REST Invocation With Maven

Recently I had to invoke some REST service in one of my Maven builds.

I had never did it before but I was expecting to find some ready to use component that could allow me to do all the things that I needed directly from configuration but it wasn't the case.

I did the typical search to see what was available and I have found some good tip here and there.

But the conclusion is that there is not a ready "off the shelf" component.

The 2 most practical options seem to be:

- use an Ant GET Task
- embed Groovy code in you r script

Since the first option work only with the verb GET I decided to use the Groovy approach.

Let's say that we want to invoke a service via POST like this:

 

pantinor@pantinor maven_rest$
    curl -d appid=YahooDemo -d query=madonna -d \ 
    context="renaissance favored the Virgin Mary for inspiration" \ 
    http://search.yahooapis.com/ContentAnalysisService/V1/termExtraction

Produces this output:

virgin mary
renaissance
inspiration

An example taken from http://developer.yahoo.com/search/content/V1/termExtraction.html


This is one way to do that in Maven

Add some useful dependency

        
            org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder
            http-builder
            0.5.1
        
 

Specify the Groovy plugin

   
    org.codehaus.groovy.maven
    gmaven-plugin
    1.0
    
     
      generate-resources
      
       execute
      
      
       
       ...
       
      
     
    
   

Add add the proper Groovy code

import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient
import groovy.util.slurpersupport.GPathResult
import static groovyx.net.http.ContentType.URLENC
import static groovyx.net.http.ContentType.XML

yahoo = new RESTClient('http://search.yahooapis.com/ContentAnalysisService/V1/termExtraction')

def response = yahoo.post(
    contentType: XML,
    requestContentType: URLENC,
    body: [appid:"YahooDemo", query:"madonna", context:"renaissance favored the Virgin Mary for inspiration"] 
)
log.info "yahoo response data: ${response.data}"

This is the full pom.xml file

 4.0.0
 test
 maven-rest
 1.0.0

 Maven Rest Example

 
        
            org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder
            http-builder
            0.5.1
        
     
 
     

   
    org.codehaus.groovy.maven
    gmaven-plugin
    1.0
    
     
      generate-resources
      
       execute
      
      
       
        <![CDATA[
import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient
import groovy.util.slurpersupport.GPathResult
import static groovyx.net.http.ContentType.URLENC
import static groovyx.net.http.ContentType.XML

yahoo = new RESTClient('http://search.yahooapis.com/ContentAnalysisService/V1/termExtraction')

def response = yahoo.post(
    contentType: XML,
    requestContentType: URLENC,
    body: [appid:"YahooDemo", query:"madonna", context:"renaissance favored the Virgin Mary for inspiration"] 
)
log.info "yahoo response data: ${response.data}"
        ]]>
       
      
     
    
   
  
 

That will produce the following output:

pantinor@pantinor maven_rest$ 
    mvn install | grep -i "yahoo"
    [INFO]  yahoo response data: virgin maryrenaissanceinspiration