具有动态JSON的Jax-RS Restful POST

Question

I have a REST service. One of the endpoints on that service is a POST that looks like 'path/pathParam/{pathParamVal}'. Let's say {pathParamVal} can be between 1 and 6. Usually, all I have to do is specify how the JSON should be marshaled on the calling function's parameter of the @POST request like:

@POST
@Path("/path/pathParam/{pathParamVal}")
public void processPost(List<SomeJsonObject> someJsonObject) {
}

And that works assuming SomeJsonObject is defined correctly. However, my problem is that the JSON being passed in changes based on the value of {pathParamVal}. To be specific, the JSON structure is always the same when {pathParamVal} is either 1,3,4,5, or 6. However, it changes when {pathParamVal} is 2. Likewise, since the JSON changes, the class definition for that JSON changes as well. Something like:

@POST
@Path("/path/pathParam/{pathParamVal}") // == 1,3,4,5,6
public void processPost(List<SomeJsonObject> someJsonObject) {
}

@POST
@Path("/path/pathParam/{pathParamVal}") // == 2
public void processPost(List<SomeOtherJsonObject> someOtherJsonObject) {
}

is what I'm wanting. I know for a fact that these are the only two Lists that the JSON coming in will be mapped to, and there's a .0001% chance that it will ever change. So is what I'm trying to achieve possible? I tried using generics and wildcards but I'm not too familiar with them so I may have not been implementing them correctly.

If push comes to shove and this isn't possible, I guess I could always just combine the class definitions of SomeJsonObject and SomeOtherJsonObject into something like CombinedJsonObject , then accept List<CombinedJsonObject> combinedJsonObject as a parameter, but the main reason I made this question was to avoid going that route.

Answer 1

In my opinion, it is a confusing API. I think that instead of numbers, maybe some other kind of literal should be used. I mean that pathParam/{pathParamValue} in the URI should be changed by a literal like pathParamMeaning , but, anyway, if you change your url pattern with the number "2" it will be matched for only those requests.

@POST
@Path("/path/pathParam/{pathParamVal}") // == 2
public void processPost(List<SomeOtherJsonObject> someOtherJsonObject) {
}

should be replaced by

@POST
@Path("/path/pathParam/2") // == 2
public void processPost(List<SomeOtherJsonObject> someOtherJsonObject) {
}

You can even go further using regular expression patterns. This could be the matching pattern for the first case: others than "2":

@Path("path/pathParam/{pathParamVal : [0-1,3-9]}")