Create Restful Web Services with JBoss, Maven, Apache CXF and Spring

In this short post, we are going to create a simple restful web service using Apache CXF, Spring, and JBoss AS7.

Create the Project

Using Eclipse / JBoss Developer Studio

• New -> Maven Project
• maven-archetype-webapp
• Group Id: com.skills421.webservices
• Artifact Id: SimpleCXFRest

The default project structure will be created as follows:

Add Missing Folders and Delete index.jsp

• Right-click src/main
• New -> Folder -> java
• Delete src/main/webapp/index.jsp

Add Maven Dependencies

Edit the pom.xml as follows:

[code language=”xml”]
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.skills421.cxf</groupId>
<artifactId>SimpleCXFRest</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>helloweb Maven Webapp</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

<properties>
<spring.version>3.1.0.RELEASE</spring.version>
<cxf.version>2.7.0</cxf.version>
<junit.version>4.11</junit.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
<!– Spring –>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>

<!– CXF –>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
<artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-jaxrs</artifactId>
<version>${cxf.version}</version>
</dependency>

<!– JUnit –>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>${junit.version}</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<finalName>SimpleCXFRest</finalName>

<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
[/code]

Update the Project

Right-click on the project and select Maven -> Update Project.

Modify web.xml

Modify web.xml to include the servlets as follows:

[code language=”xml”]
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>
<display-name>Simple CXF Rest</display-name>

<!– Spring –>
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>WEB-INF/beans.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<!– CXF –>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>CXFServlet</servlet-name>
<display-name>CXF Servlet</display-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>CXFServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
[/code]

Create beans.xml

In the WEB-INF folder, create the file beans.xml as follows:

[code language=”xml”]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:jaxrs="http://cxf.apache.org/jaxrs"
xmlns:jaxws="http://cxf.apache.org/jaxws"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
http://cxf.apache.org/jaxrs
http://cxf.apache.org/schemas/jaxrs.xsd
http://cxf.apache.org/jaxws
http://cxf.apache.org/schemas/jaxws.xsd">

<import resource="classpath:META-INF/cxf/cxf.xml" />
<import resource="classpath:META-INF/cxf/cxf-servlet.xml" />

<context:component-scan base-package="com.skills421.services"/>

<!– JAX-RS –>
<jaxrs:server id="restContainer" address="/">
<jaxrs:serviceBeans>
<ref bean="simpleRestService" />
</jaxrs:serviceBeans>
</jaxrs:server>
</beans>

<!– http://cxf.apache.org/docs/jax-rs-and-jax-ws.html –>
[/code]

Create the Restful Service

In src/main/java create the following class in the correct package

[code language=”java”]
package com.skills421.services;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.PathParam;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
@Path("/greet")
public class SimpleRestService
{
@GET
@Path("/{name}")
@Produces("text/plain")
public String sayHello(@PathParam("name") String name)
{
return "Hello "+name;
}
}
[/code]

Run the Project

Right-click on the project -> Run As -> Run on Server
select a server to run on, (Tomcat 7 will run without errors).

Test the Service

Open the web browser and enter the following url:
http://localhost:8080/SimpleCXFRest/rest/greet/Jon Doe

You should see the following: