Contents
- What you’ll learn
- Additional prerequisites
- Getting started
- Creating a web client using the default JAX-RS API
- Building and running the application
- Updating the web client to use an alternative reactive provider
- Updating the REST resource to support the reactive JAX-RS client
- Rebuilding and running the application
- Testing the query microservice
- Great work! You’re done!
- Guide Attribution
Tags
Consuming RESTful services using the reactive JAX-RS client
Prerequisites:
Learn how to use a reactive JAX-RS client to asynchronously invoke RESTful microservices over HTTP.
What you’ll learn
First, you’ll learn how to create a reactive JAX-RS client application by using the default reactive JAX-RS client APIs. You will then learn how to take advantage of the RxJava reactive extensions with a pluggable reactive JAX-RS client provider that’s published by Eclipse Jersey. The JAX-RS client is an API used to communicate with RESTful web services. The API makes it easy to consume a web service by using the HTTP protocol, which means that you can efficiently implement client-side applications. The reactive client extension to JAX-RS is an API that enables you to use the reactive programming model when using the JAX-RS client.
Reactive programming is an extension of asynchronous programming and focuses on the flow of data through data streams. Reactive applications process data when it becomes available and respond to requests as soon as processing is complete. The request to the application and response from the application are decoupled so that the application is not blocked from responding to other requests in the meantime. Because reactive applications can run faster than synchronous applications, they provide a much smoother user experience.
The application in this guide demonstrates how the JAX-RS client accesses remote RESTful services by using asynchronous method calls. You’ll first look at the supplied client application that uses the JAX-RS default CompletionStage
-based provider. Then, you’ll modify the client application to use Jersey’s RxJava provider, which is an alternative JAX-RS reactive provider. Both Jersey and Apache CXF provide third-party reactive libraries for RxJava and were tested for use in Open Liberty.
The application that you will be working with consists of three microservices, system
, inventory
, and query
. Every 15 seconds, the system
microservice calculates and publishes an event that contains its current average system load. The inventory
microservice subscribes to that information so that it can keep an updated list of all the systems and their current system loads.
The microservice that you will modify is the query
service. It communicates with the inventory
service to determine which system has the highest system load and which system has the lowest system load.
The system
and inventory
microservices use MicroProfile Reactive Messaging to send and receive the system load events. If you want to learn more about reactive messaging, see the Creating reactive Java microservices guide.
Additional prerequisites
You need to have Docker installed. For installation instructions, refer to the official Docker documentation. You will build and run the microservices in Docker containers. An installation of Apache Kafka is provided in another Docker container.
Getting started
The fastest way to work through this guide is to clone the Git repository and use the projects that are provided inside:
git clone https://github.com/openliberty/guide-reactive-rest-client.git
cd guide-reactive-rest-client
The start
directory contains the starting project that you will build upon.
The finish
directory contains the finished project that you will build.
Before you begin, make sure you have all the necessary prerequisites.
Creating a web client using the default JAX-RS API
Navigate to the start
directory to begin.
JAX-RS provides a default reactive provider that you can use to create a reactive REST client using the CompletionStage
interface.
Create an InventoryClient
class, which retrieves inventory data, and a QueryResource
class, which queries data from the inventory
service.
Create theInventoryClient
interface.query/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/query/client/InventoryClient.java
InventoryClient.java
The getSystem()
method returns the CompletionStage
interface. This interface represents a unit or stage of a computation. When the associated computation completes, the value can be retrieved. The rx()
method calls the CompletionStage
interface. It retrieves the CompletionStageRxInvoker
class and allows these methods to function correctly with the CompletionStage
interface return type.
Create theQueryResource
class.query/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/query/QueryResource.java
QueryResource.java
The systemLoad
endpoint asynchronously processes the data that is retrieved by the InventoryClient
interface and serves that data after all of the services respond. The thenAcceptAsync()
and exceptionally()
methods together behave like an asynchronous try-catch block. The data is processed in the thenAcceptAsync()
method only after the CompletionStage
interface finishes retrieving it. When you return a CompletionStage
type in the resource, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the computation completed and the response was built.
A CountDownLatch
object is used to track how many asynchronous requests are being waited on. After each thread is completed, the countdown()
methodcounts the CountDownLatch
object down towards 0
. This means that the value returns only after the thread that’s retrieving the value is complete.The await()
method stops and waits until all of the requests are complete. While the countdown completes, the main thread is free to perform other tasks. In this case, no such task is present.
Building and running the application
The system
, inventory
, and query
microservices will be built in Docker containers. If you want to learn more about Docker containers, check out the Containerizing microservices guide.
Start your Docker environment.
To build the application, run the Maven install
and package
goals from the command-line session in the start
directory:
mvn -pl models install
mvn package
Run the following commands to containerize the microservices:
docker build -t system:1.0-SNAPSHOT system/.
docker build -t inventory:1.0-SNAPSHOT inventory/.
docker build -t query:1.0-SNAPSHOT query/.
Next, use the provided script to start the application in Docker containers. The script creates a network for the containers to communicate with each other. It creates containers for Kafka and all of the microservices in the project.
WINDOWS
MAC
LINUX
.\scripts\startContainers.bat
./scripts/startContainers.sh
The microservices will take some time to become available. See the http://localhost:9085/health and http://localhost:9080/health URLs to confirm that the inventory
and query
microservices are up and running. Once the microservices are up and running, you can access the application by making requests to the query/systemLoad
endpoint at the http://localhost:9080/query/systemLoad URL.
When the service is ready, you see an output similar to the following example. This example was formatted for readability:
{
"highest": {
"hostname":"30bec2b63a96",
”systemLoad": 6.1
},
"lowest": {
"hostname":"55ec2b63a96",
”systemLoad": 0.1
}
}
The JSON output contains a highest
attribute that represents the system with the highest load. Similarly, the lowest
attribute represents the system with the lowest load. The JSON output for each of these attributes contains the hostname
and systemLoad
of the system.
When you are done checking out the application, run the following command to stop the query
microservice. Leave the system
and inventory
services running because they will be used when the application is rebuilt later in the guide:
docker stop query
Updating the web client to use an alternative reactive provider
Although JAX-RS provides the default reactive provider that returns CompletionStage
types, you can alternatively use another provider that supports other reactive frameworks like RxJava. The Apache CXF and Eclipse Jersey projects produce such providers. You’ll now update the web client to use the Jersey reactive provider for RxJava. With this updated reactive provider, you can write clients that use RxJava objects instead of clients that use only the CompletionStage
interface. These custom objects provide a simpler and faster way for you to create scalable RESTful services with a CompletionStage
interface.
Replace the Maven configuration file.
query/pom.xml
pom.xml
1<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
2<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
3 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
4 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
5 <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
6
7 <groupId>io.openliberty.guides</groupId>
8 <artifactId>query</artifactId>
9 <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
10 <packaging>war</packaging>
11
12 <properties>
13 <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
14 <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
15 <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
16 <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
17 <!-- Liberty configuration -->
18 <liberty.var.http.port>9080</liberty.var.http.port>
19 <liberty.var.default.https.port>9443</liberty.var.default.https.port>
20 </properties>
21
22 <dependencies>
23 <!-- Provided dependencies -->
24 <dependency>
25 <groupId>jakarta.platform</groupId>
26 <artifactId>jakarta.jakartaee-api</artifactId>
27 <version>10.0.0</version>
28 <scope>provided</scope>
29 </dependency>
30 <dependency>
31 <groupId>jakarta.enterprise.concurrent</groupId>
32 <artifactId>jakarta.enterprise.concurrent-api</artifactId>
33 <version>3.0.3</version>
34 <scope>provided</scope>
35 </dependency>
36 <dependency>
37 <groupId>jakarta.validation</groupId>
38 <artifactId>jakarta.validation-api</artifactId>
39 <version>3.0.2</version>
40 <scope>provided</scope>
41 </dependency>
42 <dependency>
43 <groupId>org.eclipse.microprofile</groupId>
44 <artifactId>microprofile</artifactId>
45 <version>6.1</version>
46 <type>pom</type>
47 <scope>provided</scope>
48 </dependency>
49 <!-- Required dependencies -->
50 <dependency>
51 <groupId>io.openliberty.guides</groupId>
52 <artifactId>models</artifactId>
53 <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
54 </dependency>
55 <!-- Reactive dependencies -->
56 <!-- tag::jerseyClient[] -->
57 <dependency>
58 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
59 <artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
60 <version>3.1.9</version>
61 </dependency>
62 <!-- end::jerseyClient[] -->
63 <!-- tag::jerseyRxjava[] -->
64 <dependency>
65 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.ext.rx</groupId>
66 <artifactId>jersey-rx-client-rxjava</artifactId>
67 <version>3.1.9</version>
68 </dependency>
69 <!-- end::jerseyRxjava[] -->
70 <!-- tag::jerseyRxjava2[] -->
71 <dependency>
72 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.ext.rx</groupId>
73 <artifactId>jersey-rx-client-rxjava2</artifactId>
74 <version>3.1.9</version>
75 </dependency>
76 <!-- end::jerseyRxjava2[] -->
77 <!-- For tests -->
78 <dependency>
79 <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
80 <artifactId>mockserver</artifactId>
81 <version>1.20.3</version>
82 <scope>test</scope>
83 </dependency>
84 <dependency>
85 <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
86 <artifactId>mockserver-client-java</artifactId>
87 <version>5.15.0</version>
88 <scope>test</scope>
89 </dependency>
90 <dependency>
91 <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
92 <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
93 <version>5.11.3</version>
94 <scope>test</scope>
95 </dependency>
96 <dependency>
97 <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
98 <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
99 <version>1.20.3</version>
100 <scope>test</scope>
101 </dependency>
102 <dependency>
103 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.ext</groupId>
104 <artifactId>jersey-proxy-client</artifactId>
105 <version>3.1.9</version>
106 <scope>test</scope>
107 </dependency>
108 <dependency>
109 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId>
110 <artifactId>jersey-media-json-jackson</artifactId>
111 <version>3.1.9</version>
112 <scope>test</scope>
113 </dependency>
114 <dependency>
115 <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.inject</groupId>
116 <artifactId>jersey-hk2</artifactId>
117 <version>3.1.9</version>
118 <scope>test</scope>
119 </dependency>
120 <dependency>
121 <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
122 <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
123 <version>2.0.16</version>
124 <scope>test</scope>
125 </dependency>
126 <dependency>
127 <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
128 <artifactId>slf4j-simple</artifactId>
129 <version>2.0.16</version>
130 <scope>test</scope>
131 </dependency>
132 <dependency>
133 <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
134 <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
135 <version>2.18.1</version>
136 <scope>test</scope>
137 </dependency>
138 </dependencies>
139
140 <build>
141 <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
142 <plugins>
143 <plugin>
144 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
145 <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
146 <version>3.4.0</version>
147 <configuration>
148 <packagingExcludes>pom.xml</packagingExcludes>
149 </configuration>
150 </plugin>
151
152 <!-- Liberty plugin -->
153 <plugin>
154 <groupId>io.openliberty.tools</groupId>
155 <artifactId>liberty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
156 <version>3.11.1</version>
157 <configuration>
158 <containerRunOpts>
159 -e INVENTORY_BASE_URI=http://mock-server:1080
160 --network=reactive-app
161 </containerRunOpts>
162 </configuration>
163 </plugin>
164
165 <!-- Plugin to run unit tests -->
166 <plugin>
167 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
168 <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
169 <version>3.5.1</version>
170 </plugin>
171
172 <!-- Plugin to run integration tests -->
173 <plugin>
174 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
175 <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
176 <version>3.5.1</version>
177 <executions>
178 <execution>
179 <id>integration-test</id>
180 <goals>
181 <goal>integration-test</goal>
182 </goals>
183 </execution>
184 <execution>
185 <id>verify</id>
186 <goals>
187 <goal>verify</goal>
188 </goals>
189 </execution>
190 </executions>
191 </plugin>
192 </plugins>
193 </build>
194</project>
The jersey-rx-client-rxjava
and jersey-rx-client-rxjava2
dependencies provide the RxInvokerProvider
classes, which are registered to the jersey-client
ClientBuilder
class.
Update the client to accommodate the custom object types that you are trying to return. You’ll need to register the type of object that you want inside the client invocation.
Replace theInventoryClient
interface.query/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/query/client/InventoryClient.java
InventoryClient.java
The return type of the getSystem()
method is now an Observable
object instead of a CompletionStage
interface. Observable is a collection of data that waits to be subscribed to before it can release any data and is part of RxJava. The rx()
method now needs to contain RxObservableInvoker.class
as an argument. This argument calls the specific invoker, RxObservableInvoker
, for the Observable
class that’s provided by Jersey.
In the getSystem()
method, the register(RxObservableInvokerProvider)
method call registers the RxObservableInvoker
class,which means that the client can recognize the invoker provider.
In some scenarios, a producer might generate more data than the consumers can handle. JAX-RS can deal with cases like these by using the RxJava Flowable
class with backpressure. To learn more about RxJava and backpressure, see JAX-RS reactive extensions with RxJava backpressure.
Updating the REST resource to support the reactive JAX-RS client
Now that the client methods return the Observable
class, you must update the resource to accommodate these changes.
Replace theQueryResource
class.query/src/main/java/io/openliberty/guides/query/QueryResource.java
QueryResource.java
The goal of the systemLoad()
method is to return the system with the largest load and the system with the smallest load. The systemLoad
endpoint first gets all of the hostnames by calling the getSystems()
method. Then it loops through the hostnames and calls the getSystem()
method on each one.
Instead of using the thenAcceptAsync()
method, Observable
uses the subscribe()
method to asynchronously process data. Thus, any necessary data processing happens inside the subscribe()
method. In this case, the necessary data processing is saving the data in the temporary Holder
class. The Holder
class is used to store the value that is returned from the client because values cannot be returned inside the subscribe()
method. The highest and lowest load systems are updated in the updateValues()
method.
Rebuilding and running the application
Run the Maven install
and package
goals from the command-line session in the start
directory:
mvn -pl query package
Run the following command to containerize the query
microservice:
docker build -t query:1.0-SNAPSHOT query/.
Next, use the provided script to restart the query service in a Docker container.
WINDOWS
MAC
LINUX
.\scripts\startQueryContainer.bat
./scripts/startQueryContainer.sh
See the http://localhost:9080/health URL to confirm that the query
microservice is up and running. Once the query
microservice is up and running, you can access the application by making requests to the query/systemLoad
endpoint at the http://localhost:9080/query/systemLoad URL.
Switching to a reactive programming model freed up the thread that was handling your request to query/systemLoad
. While the client request is being handled, the thread can handle other work.
When you are done checking out the application, run the following script to stop the application:
WINDOWS
MAC
LINUX
.\scripts\stopContainers.bat
./scripts/stopContainers.sh
Testing the query microservice
A few tests are included for you to test the basic functionality of the query
microservice. If a test failure occurs, then you might have introduced a bug into the code.
Create theQueryServiceIT
class.query/src/test/java/it/io/openliberty/guides/query/QueryServiceIT.java
QueryServiceIT.java
The testSystemLoad()
test case verifies that the query
service can correctly calculate the highest and lowest system loads.
Running the tests
Navigate to the query
directory, then verify that the tests pass by running the Maven verify
goal:
WINDOWS
MAC
LINUX
cd query
mvn verify
export TESTCONTAINERS_RYUK_DISABLED=true
cd query
mvn verify
For more information about disabling Ryuk, see the Testcontainers custom configuration document.
When the tests succeed, you see output similar to the following example:
-------------------------------------------------------
T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running it.io.openliberty.guides.query.QueryServiceIT
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 3.88 s - in it.io.openliberty.guides.query.QueryServiceIT
Results:
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
Great work! You’re done!
You modified an application to make HTTP requests by using a reactive JAX-RS client with Open Liberty and Jersey’s RxJava provider.
Guide Attribution
Consuming RESTful services using the reactive JAX-RS client by Open Liberty is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0
Prerequisites:
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