Examples for Chapter 4 - RESTful Java with JAX-RS 2.0 - page 269

The Server Code
Using PATCH within JAX-RS is very simple. The source code under the ex04_1 directory
contains a simple annotation that implements PATCH:
src/main/java/org/ieft/annotations/PATCH.java

package package org . ieft . annotations ;

import import javax.ws.rs.HttpMethod javax.ws.rs.HttpMethod ;

import import java.lang.annotation.* java.lang.annotation.* ;

@Target ({ ElementType . METHOD })
@Retention ( RetentionPolicy . RUNTIME )
@HttpMethod ( "PATCH" )
public

public @interface PATCH
{
}

As described in Chapter 4 , all you need to do to use a custom HTTP method is annotate an
annotation class with @javax.ws.rs.HttpMethod . This @HttpMethod declaration must con-
tain the value of the new HTTP method you are defining.

To illustrate the use of our new @PATCH annotation, I expanded a little bit on the example
code discussed in Chapter 18 . A simple JAX-RS method is added to the CustomerResource
class that can handle PATCH requests:
src/main/java/com/restfully/shop/services/CustomerResource.java

package package com . restfully . shop . services ;

@Path ( "/customers" )
public

public class class CustomerResource CustomerResource {

...

@PATCH
@Path ( "{id}" )
@Consumes ( "application/xml" )
public public void void patchCustomer ( @PathParam ( "id" ) int int id , InputStream is )

{

updateCustomer ( id , is );

}

...
}