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How to short-circuit from Spring WebGraphQlInterceptor without executing controller handler?

I have a Spring WebFlux application and am trying to write a WebGraphQlInterceptor to enforce authorization. The authorization requires access to HTTP headers and GraphQL variables, both of which are easily accessible from a WebGraphQlInterceptor. However, if the request fails authorization, I do not want to execute the controller handler and instead exit early with an error response. I have the custom error response working OK, but I cannot figure out how to bypass the controller -- it seems like I'm required to proceed down the original chain, execute the controller, and only then return the error response.
I'm hoping there's an easy solution I'm missing. The documentation seems sparse on this topic with very few examples online. The WebGraphQlInterceptor documentation lists some methods like apply() that sound like they might be helpful for altering the chain, but it's not clear how to use them. The interceptor interface requires a WebGraphQlResponse to be returned, and I can't find a way to return it without continuing down the original chain with chain.next(request) below:
#Override
public Mono<WebGraphQlResponse> intercept(WebGraphQlRequest request, Chain chain) {
return chain.next(request).map(response -> {
// Custom logic...
});
}
I also tried constructing my own custom WebGraphQlResponse from scratch to return from the interceptor, but this felt like a hack and a lot of unnecessary overhead.
I don't want the controller to be executed at all if authorization fails. Is this even possible with the WebGraphQlInterceptor? And what would the simplest implementation look like?
P.S. The WebFilter doesn't help me here because I need easy access to GraphQL variables, which isn't possible with WebFilters.

Can we implement both #pathparam and #queryparam for the same endpoint

I am teaching myself REST API development. As part of this, I am creating a Java web server. However, I am stuck on something, and don't know how to proceed.
I have an endpoint called /users, through which users will GET the data. However, I want to implement the option of finding a user and limiting the number of users returned. For example:
GET /users/300 should return the user with ID 300.
If I get the query GET /users?count=10, I want to limit the return to 10 users.
For this, I have settled on the using #QueryParam and #PathParam. The question is: Can I use both of them in the same method?
For example:
#Path("/User")
#Produces({"application/json"})
public List<User> getUsers() {
// ...
}
#GET
#Path("/{id}")
public JSONObject getUserwithId(#PathParam("id") int id) {
return jsonObjectwithId;
}
#Path("?count")
public JSONObject getUserwithCount(#QueryParam("count") int count) {
return noOfusers;
}
I want to whether this is possible.

Yes, I have done this before on web services I have personally worked on. It's not that common, since REST interfaces just don't usually merit the needed complexity. But, it is perfectly permissible for #QueryParam and #PathParam to be used by the same method. I see that you are using Jersey. Based on this thread, if you are actually using Jersey 1.x, you may need to upgrade if you are currently having issues.

Interfere in Jersey REST life cycle

I have variant resources that all extend BaseResource<T>
#Component
#Path("/businesses")
public class BusinessResource extends BaseResource<Business>{
#GET
#Path({businessId}/)
public Business getBusiness(#PathParam("businessId") Integer businessId){..}
}
#Component
#Path("/clients")
public class ClientResource extends BaseResource<Client>{
#GET
#Path({clientId}/)
public Client getClient(#PathParam("clientId") Integer clientId){..}
}
I would like, that when there is a call to
/businesses/3, it will first go through a method that I will write which validates the T object and if everything is ok I will tell jersey to continue handling the resource.
Same goes for Client.
I can't use a regular servlet/filter - since it's being called BEFORE jersey servlet and I wouldn't know which resource is being called.
What is the best way to do it in Jersey?
Is there a place to interfere between knowing the method that jersey will invoke and the invokation?

There are 4 basic http methods in REST, namly GET, PUT, POST, DELETE.
Your annotation tells Jersey what method to call when a http request occurs. Jersey looks up the target URI in the request and matches it against your model. If the request is a http get it will execute the method annotiated with #Get from the class with the correct #Path annotiaton.
Usually you dont want to grant access to your resources in this annotated method directly. A common (may not perfect) way is to implement a DAO class that handles access to your resources, and of course does the validation before it returns the resource back to the #Get annotated method, which will itself only pass the resource to the client. So you will get another layer in your application between persisting (SQL, etc) and the client interface (Jersey).

You can use jersey 2.x ContainerRequestFilters with NameBinding. After having matched the resource, the bound filter will be executed prior to executing the method itself.
You can see the Jersey user guide, which states that it is possible:
Chapter 9.2.1.1 explains about PreMatching and PostMatching filters and chapter 9.4 chapter shows the execution order of jersey filters.
See my post for the implementation where I had the problem to make the filters with jersey 2 work.

Easy REST resource versioning in JAX-RS based implementations?

Best practice for REST resource versioning is putting version information into Accept/Content-Type headers of HTTP request leaving URI intact.
Here is the sample request/response to REST API for retrieving system information:
==>
GET /api/system-info HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json
<==
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json
{
“session-count”: 19
}
Pay attention that version is specified in MIME type.
Here is another request/response for version 2:
==>
GET /api/system-info HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json
<==
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json
{
“uptime”: 234564300,
“session-count”: 19
}
See http://barelyenough.org/blog/tag/rest-versioning/ for more explanation and examples.
Is it possible to implement this approach easily in Java-targeted JAX-RS based implementations, such as Jersey or Apache CXF?
The goal is to have several #Resource classes with the same #Path value, but serving the request based on actual version specified in MIME type?
I've looked into JAX-RS in general and Jersey in particlaur and found no support for that. Jersey doesn't give a chance to register two resources with the same path. Replacement for WebApplicationImpl class needs to implemented to support that.
Can you suggest something?
NOTE: It is required for multiple versions of the same resource needs to be available simultaneously. New versions may introduce incompatibale changes.

JAX-RS dispatches to methods annotated with #Produces via the Accept header. So, if you want JAX-RS to do your dispatching, you'll need to leverage this mechanism. Without any extra work, you would have to create a method (and Provider) for every media type you wish to support.
There's nothing stopping you from having several methods based on media type that all call a common method to do that work, but you'd have to update that and add code every time you added a new media type.
One idea is to add a filter that "normalizes" your Accept header specifically for dispatch. That is, perhaps, taking your:
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json
And converting that to, simply:
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo+json
At the same time, you extract the version information for later use (perhaps in the request, or some other ad hoc mechanism).
Then, JAX-RS will dispatch to the single method that handles "application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo+json".
THAT method then takes the "out of band" versioning information to handle details in processing (such as selecting the proper class to load via OSGi).
Next, you then create a Provider with an appropriate MessageBodyWriter. The provider will be selected by JAX-RS for the application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo+json media type. It will be up to your MBW to figure out the actual media type (based again on that version information) and to create the proper output format (again, perhaps dispatching to the correct OSGi loaded class).
I don't know if an MBW can overwrite the Content-Type header or not. If not, then you can delegate the earlier filter to rewrite that part for you on the way out.
It's a little convoluted, but if you want to leverage JAX-RS dispatch, and not create methods for every version of your media type, then this is a possible path to do that.
Edit in response to comment:
Yea, essentially, you want JAX-RS to dispatch to the proper class based on both Path and Accept type. It is unlikely that JAX-RS will do this out of the box, as it's a bit of an edge case. I have not looked at any of the JAX-RS implementations, but you may be able to do what you want by tweaking one of the at the infrastructure level.
Possibly another less invasive option is to use an age old trick from the Apache world, and simply create a filter that rewrites your path based on the Accept header.
So, when the system gets:
GET /resource
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json
You rewrite it to:
GET /resource-v1
Accept: application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json
Then, in your JAX-RS class:
#Path("resource-v1")
#Produces("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json")
public class ResourceV1 {
...
}
So, your clients get the correct view, but your classes get dispatched properly by JAX-RS. The only other issue is that your classes, if they look, will see the modified Path, not the original path (but your filter can stuff that in the request as a reference if you like).
It's not ideal, but it's (mostly) free.
This is an existing filter that might do what you want to do, if not it perhaps can act as an inspiration for you to do it yourself.

With current version of Jersey, I would suggest an implementation with two different API methods and two different return values that are automatically serialised to the applicable MIME type. Once the requests to the different versions of the API are received, common code can be used underneath.
Example:
import javax.ws.rs.*;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
#GET
#Path("/{id}")
#Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public VersionOneDTO get(#PathParam("id") final String id) {
return new VersionOneDTO( ... );
}
#GET
#Path("/{id}")
#Produces("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json;qs=0.9")
public VersionTwoDTO get_v2(#PathParam("id") final String id) {
return new VersionTwoDTO( ... );
}
If method get(...) and get_v2(...) use common logic, I would suggest to put that in a common private method if it's API related (such as session or JWT handling) or else in a common public method of a Service Layer that you access via inheritance or Dependency Injection. By having two different methods with different return types, you ensure that the structure returned is of correct type for the different versions of the API.
Note that some old client may not specify Accept header at all. That means implicitly that they would accept any content type, thus any version of your API. In practice, this is most often not the truth. For this reason you should specify a weight to newer versions of the API using the qs extension of the MIME type as shown in the #Produces annotation in the example above.
If you are testing with restAssured it would look something like this:
import static com.jayway.restassured.RestAssured.get;
import static com.jayway.restassured.RestAssured.given;
#Test
public void testGetEntityV1() {
given()
.header("Accept", MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
.when()
.get("/basepath/1")
.then()
.assertThat()
... // Some check that Version 1 was called
;
}
#Test
public void testGetEntityV1OldClientNoAcceptHeader() {
get("/basepath/1")
.then()
.assertThat()
... // Some check that Version 1 was called
;
}
#Test
public void testGetEntityV2() {
given()
.header("Accept", "application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json")
.when()
.get("/basepath/1")
.then()
.assertThat()
... // Some check that Version 2 was called
;
}

One possible solution is to use one #Path with
Content-Type:
application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-{version}+json
Then, inside the method of the given #Path you can call the version of the WebService

If you're using CXF, you could use the technique specified here to build a new serialization provider (building off the existing infrastructure) which produces the data in the specific format desired. Declare a couple of those, one for each specific format that you want, and use the #Produces annotation to let the machinery handle the rest of the negotiation for you, though it might also be an idea to support the standard JSON content type too so that normal clients can handle it without needing to grok your specialness. The only real question then becomes what is the best way to do the serialization; I presume you can figure that out for yourself…
[EDIT]: Further digging in the CXF documentation leads to the revelation that both the #Consumes and #Produces annotations are considered to be axes for doing selection. If you want to have two methods that handle the production of the response for different media types, you most certainly can. (You'll have to add the serialization and/or deserialization providers if you're using custom types, but you can do the delegation of the majority of the work to the standard providers.) I'd still like to caution that you should still ensure that the resource indicated by the path should be the same in both cases; to do otherwise is not RESTful.

You should be able to use different classes with the same path provided they consume/produce different media types. So this should work with any jax-rs provider:
#Path("/api/system-info")
#Consumes("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json")
#Produces("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v1+json")
public class SystemInfoResourceV1 {
}
and
#Path("/api/system-info")
#Consumes("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json")
#Produces("application/vnd.COMPANY.systeminfo-v2+json")
public class SystemInfoResourceV2 {
}

The indestructibles - HTTP Parameters

I always wondered why there exists no removeParameters() method in Servlet API.
What could be the motive behind this design?
Here is a scenario: I am posed with a challenge in a proprietary MVC framework that I am compelled to use. This framework uses a Controller Servlet that hosts an algorithm in it's post method:
doPost() {
//create instance of action - just like struts action
action.init
action.preexecution
if(redirection state is not set)
action.process
action.postprocess
action.finish
}
The only way I can skip process of any particular action would be by setting a redirection url. The Controller Servlet is FINAL. Now, when I do a requestdispatcher.forward from say the preexecution method of an action, the controller will go ahead and execute the rest of the methods and not skip the rest. I cannot change this behavior, neither can I set the redirect, coz I need to do a forward. It works fine as long as I am not forwarding request to the same action. When a request is forwarded to the same action, the http parameters are all the same. This would take it into a never ending loop. Hence, I am compelled to add extra parameters indicating that it is a repeat request and should be treated differently.
Not sure if my problem made sense, but thought this is a good forum to post the same.

Umm... because it would serve no purpose? Request parameters are sent by the client to the server. The server is free to ignore them, but what practical effect would you expect such a removeParameter() method to have?
Edit: Request parameters are meant for the communication between server and client. For server-internal communication, you can use request attributes, which can be set and removed.

EDIT: McDowell reminded me of HttpServletRequestWrapper, so I'm changing the below to make it a little less work... Thanks McD!
You can decorate the request to "hide" parameters you don't want and/or add extra parameters.
Something like (off the top of me head -- no compiling so the API might be a tweak off...)
public class MyParameterHider extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {
public MyParameterHider(HttpServletRequest request) {
super(request);
}
public String getParameter(String name) {
if ("parameterToHide".equals(name))
return null;
return realRequest.getParameter(name);
}
// similar for getParameterNames and getParameterMap - don't include the hidden parm
// all other methods are strictly pass-through and are automatically
// handled by HttpServletRequestWrapper
}
In your forward, just wrap the request in a ParameterHider when calling doFilter:
dispatcher.forward(new MyParameterHider(request), response);
Patterns FTW!
Hope this helps!