PATCH methods on JAX-RS

We added PATCH semantics for Virgil.

This was fairly straight forward, except we need to add support for a @PATCH annotation and PatchMethod for HttpClient.

To do this, we created a PATCH annotation. Take a look at PATCH.java. The contents of which are shown below:


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



This then allows us to use @PATCH on an annotation on a REST service.


@PATCH
@Path("/data/{keyspace}/{columnFamily}/{key}")
@Produces({ "application/json" })
public void patchRow(@PathParam("keyspace") String keyspace,
@PathParam("columnFamily") String columnFamily, @PathParam("key") String key,
@QueryParam("index") boolean index, String body) throws Exception



That worked like a charm. Then we needed to call it using HttpClient. To that, we created a PatchMethod class that extended PostMethod. You can see that here.

Then we could use that just like any other HTTP method.


PatchMethod patch = new PatchMethod(BASE_URL + KEYSPACE + "/" + COLUMN_FAMILY + "/" + KEY);
requestEntity = new StringRequestEntity("{\"ADDR1\":\"1235 Fun St.\",\"COUNTY\":\"Montgomery\"}",
"appication/json", "UTF8");
patch.setRequestEntity(requestEntity);



Hope that helps people.