How to mix server-side Jax-rs call with native files without prefix?

Question

We are currently using a Jersey JAX-RS implementation to handle our REST requests (server-side Jersey). Our web.xml file is configured so all /rest/* requests are handled by Jersey. That's fine. Our server is currently Tomcat6, and using Java6 ( on Ubuntu 11.04 )

So, ://myserver/rest/customer/ is ok and Jersey calls the class with @Path("/customer") prefix.

Now we also have static content, for example ://myserver/images/... wich loads fine.

Is there a way to do so that we can get rid of the /rest/* prefix and mix it all together?

What we want to achieve : ://myserver/rest/customer/ → Jersey ://myserver/rest/images/ → the native image Directory of the war

Thanks for your help

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 17 '11 at 21:04

2

This is pretty easy to achieve. Just register Jersey ServletContainer in web.xml as a filter (instead of servlet) - see the bottom of this page for an example - and either use ServletContainer.PROPERTY_WEB_PAGE_CONTENT_REGEX or ServletContainer.FEATURE_FILTER_FORWARD_ON_404 init param to make the static content accessible.

answered Sep 17 '11 at 21:04

Martin Matula

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Perfect ! thank you. I agree too with other option, but find this one more suitable. ServletContainer.FEATURE_FILTER_FORWARD_ON_404 is a well hidden option :) – Sebastien Oct 01 '11 at 21:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 18 '11 at 01:06

First, when it comes to servlet mapping, priority goes like this:

Path mapping: /rest/*
Extension mapping: *.png
Default: /

Path mapping + extension mapping: bad idea

So you can't map static resources by their file extension within an existing path mapping (that would be a bad idea anyway, managing all static file extensions in your web.xml).

Path mapping's priority > ext mapping.

Using a filter

Set up an UrlRewriteFilter in your web.xml

<filter>
    <filter-name>UrlRewriteFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>UrlRewriteFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

And in your urlrewrite.xml configuration file:

<urlrewrite default-match-type="wildcard">
    <rule>
        <from>/rest/images/**</from>
        <to>/images/$1</to>
    </rule>
</urlrewrite>

Not mapping static resources in /rest

This may not suit your needs, but this is my favorite! Mapping static resources within /rest says "Hey, developer, come GET/POST/PUT/DELETE thoses static resources, it's okay":

If you can't GET/PUT/POST/DELETE those resources, then you shouldn't map them in /rest. It gives the wrong impression.
If ou actually want to manipulate those resources through a REST webservice, then let Jersey do the heavy lifting and serve those resources (check out the jersey-samples for an example).

Thanks for your answer. In fact, it's just the contrary we try to achieve. We want to limit Jersey to some special things ( /employees, /customers... ) and let static files ( /images, /dojo, /javascript ) be handled by Tomcat natively. The problem is, for SEO and URL beauty, we'd like to avoid using /rest/employees, /rest/customers. This is this type of mixin we want to achieve. — Sebastien, Sep 03 '11 at 09:22

How to mix server-side Jax-rs call with native files without prefix?

2 Answers2

Path mapping + extension mapping: bad idea

Using a filter

Not mapping static resources in /rest

Linked