This section provides an overview of the processing pipeline for JAX-RS filters and interceptors, highlighting the extension points where it is possible to install a filter chain or an interceptor chain.

A JAX-RS 2.0 filter is a type of plug-in that gives a developer access to all of the JAX-RS messages passing through a CXF client or server. A filter is suitable for processing the metadata associated with a message: HTTP headers, query parameters, media type, and other metadata. Filters have the capability to abort a message invocation (useful for security plug-ins, for example).

If you like, you can install multiple filters at each extension point, in which case the filters are executed in a chain (the order of execution is undefined, however, unless you specify a priority value for each installed filter).

A JAX-RS 2.0 interceptor is a type of plug-in that gives a developer access to a message body as it is being read or written. Interceptors are wrapped around either the MessageBodyReader.readFrom method invocation (for reader interceptors) or the MessageBodyWriter.writeTo method invocation (for writer interceptors).

If you like, you can install multiple interceptors at each extension point, in which case the interceptors are executed in a chain (the order of execution is undefined, however, unless you specify a priority value for each installed interceptor).

Figure 62.1, “Server-Side Filter and Interceptor Extension Points” shows an outline of the processing pipeline for JAX-RS filters and interceptors installed on the server side.

Figure 62.1. Server-Side Filter and Interceptor Extension Points

In the server processing pipeline, you can add a filter (or interceptor) at any of the following extension points:

Note that the PreMatchContainerRequest extension point is reached before resource matching has occurred, so some of the context metadata will not be available at this point.

Figure 62.2, “Client-Side Filter and Interceptor Extension Points” shows an outline of the processing pipeline for JAX-RS filters and interceptors installed on the client side.

Figure 62.2. Client-Side Filter and Interceptor Extension Points

In the client processing pipeline, you can add a filter (or interceptor) at any of the following extension points:

If you install multiple filters or interceptors at the same extension point, the execution order of the filters depends on the priority assigned to them (using the @Priority annotation in the Java source). A priority is represented as an integer value. In general, a filter with a higher priority number is placed closer to the resource method invocation on the server side; while a filter with a lower priority number is placed closer to the client invocation. In other words, the filters and interceptors acting on a request message are executed in ascending order of priority number; while the filters and interceptors acting on a response message are executed in descending order of priority number.

The following Java interfaces can be implemented in order to create custom REST message filters:

The following Java interfaces can be implemented in order to create custom REST message interceptors:

This section explains how to implement and register a container request filter, which is used to intercept an incoming request message on the server (container) side. Container request filters are often used to process headers on the server side and can be used for any kind of generic request processing (that is, processing that is independent of the particular resource method called).

Moreover, the container request filter is something of a special case, because it can be installed at two distinct extension points: PreMatchContainerRequest (before the resource matching step); and ContainerRequest (after the resource matching step).

The javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestFilter interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.container;

import java.io.IOException;

public interface ContainerRequestFilter {
    public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext) throws IOException;
}

By implementing the ContainerRequestFilter interface, you can create a filter for either of the following extension points on the server side:

The filter method of ContainerRequestFilter receives a single argument of type javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext, which can be used to access the incoming request message and its related metadata. The ContainerRequestContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.container;

import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.ws.rs.core.EntityTag;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Link;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;
import javax.ws.rs.core.NewCookie;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter;

public interface ContainerResponseContext {

    public int getStatus();

    public void setStatus(int code);

    public Response.StatusType getStatusInfo();

    public void setStatusInfo(Response.StatusType statusInfo);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, Object> getHeaders();

    public abstract MultivaluedMap<String, String> getStringHeaders();

    public String getHeaderString(String name);

    public Set<String> getAllowedMethods();

    public Date getDate();

    public Locale getLanguage();

    public int getLength();

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public Map<String, NewCookie> getCookies();

    public EntityTag getEntityTag();

    public Date getLastModified();

    public URI getLocation();

    public Set<Link> getLinks();

    boolean hasLink(String relation);

    public Link getLink(String relation);

    public Link.Builder getLinkBuilder(String relation);

    public boolean hasEntity();

    public Object getEntity();

    public Class<?> getEntityClass();

    public Type getEntityType();

    public void setEntity(final Object entity);

    public void setEntity(
            final Object entity,
            final Annotation[] annotations,
            final MediaType mediaType);

    public Annotation[] getEntityAnnotations();

    public OutputStream getEntityStream();

    public void setEntityStream(OutputStream outputStream);
}

To implement a container request filter for the PreMatchContainerRequest extension point (that is, where the filter is executed prior to resource matching), define a class that implements the ContainerRequestFilter interface, making sure to annotate the class with the @PreMatching annotation (to select the PreMatchContainerRequest extension point).

For example, the following code shows an example of a simple container request filter that gets installed in the PreMatchContainerRequest extension point, with a priority of 20:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.container.PreMatching;
import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

@PreMatching
@Priority(value = 20)
@Provider
public class SamplePreMatchContainerRequestFilter implements
  ContainerRequestFilter {

  public SamplePreMatchContainerRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("SamplePreMatchContainerRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext) {
    System.out.println("SamplePreMatchContainerRequestFilter.filter() invoked");
  }
}

To implement a container request filter for the ContainerRequest extension point (that is, where the filter is executed after resource matching), define a class that implements the ContainerRequestFilter interface, without the @PreMatching annotation.

For example, the following code shows an example of a simple container request filter that gets installed in the ContainerRequest extension point, with a priority of 30:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Provider
@Priority(value = 30)
public class SampleContainerRequestFilter implements ContainerRequestFilter {

  public SampleContainerRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleContainerRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext) {
    System.out.println("SampleContainerRequestFilter.filter() invoked");
  }
}

At the ContainerRequest extension point (that is, after resource matching has occurred), it is possible to access the matched resource class and resource method by injecting the ResourceInfo class. For example, the following code shows how to inject the ResourceInfo class as a field of the ContainerRequestFilter class:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ResourceInfo;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;
import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Context;

@Provider
@Priority(value = 30)
public class SampleContainerRequestFilter implements ContainerRequestFilter {

  @Context
  private ResourceInfo resinfo;

  public SampleContainerRequestFilter() {
    ...
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext) {
    String resourceClass = resinfo.getResourceClass().getName();
    String methodName    = resinfo.getResourceMethod().getName();
    System.out.println("REST invocation bound to resource class: " + resourceClass);
    System.out.println("REST invocation bound to resource method: " + methodName);
  }
}

It is possible to abort a server-side invocation by creating a suitable implementation of a container request filter. Typically, this is useful for implementing security features on the server side: for example, to implement an authentication feature or an authorization feature. If an incoming request fails to authenticate successfully, you could abort the invocation from within the container request filter.

For example, the following pre-matching feature attempts to extract a username and password from the URI’s query parameters and calls an authenticate method to check the username and password credentials. If the authentication fails, the invocation is aborted by calling abortWith on the ContainerRequestContext object, passing the error response that is to be returned to the client.

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.container.PreMatching;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.ResponseBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.Status;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

@PreMatching
@Priority(value = 20)
@Provider
public class SampleAuthenticationRequestFilter implements
  ContainerRequestFilter {

  public SampleAuthenticationRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleAuthenticationRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext) {
    ResponseBuilder responseBuilder = null;
    Response response = null;

    String userName = requestContext.getUriInfo().getQueryParameters().getFirst("UserName");
    String password = requestContext.getUriInfo().getQueryParameters().getFirst("Password");
    if (authenticate(userName, password) == false) {
      responseBuilder = Response.serverError();
      response = responseBuilder.status(Status.BAD_REQUEST).build();
      requestContext.abortWith(response);
    }
  }

  public boolean authenticate(String userName, String password) {
    // Perform authentication of 'user'
    ...
  }
}

To bind a server request filter (that is, to install it into the Apache CXF runtime), perform the following steps:

This section explains how to implement and register a container response filter, which is used to intercept an outgoing response message on the server side. Container response filters can be used to populate headers automatically in a response message and, in general, can be used for any kind of generic response processing.

The javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerResponseFilter interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.container;

import java.io.IOException;

public interface ContainerResponseFilter {
    public void filter(ContainerRequestContext requestContext, ContainerResponseContext responseContext)
            throws IOException;
}

By implementing the ContainerResponseFilter, you can create a filter for the ContainerResponse extension point on the server side, which filters the response message after the invocation has executed.

The filter method of ContainerResponseFilter receives two arguments: an argument of type javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext (see the section called “ContainerRequestContext interface”); and an argument of type javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerResponseContext, which can be used to access the outgoing response message and its related metadata.

The ContainerResponseContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.container;

import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.ws.rs.core.EntityTag;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Link;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;
import javax.ws.rs.core.NewCookie;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter;

public interface ContainerResponseContext {

    public int getStatus();

    public void setStatus(int code);

    public Response.StatusType getStatusInfo();

    public void setStatusInfo(Response.StatusType statusInfo);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, Object> getHeaders();

    public abstract MultivaluedMap<String, String> getStringHeaders();

    public String getHeaderString(String name);

    public Set<String> getAllowedMethods();

    public Date getDate();

    public Locale getLanguage();

    public int getLength();

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public Map<String, NewCookie> getCookies();

    public EntityTag getEntityTag();

    public Date getLastModified();

    public URI getLocation();

    public Set<Link> getLinks();

    boolean hasLink(String relation);

    public Link getLink(String relation);

    public Link.Builder getLinkBuilder(String relation);

    public boolean hasEntity();

    public Object getEntity();

    public Class<?> getEntityClass();

    public Type getEntityType();

    public void setEntity(final Object entity);

    public void setEntity(
            final Object entity,
            final Annotation[] annotations,
            final MediaType mediaType);

    public Annotation[] getEntityAnnotations();

    public OutputStream getEntityStream();

    public void setEntityStream(OutputStream outputStream);
}

To implement a container response filter for the ContainerResponse extension point (that is, where the filter is executed after the invocation has been executed on the server side), define a class that implements the ContainerResponseFilter interface.

For example, the following code shows an example of a simple container response filter that gets installed in the ContainerResponse extension point, with a priority of 10:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerResponseContext;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ContainerResponseFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

@Provider
@Priority(value = 10)
public class SampleContainerResponseFilter implements ContainerResponseFilter {

  public SampleContainerResponseFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleContainerResponseFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(
      ContainerRequestContext requestContext,
      ContainerResponseContext responseContext
  )
  {
    // This filter replaces the response message body with a fixed string
    if (responseContext.hasEntity()) {
      responseContext.setEntity("New message body!");
    }
  }
}

To bind a server response filter (that is, to install it into the Apache CXF runtime), perform the following steps:

This section explains how to implement and register a client request filter, which is used to intercept an outgoing request message on the client side. Client request filters are often used to process headers and can be used for any kind of generic request processing.

The javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter interface is defined as follows:

// Java
package javax.ws.rs.client;
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
...
public interface ClientRequestFilter {
    void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) throws IOException;
}

By implementing the ClientRequestFilter, you can create a filter for the ClientRequest extension point on the client side, which filters the request message before sending the message to the server.

The filter method of ClientRequestFilter receives a single argument of type javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext, which can be used to access the outgoing request message and its related metadata. The ClientRequestContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.client;

import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.ws.rs.core.Configuration;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Cookie;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.MessageBodyWriter;

public interface ClientRequestContext {

    public Object getProperty(String name);

    public Collection<String> getPropertyNames();

    public void setProperty(String name, Object object);

    public void removeProperty(String name);

    public URI getUri();

    public void setUri(URI uri);

    public String getMethod();

    public void setMethod(String method);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, Object> getHeaders();

    public abstract MultivaluedMap<String, String> getStringHeaders();

    public String getHeaderString(String name);

    public Date getDate();

    public Locale getLanguage();

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public List<MediaType> getAcceptableMediaTypes();

    public List<Locale> getAcceptableLanguages();

    public Map<String, Cookie> getCookies();

    public boolean hasEntity();

    public Object getEntity();

    public Class<?> getEntityClass();

    public Type getEntityType();

    public void setEntity(final Object entity);

    public void setEntity(
            final Object entity,
            final Annotation[] annotations,
            final MediaType mediaType);

    public Annotation[] getEntityAnnotations();

    public OutputStream getEntityStream();

    public void setEntityStream(OutputStream outputStream);

    public Client getClient();

    public Configuration getConfiguration();

    public void abortWith(Response response);
}

To implement a client request filter for the ClientRequest extension point (that is, where the filter is executed prior to sending the request message), define a class that implements the ClientRequestFilter interface.

For example, the following code shows an example of a simple client request filter that gets installed in the ClientRequest extension point, with a priority of 20:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Priority(value = 20)
public class SampleClientRequestFilter implements ClientRequestFilter {

  public SampleClientRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleClientRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) {
    System.out.println("ClientRequestFilter.filter() invoked");
  }
}

It is possible to abort a client-side invocation by implementing a suitable client request filter. For example, you might implement a client-side filter to check whether a request is correctly formatted and, if necessary, abort the request.

The following test code always aborts the request, returning the BAD_REQUEST HTTP status to the client calling code:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestFilter;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.Status;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Priority(value = 10)
public class TestAbortClientRequestFilter implements ClientRequestFilter {

  public TestAbortClientRequestFilter() {
    System.out.println("TestAbortClientRequestFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext) {
    // Test filter: aborts with BAD_REQUEST status
    requestContext.abortWith(Response.status(Status.BAD_REQUEST).build());
  }
}

Using the JAX-RS 2.0 client API, you can register a client request filter directly on a javax.ws.rs.client.Client object or on a javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget object. Effectively, this means that the client request filter can optionally be applied to different scopes, so that only certain URI paths are affected by the filter.

For example, the following code shows how to register the SampleClientRequestFilter filter so that it applies to all invocations made using the client object; and how to register the TestAbortClientRequestFilter filter, so that it applies only to sub-paths of rest/TestAbortClientRequest.

// Java
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.Client;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
import javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
...
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.register(new SampleClientRequestFilter());
WebTarget target = client
  .target("http://localhost:8001/rest/TestAbortClientRequest");
target.register(new TestAbortClientRequestFilter());

This section explains how to implement and register a client response filter, which is used to intercept an incoming response message on the client side. Client response filters can be used for any kind of generic response processing on the client side.

The javax.ws.rs.client.ClientResponseFilter interface is defined as follows:

// Java
package javax.ws.rs.client;
...
import java.io.IOException;

public interface ClientResponseFilter {
    void filter(ClientRequestContext requestContext, ClientResponseContext responseContext)
            throws IOException;
}

By implementing the ClientResponseFilter, you can create a filter for the ClientResponse extension point on the client side, which filters the response message after it is received from the server.

The filter method of ClientResponseFilter receives two arguments: an argument of type javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext (see the section called “ClientRequestContext interface”); and an argument of type javax.ws.rs.client.ClientResponseContext, which can be used to access the outgoing response message and its related metadata.

The ClientResponseContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.client;

import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.ws.rs.core.EntityTag;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Link;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;
import javax.ws.rs.core.NewCookie;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

public interface ClientResponseContext {

    public int getStatus();

    public void setStatus(int code);

    public Response.StatusType getStatusInfo();

    public void setStatusInfo(Response.StatusType statusInfo);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, String> getHeaders();

    public String getHeaderString(String name);

    public Set<String> getAllowedMethods();

    public Date getDate();

    public Locale getLanguage();

    public int getLength();

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public Map<String, NewCookie> getCookies();

    public EntityTag getEntityTag();

    public Date getLastModified();

    public URI getLocation();

    public Set<Link> getLinks();

    boolean hasLink(String relation);

    public Link getLink(String relation);

    public Link.Builder getLinkBuilder(String relation);

    public boolean hasEntity();

    public InputStream getEntityStream();

    public void setEntityStream(InputStream input);
}

To implement a client response filter for the ClientResponse extension point (that is, where the filter is executed after receiving a response message from the server), define a class that implements the ClientResponseFilter interface.

For example, the following code shows an example of a simple client response filter that gets installed in the ClientResponse extension point, with a priority of 20:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientRequestContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientResponseContext;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientResponseFilter;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Priority(value = 20)
public class SampleClientResponseFilter implements ClientResponseFilter {

  public SampleClientResponseFilter() {
    System.out.println("SampleClientResponseFilter starting up");
  }

  @Override
  public void filter(
      ClientRequestContext requestContext,
      ClientResponseContext responseContext
  )
  {
    // Add an extra header on the response
    responseContext.getHeaders().putSingle("MyCustomHeader", "my custom data");
  }
}

Using the JAX-RS 2.0 client API, you can register a client response filter directly on a javax.ws.rs.client.Client object or on a javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget object. Effectively, this means that the client request filter can optionally be applied to different scopes, so that only certain URI paths are affected by the filter.

For example, the following code shows how to register the SampleClientResponseFilter filter so that it applies to all invocations made using the client object:

// Java
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.Client;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
import javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
...
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.register(new SampleClientResponseFilter());

This section explains how to implement and register an entity reader interceptor, which enables you to intercept the input stream when reading a message body either on the client side or on the server side. This is typically useful for generic transformations of the request body, such as encryption and decryption, or compressing and decompressing.

The javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptor interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.ext;

public interface ReaderInterceptor {
    public Object aroundReadFrom(ReaderInterceptorContext context)
            throws java.io.IOException, javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
}

By implementing the ReaderInterceptor interface, you can intercept the message body (Entity object) as it is being read either on the server side or the client side. You can use an entity reader interceptor in either of the following contexts:

The aroundReadFrom method of ReaderInterceptor receives one argument of type javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptorContext, which can be used to access both the message body (Entity object) and message metadata.

The ReaderInterceptorContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.ext;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;

public interface ReaderInterceptorContext extends InterceptorContext {

    public Object proceed() throws IOException, WebApplicationException;

    public InputStream getInputStream();

    public void setInputStream(InputStream is);

    public MultivaluedMap<String, String> getHeaders();
}

The ReaderInterceptorContext interface also supports the methods inherited from the base InterceptorContext interface.

The InterceptorContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.ext;

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.Collection;

import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

public interface InterceptorContext {

    public Object getProperty(String name);

    public Collection<String> getPropertyNames();

    public void setProperty(String name, Object object);

    public void removeProperty(String name);

    public Annotation[] getAnnotations();

    public void setAnnotations(Annotation[] annotations);

    Class<?> getType();

    public void setType(Class<?> type);

    Type getGenericType();

    public void setGenericType(Type genericType);

    public MediaType getMediaType();

    public void setMediaType(MediaType mediaType);
}

To implement an entity reader interceptor for the client side, define a class that implements the ReaderInterceptor interface.

For example, the following code shows an example of an entity reader interceptor for the client side (with a priority of 10), which replaces all instances of COMPANY_NAME by Red Hat in the message body of the incoming response:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptor;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptorContext;

@Priority(value = 10)
public class SampleClientReaderInterceptor implements ReaderInterceptor {

  @Override
  public Object aroundReadFrom(ReaderInterceptorContext interceptorContext)
          throws IOException, WebApplicationException
  {
    InputStream inputStream = interceptorContext.getInputStream();
    byte[] bytes = new byte[inputStream.available()];
    inputStream.read(bytes);
    String responseContent = new String(bytes);
    responseContent = responseContent.replaceAll("COMPANY_NAME", "Red Hat");
    interceptorContext.setInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(responseContent.getBytes()));

    return interceptorContext.proceed();
  }
}

To implement an entity reader interceptor for the server side, define a class that implements the ReaderInterceptor interface and annotate it with the @Provider annotation.

For example, the following code shows an example of an entity reader interceptor for the server side (with a priority of 10), which replaces all instances of COMPANY_NAME by Red Hat in the message body of the incoming request:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import javax.annotation.Priority;
import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptor;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptorContext;

@Priority(value = 10)
@Provider
public class SampleServerReaderInterceptor implements ReaderInterceptor {

  @Override
  public Object aroundReadFrom(ReaderInterceptorContext interceptorContext)
          throws IOException, WebApplicationException {
    InputStream inputStream = interceptorContext.getInputStream();
    byte[] bytes = new byte[inputStream.available()];
    inputStream.read(bytes);
    String requestContent = new String(bytes);
    requestContent = requestContent.replaceAll("COMPANY_NAME", "Red Hat");
    interceptorContext.setInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(requestContent.getBytes()));

    return interceptorContext.proceed();
  }
}

Using the JAX-RS 2.0 client API, you can register an entity reader interceptor directly on a javax.ws.rs.client.Client object or on a javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget object. Effectively, this means that the reader interceptor can optionally be applied to different scopes, so that only certain URI paths are affected by the interceptor.

For example, the following code shows how to register the SampleClientReaderInterceptor interceptor so that it applies to all invocations made using the client object:

// Java
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.Client;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
import javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
...
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.register(SampleClientReaderInterceptor.class);

For more details about registering interceptors with a JAX-RS 2.0 client, see Section 50.5, “Configuring the Client Endpoint”.

To bind a reader interceptor on the server side (that is, to install it into the Apache CXF runtime), perform the following steps:

This section explains how to implement and register an entity writer interceptor, which enables you to intercept the output stream when writing a message body either on the client side or on the server side. This is typically useful for generic transformations of the request body, such as encryption and decryption, or compressing and decompressing.

The javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptor interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.ext;

public interface WriterInterceptor {
    void aroundWriteTo(WriterInterceptorContext context)
            throws java.io.IOException, javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
}

By implementing the WriterInterceptor interface, you can intercept the message body (Entity object) as it is being written either on the server side or the client side. You can use an entity writer interceptor in either of the following contexts:

The aroundWriteTo method of WriterInterceptor receives one argument of type javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptorContext, which can be used to access both the message body (Entity object) and message metadata.

The WriterInterceptorContext interface is defined as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.ext;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MultivaluedMap;

public interface WriterInterceptorContext extends InterceptorContext {

    void proceed() throws IOException, WebApplicationException;

    Object getEntity();

    void setEntity(Object entity);

    OutputStream getOutputStream();

    public void setOutputStream(OutputStream os);

    MultivaluedMap<String, Object> getHeaders();
}

The WriterInterceptorContext interface also supports the methods inherited from the base InterceptorContext interface. For the definition of InterceptorContext, see the section called “InterceptorContext interface”.

To implement an entity writer interceptor for the client side, define a class that implements the WriterInterceptor interface.

For example, the following code shows an example of an entity writer interceptor for the client side (with a priority of 10), which appends an extra line of text to the message body of the outgoing request:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptor;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptorContext;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Priority(value = 10)
public class SampleClientWriterInterceptor implements WriterInterceptor {

  @Override
  public void aroundWriteTo(WriterInterceptorContext interceptorContext)
          throws IOException, WebApplicationException {
    OutputStream outputStream = interceptorContext.getOutputStream();
    String appendedContent = "\nInterceptors always get the last word in.";
    outputStream.write(appendedContent.getBytes());
    interceptorContext.setOutputStream(outputStream);

    interceptorContext.proceed();
  }
}

To implement an entity writer interceptor for the server side, define a class that implements the WriterInterceptor interface and annotate it with the @Provider annotation.

For example, the following code shows an example of an entity writer interceptor for the server side (with a priority of 10), which appends an extra line of text to the message body of the outgoing request:

// Java
package org.jboss.fuse.example;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptor;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptorContext;
import javax.annotation.Priority;

@Priority(value = 10)
@Provider
public class SampleServerWriterInterceptor implements WriterInterceptor {

  @Override
  public void aroundWriteTo(WriterInterceptorContext interceptorContext)
          throws IOException, WebApplicationException {
    OutputStream outputStream = interceptorContext.getOutputStream();
    String appendedContent = "\nInterceptors always get the last word in.";
    outputStream.write(appendedContent.getBytes());
    interceptorContext.setOutputStream(outputStream);

    interceptorContext.proceed();
  }
}

Using the JAX-RS 2.0 client API, you can register an entity writer interceptor directly on a javax.ws.rs.client.Client object or on a javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget object. Effectively, this means that the writer interceptor can optionally be applied to different scopes, so that only certain URI paths are affected by the interceptor.

For example, the following code shows how to register the SampleClientReaderInterceptor interceptor so that it applies to all invocations made using the client object:

// Java
...
import javax.ws.rs.client.Client;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Invocation;
import javax.ws.rs.client.WebTarget;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
...
Client client = ClientBuilder.newClient();
client.register(SampleClientReaderInterceptor.class);

For more details about registering interceptors with a JAX-RS 2.0 client, see Section 50.5, “Configuring the Client Endpoint”.

To bind a writer interceptor on the server side (that is, to install it into the Apache CXF runtime), perform the following steps:

The standard approach to binding container filters and container interceptors to resources is to annotate the filters and interceptors with the @Provider annotation. This ensures that the binding is global: that is, the filters and interceptors are bound to every resource class and resource method on the server side.

Dynamic binding is an alternative approach to binding on the server side, which enables you to pick and choose which resource methods your interceptors and filters are applied to. To enable dynamic binding for your filters and interceptors, you must implement a custom DynamicFeature interface, as described here.

The DynamicFeature interface is defined in the javax.ws.rx.container package, as follows:

// Java
package javax.ws.rs.container;

import javax.ws.rs.core.FeatureContext;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ReaderInterceptor;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.WriterInterceptor;

public interface DynamicFeature {
    public void configure(ResourceInfo resourceInfo, FeatureContext context);
}

You implement a dynamic feature, as follows:

The following example shows you how to define a dynamic feature that registers the LoggingFilter filter for any method of the MyResource class (or subclass) that is annotated with @GET:

// Java
...
import javax.ws.rs.container.DynamicFeature;
import javax.ws.rs.container.ResourceInfo;
import javax.ws.rs.core.FeatureContext;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

@Provider
public class DynamicLoggingFilterFeature implements DynamicFeature {
  @Override
  void configure(ResourceInfo resourceInfo, FeatureContext context) {
    if (MyResource.class.isAssignableFrom(resourceInfo.getResourceClass())
      && resourceInfo.getResourceMethod().isAnnotationPresent(GET.class)) {
      context.register(new LoggingFilter());
  }
}

The JAX-RS standard requires that the DynamicFeature.configure method is called exactly once for each resource method. This means that every resource method could potentially have filters or interceptors installed by the dynamic feature, but it is up to the dynamic feature to decide whether to register the filters or interceptors in each case. In other words, the granularity of binding supported by the dynamic feature is at the level of individual resource methods.

The FeatureContext interface (which enables you to register filters and interceptors in the configure method) is defined as a sub-interface of Configurable<>, as follows:

// Java
package javax.ws.rs.core;

public interface FeatureContext extends Configurable<FeatureContext> {
}

The Configurable<> interface defines a variety of methods for registering filters and interceptors on a single resource method, as follows:

// Java
...
package javax.ws.rs.core;

import java.util.Map;

public interface Configurable<C extends Configurable> {
    public Configuration getConfiguration();
    public C property(String name, Object value);
    public C register(Class<?> componentClass);
    public C register(Class<?> componentClass, int priority);
    public C register(Class<?> componentClass, Class<?>... contracts);
    public C register(Class<?> componentClass, Map<Class<?>, Integer> contracts);
    public C register(Object component);
    public C register(Object component, int priority);
    public C register(Object component, Class<?>... contracts);
    public C register(Object component, Map<Class<?>, Integer> contracts);
}