Learn how to use MicroProfile Rest Client to invoke RESTful microservices over HTTP in a type-safe way.

You will learn how to build a MicroProfile Rest Client to access remote RESTful services. You will create a template interface that maps to the remote service that you want to call. MicroProfile Rest Client automatically generates a client instance based on what is defined and annotated in the template interface. Thus, you don’t have to worry about all of the boilerplate code, such as setting up a client class, connecting to the remote server, or invoking the correct URI with the correct parameters.

The application that you will be working with is an inventory service, which fetches and stores the system property information for different hosts. Whenever a request is made to retrieve the system properties of a particular host, the inventory service will create a client to invoke the system service on that host. The system service simulates a remote service in the application.

You will instantiate the client and use it in the inventory service. You can choose from two different approaches, Context and Dependency Injection (CDI) with the help of MicroProfile Config or the RestClientBuilder method. In this guide, you will explore both methods to handle scenarios for providing a valid base URL.

• When the base URL of the remote service is static and known, define the default base URL in the configuration file. Inject the client with CDI method.

• When the base URL is not yet known and needs to be determined during the run time, set the base URL as a variable. Build the client with the more verbose RestClientBuilder method.

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Now, navigate to the start directory to begin.

The MicroProfile Rest Client API is added as a dependency to your pom.xml file. Look for the dependency with the mpRestClient artifact ID.

pom.xml

This dependency provides the library that is required to implement the MicroProfile Rest Client interface.

The mpRestClient feature is also enabled in the src/main/liberty/config/server.xml file. This feature enables your Open Liberty server to use MicroProfile Rest Client to invoke RESTful microservices.

server.xml

The code for the system service in the src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/system directory is provided for you. It simulates a remote RESTful service that the inventory service invokes.

Create a RESTful client interface for the system service. Write a template interface that maps the API of the remote system service. The template interface describes the remote service that you want to access. The interface defines the resource to access as a method by mapping its annotations, return type, list of arguments, and exception declarations.

SystemClient.java

The MicroProfile Rest Client feature automatically builds and generates a client implementation based on what is defined in the SystemClient interface. Thus, you don’t waste time on setting up the client and connecting with the remote service.

When the getProperties() method is invoked, the SystemClient instance sends a GET request to the <baseUrl>/properties endpoint, where <baseUrl> is the default base URL of the system service. You will see how to configure the base URL in the next section.

The @RegisterProvider annotation tells the framework to register the provider classes to be used when the framework invokes the interface. You can add as many providers as necessary. In the SystemClient interface, add a response exception mapper as a provider to map the 404 response code with the UnknownUrlException exception.

Now, instantiate the SystemClient interface and use it in the inventory service. If you want to connect only with the default host name, you can easily instantiate the SystemClient with CDI annotations. CDI injection simplifies the process of bootstrapping the client.

First, you need to define the base URL of the SystemClient instance. Configure the default base URL with the MicroProfile Config feature. This feature is enabled for you in both server.xml and pom.xml files.

microprofile-config.properties

The config property io.openliberty.guides.inventory.client.SystemClient/mp-rest/url is configured to the default http://localhost:9080/system base URL.

This configuration is automatically picked up by the MicroProfile Config API.

Look at the annotations in the SystemClient interface again.

SystemClient.java

The @Dependent annotation tells the service that the scope of the interface depends on the class that it is injected into. By default, interfaces have a @Dependent scope unless another scope is defined on the interface.

The @RegisterRestClient annotation registers the interface as a RESTful client. The runtime creates a CDI managed bean for every interface that is annotated with the @RegisterRestClient annotation.

The @Dependent and @RegisterRestClient annotations imply that the interface is manageable through CDI. You must have them in order to inject the client.

Inject the SystemClient interface into the InventoryManager class, which is another CDI managed bean.

InventoryManager.java

@Inject and @RestClient annotations inject an instance of the SystemClient called defaultRestClient to the InventoryManager class.

Since the InventoryManager class is @ApplicationScoped, and the SystemClient CDI bean maintains the same scope through the @Dependent annotation, the client is initialized once per application.

If the hostname parameter is localhost, the service runs the getPropertiesWithDefaultHostName() helper function to fetch system properties. The helper function invokes the system service by calling the defaultRestClient.getProperties() method.

The inventory service might also connect with a host other than the default localhost host. Then, you cannot configure a base URL that is not yet known. Therefore, set the host name as a variable and build the client by using the RestClientBuilder method. You can customize the base URL from the host name attribute.

Look at the getPropertiesWithGivenHostName() method in the src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/inventory/InventoryManager.java file.

InventoryManager.java

The host name is provided as a parameter. This method first assembles the base URL that consists of the new host name. Then, the method instantiates a RestClientBuilder builder with the new URL, registers the response exception mapper, and builds the SystemClient instance.

Similarly, call the customRestClient.getProperties() method to invoke the system service.

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When the server is running, select either approach to fetch your system properties:

• Visit the http://localhost:9080/inventory/systems/localhost URL. The URL retrieves the system property information for localhost host name by invoking the http://localhost:9080/system/properties service.

• Get your FQDN first. Then, visit the http://localhost:9080/inventory/systems/{your_hostname} URL by replacing {your_hostname} with your FQDN, which retrieves your system properties by invoking the http://{your_hostname}:9080/system/properties service.

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RestClientTest.java

Each test case tests one of the methods for instantiating a RESTful client.

The testDefaultLocalhost() test fetches and compares system properties from the http://localhost:9080/inventory/systems/localhost URL.

The testRestClientBuilder() test gets your IP address. Then, use your IP address as the host name to fetch your system properties and compare them.

In addition, a few endpoint tests are provided for you to test the basic functionality of the inventory and system services. If a test failure occurs, you might have introduced a bug into the code.

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To see whether the tests detect a failure, change the base URL in the configuration file so that when the inventory service tries to access the invalid URL, an UnknownUrlException is thrown. Rerun the Maven build. You see a test failure occur.

You just invoked a remote service by using a template interface with MicroProfile Rest Client in Open Liberty.

Feel free to try one of the related guides. They demonstrate more technologies that you can learn and expand on what you built here.

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