Jersey Client / JAX-RS and optional (not default) @QueryParam (client side)

Question

I have a RESTful API who\'s document says that a certain query parameter is optional, and does not supply a default argument. So, I can either supply the value or not send it i

Answer 1

The interface was right all along

I can't believe it was this easy:

import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.QueryParam;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

@Path("/service")
@Produces("application/json")
public interface ServiceInterface {

    @Path("/endpoint")
    @GET
    public Response getEndpoint(
            @QueryParam("queryA") String first,
            @QueryParam("queryB") String second);

}

Notice anything different than the questions interface?? Nope. That's because that is the answer!

---

Don't use @DefaultValue for optional parameters

If you want to default a parameter to a specific value, you use the @DefaultValue annotation in the parameter:

import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.QueryParam;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

@Path("/service")
@Produces("application/json")
public interface ServiceInterface {

    @Path("/endpoint")
    @GET
    public Response getEndpoint(
            @QueryParam("queryA") String first,
            @QueryParam("queryB") @DefaultValue("default") String second);

}

---

Pass null to the @QueryParam you don't want

If you want to make the @QueryParam optional, you do not apply the @DefaultValue annotation. To pass a value with the query parameter, just pass in the value normally. If you would like the query parameter to not show up at all, just pass null!

import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.QueryParam;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

@Path("/service")
@Produces("application/json")
public interface ServiceInterface {

    @Path("/endpoint")
    @GET
    public Response getEndpoint(
            @QueryParam("queryA") String first,
            // Pass null to this parameter to not put it in the GET request
            @QueryParam("queryB") String second);

}

So calling ServiceInterface.getEndpoint("firstQueryParam", "secondQueryParam"); calls:

http://targethost.com/service/endpoint?queryA=firstQueryParam&queryB=secondQueryParam

and calling ServiceInterface.getEndpoint("firstQueryParam", null); calls:

http://targethost.com/service/endpoint?queryA=firstQueryParam

And walla! No second query parameter! :)

Note on primitive values

If your API takes primitive values (like int, float, boolean, etc), then use the object wrapper class (Autoboxing) for that primitive (like Integer, Float, Boolean, etc). Then, you can pass null to the method:

public Response getEndpoint(@QueryParam("queryA") Boolean first);