/svn/trunk"

should be part of your settings

4. edit conf/play.plugins 1500:org.pk11.jaxrs.RouterPlugin

5. finally, set it up in your Global class:

  @Override 
   public play.api.mvc.Handler onRouteRequest(RequestHeader request) {
     return Play.application().plugin(org.pk11.jaxrs.RouterPlugin.class).handlerFor(this, request);
  }

and that's it.

How to hack

after cloning and cd-ing into the main directory

run the spec

$ play test

package

$ play -Djaxrs=only publish-local

License

Published under The MIT License, see LICENSE