spring-boot-starter-data-rest

• org.springframework.boot.spring-boot-starter-data-rest

• Generate REST API automatically from an Entity

• Generate a REST API from a Repository

• Expose REST endpoints for entities automatically
• Simply add the dependency

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-rest</artifactId>
</dependency>

• Spring Data REST endpoints are HATEOAS compliant

• Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOS)

• Hypermedia-driven sites provide information to access REST interfaces (Metadata of REST data)
• HATEOS uses Hypertext Application Language (HAL) data format (format of the json)
• Offer pagination, sorting, searching, etc

• Offer Query Domain Specific Language (Query DSL)

• @RepositoryRestResource(path = "employees"): modifies the path (case the word has a complex plural)

@RepositoryRestResource(path = "employees") // if not specified "employee + s" will be used
public interface EmployeeRepository extends JpaRepository<Employee, Integer> {
  // Give "Entity Type" and "Primary Key" and receive a funcional DAO
  // There is no implementation, just the interface
}

• Example: GET /employees
• For collections, medata includes page size, total elements, pages, etc

{
  "_embedded": {
    "employees": [
      {
        "firstName": "Leslie",
        "lastName": "Andrews",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "_links": {
          "self": {
            "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/1"
          },
          "employee": {
            "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/1"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "firstName": "Emma",
        "lastName": "Baumgarten",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "_links": {
          "self": {
            "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/2"
          },
          "employee": {
            "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/2"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees"
    },
    "profile": {
      "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/profile/employees"
    }
  },
  "page": {
    "size": 20,
    "totalElements": 2,
    "totalPages": 1,
    "number": 0
  }
}

• Example: GET /employees/1

{
  "firstName": "Leslie",
  "lastName": "Andrews",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/1"
    },
    "employee": {
      "href": "http://localhost:8080/magic-api/employees/1"
    }
  }
}

• Other queries
• /employees?page=1
• /employees?page=1
• /employees?sort=lastName
• /employees?sort=lastName,desc
• /employees?sort=lastName,firstName,asc