Is Java's URI.resolve incompatible with RFC 3986 when the relative URI contains an empty path?

Question

I believe the definition and implementation of Java\'s URI.resolve method is incompatible with RFC 3986 section 5.2.2. I understand that the Java API defines how that method

Answer 1

If you want better¹ behavior from URI.resolve() and do not want to include another large dependency² in your program, then I found the following code to work well within my requirements:

public URI resolve(URI base, URI relative) {
    if (Strings.isNullOrEmpty(base.getPath()))
        base = new URI(base.getScheme(), base.getAuthority(), "/",
            base.getQuery(), base.getFragment());
    if (Strings.isNullOrEmpty(uri.getPath()))
        uri = new URI(uri.getScheme(), uri.getAuthority(), base.getPath(),
            uri.getQuery(), uri.getFragment());
    return base.resolve(uri);
}

The only non-JDK thing there is Strings from Guava, for readability - replace with your own 1-line-method if you don't have Guava.

Footnotes:

1. I cannot claim that the simple code sample here is RFC3986 compliant.
2. Such as Spring, javax.ws or - as mentioned in this answer - Apache HTTPClient.