

I’ve been working with a couple of REST API solutions that exist in the Java tech stack. I haven’t seen any great analysis of REST API solutions (though Matt Raible does mention some in this exhaustive slide deck about Java frameworks [pdf]), so wanted to share my on the ground experience.
First up is restSQL. This framework makes it easy to get data from a database to a JSON or XML REST API and back. If you have a servlet container available, you write two configuration files, one with a SQL query and one with db connection information, and you have a RESTful API. For prototyping and database access, it is hard to beat.
Pros:
- Quick to set up
- Only SQL knowledge is required
- No programming required
- Allows simple mapping of db table to resource, but can include one to one and one to many mappings
- Supports all four REST operations out of the box
- Supports XML as well as JSON
- Is an embeddable java library as well as a standalone framework
- Project maintainer is engaged and the project is moving forward
Cons:
- Requires a servlet engine, and you have to restart it for changes to your configuration to be picked up
- Output format has limited customization
- Only works with mysql and postgresql databases (though there is some experimental support for Oracle and MS SQL)
- Doesn’t work with views
- The security model, while fine grained, isn’t modern/OAuth (can be solved with an API gateway (like 3scale, Tyk or ApiAxle) or proxy
The next framework I have experience with is Dropwizard. This is a powerful framework that creates uberjars that you can run on any port as a standalone service. It’s not limited to providing a JSON representation of database tables–if you can create a Java object, Dropwizard can serve it up as a JSON resource.
Pros:
- Community support
- Extreme output formatting flexibility, but be prepared to write a custom deserializer if you want to handle anything other than reads of custom formatted objects
- Supports any database that hibernate supports
- Built in testing support
- Brings together ‘best of breed’ tools like Jersey, Jackson and Hibernate, so you don’t have to do the integration yourself
- Great documentation
Cons:
- Have to roll your own deployment solution (tarball, chef, puppet)
- No services startup script provided
- Shading can slow down development
- Not yet at 1.0 release
The last one I don’t have familiarity with, but a colleague used it in the past. It is Sparkjava. This is a lightweight framework that fits when you have an existing Java library with functionality you want to expose. I’m not competent to write pros/cons for this framework, but wanted to mention it.
The gorilla in the room that I haven’t had experience with (in terms of writing RESTful webs services) is Spring. I would definitely include this in any greenfield solutions review.
I didn’t know the other ones, but I really like the Spring Data REST framework.
Spark Java (which is now super confusing because of Apache Spark, the cluster computing framework from apache) pros and cons kinda break down like this:
Pros:
Functional
Easy to pick up, especially for those familiar with Sinatra style microframeworks
Small docs
Extensible
Java 8 lamba goodness everywhere
Easy to get started
Error handling
Approachable code base
Cons:
Not a huge community (granted, I never really had to look for one. I didn’t have any issues. But there’s a mailing list and an IRC channel)
Doesn’t update often
Small docs
Not a huge focus placed on speed
I use spark for very simple web server tasks. Tasks I think most devs would just reach for Sinatra/flask for. But Spark gives me that level of rapid development while also running on the JVM.
It’s important to note that spark has a bevy of features I didn’t even touch. Templates, customization requests and responses, etc. But I think the fact that I never had to touch 90% of the feature set of a very tiny http framework makes it very suitable for writing APIs.
Thanks Jeremy! Nice summary. When I mentioned spark to a friend, he had exactly that confusion. Major bummer to have two projects using the same name.
googlenoob, what did you like best about Spring for building REST APIs?
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