Tutorial: Your first RESTful web service

Create a new Java Enterprise project

IntelliJ IDEA includes a dedicated wizard for creating Java Enterprise projects based on various Java EE and Jakarta EE implementations. In this tutorial, we will create a simple web application.

1. In the main menu, go to File | New | Project.

2. In the New Project dialog, select Jakarta EE.

   

   

   Enter a name for your project: RestGlassfishHelloWorldRestTomcatHelloWorld. For this tutorial, use Oracle OpenJDK 21 as the project SDK and select the REST service template. Don't select or add an application server, we will do it later. Select Java and Maven. Click Next to continue.

3. In the Version field, select Jakarta EE 10 because that's what Tomcat 10.1 used in this tutorial is compatible with.

   In the Version field, select Jakarta EE 9.1 because that's what GlassFish 6.2.5 used in this tutorial is compatible with.

   In the Dependencies list, select the following:

   • Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI)

   • RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)

   • Servlet

   • Eclipse Jersey Server

   • Weld SE

   

   

   Click Create.

Explore the default project structure

IntelliJ IDEA creates a project with some boilerplate code that you can build and deploy successfully.

• pom.xml is the Project Object Model with Maven configuration information, including dependencies and plugins necessary for building the project.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>org.example</groupId> <artifactId>RestTomcatHelloWorld</artifactId> <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version> <name>RestTomcatHelloWorld</name> <packaging>war</packaging> <properties> <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding> <maven.compiler.target>21</maven.compiler.target> <maven.compiler.source>21</maven.compiler.source> <junit.version>5.11.0-M2</junit.version> </properties> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>jakarta.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>jakarta.servlet-api</artifactId> <version>6.1.0</version> <scope>provided</scope> </dependency><dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId> <version>4.0.0-M1</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-media-json-jackson</artifactId> <version>4.0.0-M1</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.inject</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-cdi2-se</artifactId> <version>4.0.0-M1</version> </dependency><dependency> <groupId>org.jboss.weld.se</groupId> <artifactId>weld-se-core</artifactId> <version>6.0.0.Beta1</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId> <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId> <version>${junit.version}</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId> <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId> <version>${junit.version}</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> </dependencies> <build> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId> <version>3.4.0</version> </plugin> </plugins> </build> </project>
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>com.example</groupId> <artifactId>RestTomcatHelloWorld</artifactId> <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version> <name>RestTomcatHelloWorld</name> <packaging>war</packaging> <properties> <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding> <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target> <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source> <junit.version>5.9.2</junit.version> </properties> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>jakarta.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>jakarta.servlet-api</artifactId> <version>5.0.0</version> <scope>provided</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId> <version>3.0.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-media-json-jackson</artifactId> <version>3.0.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.inject</groupId> <artifactId>jersey-cdi2-se</artifactId> <version>3.0.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.jboss.weld.se</groupId> <artifactId>weld-se-core</artifactId> <version>4.0.3.Final</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId> <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId> <version>${junit.version}</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId> <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId> <version>${junit.version}</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> </dependencies> <build> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId> <version>3.3.2</version> </plugin> </plugins> </build> </project>

• HelloResource.java is a root resource class, which uses the following JAX-RS annotations to implement the RESTful web service:

  • The @Path annotation identifies the URI for accessing this resource, relative to the application root.

  • The @GET annotation indicates that the hello() method will process HTTP GET requests to the specified URI.

  • The @Produces annotation specifies the MIME media type that the method produces and returns.

  package com.example.restglassfishhelloworld; import jakarta.ws.rs.GET; import jakarta.ws.rs.Path; import jakarta.ws.rs.Produces; @Path("/hello-world") public class HelloResource { @GET @Produces("text/plain") public String hello() { return "Hello, World!"; } }
  package com.example.resttomcathelloworld; import jakarta.ws.rs.GET; import jakarta.ws.rs.Path; import jakarta.ws.rs.Produces; @Path("/hello-world") public class HelloResource { @GET @Produces("text/plain") public String hello() { return "Hello, World!"; } }

• HelloApplication.java is a subclass of javax.ws.rs.core.Application, which is used to configure the environment where the application runs REST resources defined in your resource classes. The @ApplicationPath annotation identifies the URL mapping for the application root (by default, it is set to /api).

  package com.example.restglassfishhelloworld; import jakarta.ws.rs.ApplicationPath; import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Application; @ApplicationPath("/api") public class HelloApplication extends Application { }
  package com.example.resttomcathelloworld; import jakarta.ws.rs.ApplicationPath; import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Application; @ApplicationPath("/api") public class HelloApplication extends Application { }

Configure the application server

Let IntelliJ IDEA know where the GlassFish Tomcat application server is located.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open settings and then select Build, Execution, Deployment | Application Servers.

2. Click and select Glassfish Server Tomcat.

3. Specify the path to the GlassFish Tomcat server install location. IntelliJ IDEA detects and sets the name and version appropriately.

   

   

Create a run configuration

IntelliJ IDEA needs a run configuration to build the artifacts and deploy them to your application server.

1. In the main menu, go to Run | Edit Configurations.

2. In the Run/Debug Configurations dialog, click , expand the Glassfish Server Tomcat Server node, and select Local.

3. Fix any warnings that appear at the bottom of the run configuration settings dialog.

   

   Most likely, you will need to fix the following:

   • On the Server tab, set the Server Domain to domain1.

   • On the Deployment tab, add the artifact that you want to deploy: RestGlassfishHelloWorld:war exploded RestTomcatHelloWorld:war exploded

4. On the Server tab, set the URL to point to the root resource:

   http://localhost:8080/RestGlassfishHelloWorld-1.0-SNAPSHOT/api/hello-world
   http://localhost:8080/RestTomcatHelloWorld_war_exploded/api/hello-world

   

   

5. Click OK to save the run configuration.

6. To run the configuration, press Alt+Shift+F10 and select the created application server configuration.

   Alternatively, if you have your run configuration selected in the main toolbar at the top, you can click in the main toolbar or press Shift+F10 to run it.

This run configuration builds the artifacts, then starts the GlassFish Tomcat server, and deploys the artifacts to the server. You should see the corresponding output in the Services tool window.

Once this is done, IntelliJ IDEA opens the specified URL in your web browser.

If not, try opening the URL yourself: http://localhost:8080/RestGlassfishHelloWorld-1.0-SNAPSHOT/api/hello-world http://localhost:8080/RestTomcatHelloWorld_war_exploded/api/hello-world