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How to design API in Spring MVC?

I have a Spring MVC controller but I'm not sure that it is a good or bad design. As far as I know, api versioning is missing but apart from that I implemented Swagger for documentation and added SpringSecurity and tried to follow YARAS(Yet Another RESTful API Standard) to build it but I need another eye on that to comment it.
#Slf4j
#Controller
#RequestMapping
#RequiredArgsConstructor
public class XGameController implements GameController {
private final GameService gameService;
private final ObjectMapper mapper;
#RequestMapping(value = "/", method= RequestMethod.GET)
public String index() {
return "game";
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/login", method= RequestMethod.GET)
public String login() {
return "login";
}
#Secured("ROLE_USER")
#RequestMapping(value = "/games", method= RequestMethod.POST)
public String initializeGame(Model model) {
log.info("New XGame is initializing...");
Game game = new Game();
game = gameService.initializeGame(game.getId());
try {
model.addAttribute("game", mapper.writeValueAsString(game));
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
log.error(e.getMessage());
}
log.info("New XGame is initialized successfully!");
return "game";
}
#Secured("ROLE_USER")
#RequestMapping(value = "/games/{gameId}", method= RequestMethod.PUT)
public #ResponseBody Game play(#PathVariable("gameId") String gameId,
#RequestParam Integer pitNumber,
#RequestParam String action) {
log.info("Sowing stone is triggered...");
return gameService.executeGameRules(UUID.fromString(gameId), pitNumber);
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/403", method= RequestMethod.GET)
public String error403() {
return "/error/403";
}
}
My swagger snapshot;

I would make some changes.
In /games/{gameId} I would use PATCH instead of PUT. The reason is that PUT is intended to completely replace the resource (in your case, the Game). This does not seem to be what you are doing in this endpoint. PATCH is intended to partially update a resource, which seems much more suited to what you are doing here.
Still in /games/{gameId} I would use the request body to provide the needed data instead of query parameters. It simply doesn't seem right. Query parameters are way more suited to GET requests than to POST, PUT or PATCH.
I would rename /403 to something else that actually gives some context about what 403 is. Having said this, I would go with /error-pages/403. Additionally, I would also consider removing this endpoint from the swagger specification.
Other than this, it seems fine to me.

Some advices :
Use a path that represents the context or the idea of your controller and you can add the version
#RequestMapping("/V1/xgame")
Use specialized annotations such as : #GetMapping, #PostMapping etc...
For /403 use a meaning full name such as /errors
Use custom message that you will return to the users. For that you need a ControllerAdvice.
Google on patterns and best practices Rest API design
Read some books for better undertanding.

Firstly, instead of #RequestMapping use a specific Mapping(Get, Post,etc.) and the use of type of mapping is up to you which you find more particular to the cause of using it
if you are redirecting from a page to homepage try to use return "redirect:"/url"" instead of just returning HTML file directly.
Rename your method for error, RequestMapping value to some more reasonable name.
instead of using return "/error/403"
use return "redirect:/error/403"

Spring rest vs standard Rest?

In spring doc, I can get following explanations for the difference of the spring mvc and spring rest.
Spring REST architecture is also based on Spring MVC, slightly making the difference on the View part. Traditional Spring MVC relies on the View technology to render the model data, the Spring REST architecture also does the same, except that the model object is set directly into the HTTP response, which the #ResponseBody converts into JSON/XML automatically. The output of a RESTful web service has to be a JSON or an XML, a standard format that could be easily handled across different consumer application platforms.
But in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer.
It has a couple of feactures except for the json response like the rest will use the HTTP PUT/DELETE/POST method to manipulate resource.
I was wondering if below spring controller can be treated as a restful service. I have used #RestController to return json response, but did not use any other rest features.
#RestController
#RequestMapping(value = "/employee")
public class EmployeeController {
#RequestMapping(value = RequestAction.LOADLIST, method = RequestMethod.POST)
public List<Employee> list(#RequestBody Employee bo) {
System.out.println(bo);
return employeeList;
}
#RequestMapping(value = RequestAction.LOAD, method = RequestMethod.POST)
public Employee getEmployee(
#RequestBody Employee input) {
for (Employee employee : employeeList) {
if (employee.getId().equals(input.getId())) {
return employee;
}
}
return input;
}
#RequestMapping(value = RequestAction.ADD, method = RequestMethod.POST)
public Employee addEmployee(#RequestBody Employee bo) {
System.out.println(bo);
return bo;
}
#RequestMapping(value = RequestAction.UPDATE, method = RequestMethod.POST)
public Employee updateEmployee(#RequestBody Employee bo) {
System.out.println(bo);
for (Employee employee : employeeList) {
if (employee.getId().equals(bo.getId())) {
employee.setName(bo.getName());
return employee;
}
}
return bo;
}
}

Your example script is not REST because it change the url for each task, and use always POST verb. Spring REST use different HTTP verbs (GET, POST, DELETE) to differentiate the action. A few times sharing the same url.
Example:
#RestController
#RequestMapping("/users")
public class UsersController {
#GetMapping
public List<User> index() {...}
#GetMapping("{id}")
public User show(...) {...}
#PostMapping
public User create(...) {...}
#PutMapping("{id}")
public User update(...) {...}
#DeleteMapping("{id}")
public void delete(...) {...}
}

Your example is not following the conventionals of a REST API (e.g. GET for retrieval, POST for create, PUT for full update, PATCH for partial update, etc.), but it does not mean, that you can't. As others stated above, you might just got confused with the term. REST is a protocol and it has lots of conventionals for service usages, which if you follow, you can say that your service is REST or RESTful.
This page is the simple best source of tutoring you in this area:
https://restfulapi.net
More importantly this, when we are considering your example: https://restfulapi.net/http-methods/
I also check it sometimes.

Save a Spring Data Rest JPA entity in a custom controller and return a HAL representation

In my Spring Boot web application I have a JPA entity Medium that records information about uploaded files.
I have a basic Spring Data Rest repository to handle the generic operations:
#RepositoryRestResource(path = "/media")
public interface MediumRepository extends CrudRepository<Medium, Long> {
}
However, I need the client to upload a file using HTTP multipart upload, then create a Medium record and return it in the response. The structure of the response should be the same as calling repository.save(). What I cannot figure out is how to have the HATEOAS metadata added. Obviously, if I just return
return mediumRepository.save(medium);
it will return a basic JSON representation of the entity, no HATEOAS. I already learned that I should probably use a PersistentEntityResourceAssembler.
So, my current controller code is:
#RestController
#RequestMapping("/upload")
public class MediaEndpoint {
#Autowired
private MediumRepository mediumRepository;
#RequestMapping(method = POST)
public PersistentEntityResource uploadMedium(
#RequestPart MultipartFile data,
PersistentEntityResourceAssembler persistentEntityResourceAssembler) {
Medium medium = new Medium();
// setup of the medium instance
Medium savedMedium = mediumRepository.save(medium);
return persistentEntityResourceAssembler.toResource(savedMedium);
}
}
However, I cannot get the persistentEntityResourceAssembler injected into the method - I'm getting
Failed to instantiate [org.springframework.data.rest.webmvc.PersistentEntityResourceAssembler]: No default constructor found; nested exception is java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.springframework.data.rest.webmvc.PersistentEntityResourceAssembler.<init>()
How can I implement this?

Following Cepr0's answer, I changed my controller to a #RepositoryRestController, but I got an exception
Circular view path [upload]: would dispatch back to the current handler URL [/upload] again.
Check your ViewResolver setup! (Hint: This may be the result of an unspecified view,
due to default view name generation.)
I found that RepositoryRestControllers are not annotated with #ResponseBody and should return a ResponseEntity, so I changed my code to the following:
#RepositoryRestController
#RequestMapping("/upload")
public class MediaEndpoint {
#Autowired
private MediumRepository mediumRepository;
#RequestMapping(method = POST)
public ResponseEntity<PersistentEntityResource> uploadMedium(
#RequestPart MultipartFile data,
PersistentEntityResourceAssembler persistentEntityResourceAssembler) {
Medium medium = new Medium();
// setup of the medium instance
Medium savedMedium = mediumRepository.save(medium);
return ResponseEntity.ok(persistentEntityResourceAssembler.toResource(savedMedium));
}
}
This gives me a nice JSON response with HATEOAS metadata.
Alternatively, annotating the method or the controller with #ResponseBody works the same way.

Try to use #RepositoryRestController instead of #RestController.

Multiple GET methods match: select most specific

I have a web service that looks like:
#Path("/ws")
public class Ws {
#GET public Record getOne(#QueryParam("id") Integer id) { return record(id); }
#GET public List<Record> getAll() { return allRecords(); }
}
The idea is that I can either call:
http://ws:8080/ws?id=1 to get a specific record
http://ws:8080/ws to get all available records
However when I use the second URL, the first #GET method is called with a null id.
Is there a way to achieve what I want without using different paths?
I think this can be achieved with Spring using the #RequestMapping(params={"id"}) and #RequestMapping annotations for the first and second methods respectively but I can't use Spring in that project.

Since the path is the same, you cannot map it to a different method. If you change the path using REST style mapping
#Path("/ws")
public class Ws {
#GET #Path("/{id}") public Response getOne(#PathParam("id") Integer id) { return Response.status(200).entity(record(id)).build(); }
#GET public Response getAll() { return Response.status(200).entity(allRecords()).build(); }
then you should use:
http://ws:8080/ws/1 to get a specific record
http://ws:8080/ws to get all available records

How to create a default method in SpringMVC using annotations?

I can't find a solution to this, and it's driving me crazy. I have #Controller mapped that responds to several methods using #RequestMapping. I'd like to tag one of those methods as default when nothing more specific is specified. For example:
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/user/*")
public class UserController {
#RequestMapping("login")
public String login( MapModel model ) {}
#RequestMapping("logout")
public String logout( MapModel model ) {}
#RequestMapping("authenticate")
public String authenticate( MapModel model ) {}
}
So /user/login -> login method, /user/logout -> logout, etc. I'd like to make it so that if someone goes to /user then it routes to one of these methods. However, I don't see anything on #RequestMapping that would allow me to specify one of these methods as a default handler. I also don't see any other annotations that might be used on the class either to do this. I'm beginning to suspect it doesn't exist.
I'm using Spring 2.5.6. Is this solved in 3.0.0? I might just hack Spring to make it work because it's tremendously annoying this isn't more straightforward.
Thanks in Advance.

Take a look at this answer:
Spring MVC and annotated controllers issue
What if you annotate a method with:
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
You can see an example here:
Spring 3.0 MVC + Hibernate : Simplified with Annotations – Tutorial
The same behavior can be seen here:
Spring Framework 3.0 MVC by Aaron Schram (look at page 21)

Short answer: I do not know how to simply specify one method as default with a simple tag.
But there is this ...
I do not know in which version of Spring this was implemented, but you can provide multiple values to #RequestMapping in 3.1.2. So I do this:
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/user")
public class UserController {
#RequestMapping(value = {"", "/", "/list"}, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String listUsers(ModelMap model) { }
#RequestMapping(value = "/add", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView add(HttpServletRequest request, ModelMap model) { }
}
The following URLs then map to listUsers():
http://example.com/user
http://example.com/user/
http://example.com/user/list

I would create one default method without RequestMapping's value in there. Please see method defaultCall() below. You can then simply call them with URL: [yourhostname]/user
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/user")
public class UserController {
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String defaultCall( MapModel model ) {
//Call the default method directly, or use the 'forward' String. Example:
return authenticate( model );
}
#RequestMapping("login")
public String login( MapModel model ) {}
#RequestMapping("logout")
public String logout( MapModel model ) {}
#RequestMapping("authenticate")
public String authenticate( MapModel model ) {}
}
Ref: Spring Framework Request Mapping

Simply using #RequestMapping("**") on your default method should work. Any more specific mappings should still pick up their requests. I use this method for setting up default methods sometimes. Currently using Spring v4.3.8.RELEASE.