To use JSON web services, you send a request that defines a service method and parameters, and you receive the result as a JSON object. As straightforward as this seems, it can be improved. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use JSON web services more efficiently and pragmatically.
Consider the following example. You’re working with two related objects: a
User and its corresponding Contact. With simple JSON web service calls, you
first call the user service to get the user object, and then you use that
object’s contact ID to call the contact service. You end up sending two HTTP
requests to get two JSON objects that aren’t even bound together. There’s no
contact information in the user object (i.e. no user.contact). This approach
is suboptimal with respect to performance (sending two HTTP calls) and usability
(manually managing the relationship between two objects). It’d be nicer if you
had a tool to address these inefficiencies. Fortunately, the JSON Web Service
Invoker does just that!
Liferay’s JSON Web Service Invoker helps optimize your JSON Web Services use. In the following sections, you’ll learn how.
Simple Invoker Calls
The Invoker is accessible from the following fixed address:
http://[address]:[port]/api/jsonws/invoke
It only accepts a cmd request parameter–this is the Invoker’s command. If the
command request parameter is missing, the request body is used as the command.
So you can specify the command by either using the request parameter cmd or
the request body.
The Invoker command is a plain JSON map that describes how JSON web services are called and how the results are managed. Here’s an example of how to call a simple service using the Invoker:
{
"/user/get-user-by-id": {
"userId": 123,
"param1": null
}
}
The service call is defined as a JSON map. The key specifies the service URL
(i.e. the service method to be invoked) and the key’s value specifies a map of
service parameter names (i.e. userId and param1) and their values. In the
example above, the retrieved user is returned as a JSON object. Since the
command is a JSON string, null values can be specified either by explicitly
using the null keyword or by placing a dash before the parameter name and
leaving the value empty (e.g. "-param1": '').
The example Invoker calls functions exactly the same way as the following standard JSON Web Service call:
/user/get-user-by-id?userId=123&-param1
Next, suppose that you’re running Liferay locally on port 8080. Consider the
following example of a real Liferay JSON web service invoker call. Suppose that
you’re signed in to Liferay as the default admin user whose email address is
test@example.com and whose user ID is 20127. And suppose that the value of
your p_auth authentication token is htXjvt5d. You can then invoke the
following URL to obtain a JSON representation of your user object:
http://localhost:8080/api/jsonws/invoke?cmd={%22/user/get-user-by-id%22:{%22userId%22:20172}}&p_auth=htXjvt5d
This URL uses the following JSON map. Note that it’s supplied in the URL by
using the cmd URL parameter:
{
"/user/get-user-by-id": {
"userId": 20172
}
}
Note in the URL that the double quotes are URL-encoded. Also, if you’re not sure
what your user ID is, you can find it in the User Menu under My Account →
Account Settings. If you’re not sure what the value of your p_auth
authentication token is, navigate to
Liferay’s JSON web services API page and
click on any method in the list. The value of your p_auth token appears under
the Execute heading along with any other parameters of the selected API method.
You can use JSON syntax for supplying values for objects and arrays that you
need to supply as parameters. To supply a value for an object, use curly
brackets: { and }. To supply a value for an array, use square brackets: [
and ]. Suppose as before that you’re signed in to Liferay as an admin user and
that the value of your p_auth authentication token is htXjvt5d. Furthermore,
suppose that two vocabularies have been created with vocabulary IDs of 20783
and 20784. Here’s a Liferay JSON web service invoker example that demonstrates
how to pass an array as a parameter:
http://localhost:8080/api/jsonws/invoke?cmd={%22/assetvocabulary/get-vocabularies%22:{%22vocabularyIds%22:[20783,20784]}}&p_auth=htXjvt5d
This URL uses the following JSON map:
{
"/assetvocabulary/get-vocabularies": {
"vocabularyIds": [20783,20784]
}
}
As before, the double quotes in the URL are URL-encoded. Also, the
vocabularyIds parameter is an array, so its value is supplied as a JSON array.
Finally, here’s one more Liferay JSON web service invoker example that demonstrates how to pass an object containing an array as a parameter:
http://localhost:8080/api/jsonws/invoke?cmd={%22/user/add-user%22:{%22companyId%22:20127,%22autoPassword%22:false,%22password1%22:%22test%22,%22password2%22:%22test%22,%22autoScreenName%22:false,%22screenName%22:%22joe.bloggs%22,%22emailAddress%22:%22joe.bloggs@example.com%22,%22facebookId%22:0,%22openId%22:%22%22,%22locale%22:%22en_US%22,%22firstName%22:%22Joe%22,%22middleName%22:%22T%22,%22lastName%22:%22Bloggs%22,%22prefixId%22:0,%22suffixId%22:0,%22male%22:true,%22birthdayMonth%22:1,%22birthdayDay%22:1,%22birthdayYear%22:1970,%22jobTitle%22:%22Tester%22,%22groupIds%22:null,%22organizationIds%22:null,%22roleIds%22:null,%22userGroupIds%22:null,%22sendEmail%22:false,%22serviceContext%22:{%22assetTagNames%22:[%22test%22]}}}&p_auth=htXjvt5d
This URL uses the following JSON map:
{
"/user/add-user": {
"companyId": 20127,
"autoPassword": false,
"password1": "test",
"password2": "test",
"autoScreenName": false,
"screenName": "joe.bloggs",
"emailAddress": "joe.bloggs@example.com",
"facebookId": 0,
"openId": "",
"locale": "en_US",
"firstName": "Joe",
"middleName": "T",
"lastName": "Bloggs",
"prefixId": 0,
"suffixId": 0,
"male": true,
"birthdayMonth": 1,
"birthdayDay": 1,
"birthdayYear": 1970,
"jobTitle": "Tester",
"groupIds": null,
"organizationIds": null,
"roleIds": null,
"userGroupIds": null,
"sendEmail": false,
"serviceContext": {"assetTagNames":["test"]}
}
}
The serviceContext is the object containing an array in this example. It
contains the array assetTagNames.
Of course, the JSON Web Service Invoker handles calls to plugin methods as well:
{
"/suprasurf/hello-world": {
"worldName": "Mavericks"
}
}
The code above calls the (fictitious) SupraSurf application’s remote service.
You can use variables to reference objects returned from service calls. Variable
names must start with a dollar sign, $. In the previous example, the service
call returned a user object you can assign to a variable:
{
"$user = /user/get-user-by-id": {
"userId": 123,
}
}
The $user variable holds the returned user object. You can reference the
user’s contact ID using the syntax $user.contactId.
Next, see how you can use nested service calls to join information from two related objects.
Nesting Service Calls
With nested service calls, you can bind information from related objects together in a JSON object. You can call other services within the same HTTP request and nest returned objects in a convenient way. Here’s a nested service call in action:
{
"$user = /user/get-user-by-id": {
"userId": 123,
"$contact = /contact/get-contact-by-id": {
"@contactId": "$user.contactId"
}
}
}
This command defines two service calls: the contact object returned from the
second service call is nested in (i.e. injected into) the user object, as a
property named contact. Now you can bind the user and his or her contact
information together!
Now you’ll see what the Invoker does in the background when using a single HTTP request to make the preceding nested service call:
- First, the Invoker calls the Java service mapped to
/user/get-user-by-id, passing in a value for theuserIdparameter. - Next, the resulting user object is assigned to the variable
$user. - The nested service calls are invoked.
- The Invoker calls the Java service mapped to
/contact/get-contact-by-idby using thecontactIdparameter, with the$user.contactIdvalue from the object$user. - The resulting contact object is assigned to the variable
$contact. - Lastly, the Invoker injects the contact object referenced by
$contactinto the user object’s property namedcontact.
Next, you’ll learn about filtering object properties so that only the properties you need are returned when you invoke a service.
Filtering Results
Many of Liferay’s model objects are rich with properties. If you only need a handful of an object’s properties for your business logic, making a web service invocation that returns all of an object’s properties is a waste of network bandwidth. With the JSON Web Service Invoker, you can define a whitelist of properties: only the specific properties you request in the object are returned from your web service call. Here’s how you whitelist the properties you need:
{
"$user[firstName,emailAddress] = /user/get-user-by-id": {
"userId": 123,
"$contact = /contact/get-contact-by-id": {
"@contactId": "$user.contactId"
}
}
}
In this example, the returned user object has only the firstName and
emailAddress properties (it still has the contact property, too). To specify
whitelist properties, you simply place the properties in square brackets (e.g.,
[whiteList]) immediately following the name of your variable.
Next, you’ll learn about making calls in batch.
Making Batch Calls
When nesting service calls, the intent is to invoke multiple services with a single HTTP request. Using a single request for multiple service calls is helpful for gathering related information from the service call results, but it can also be advantageous to use a single request to invoke multiple unrelated service calls. The Invoker lets you batch service calls together to improve performance. It’s simple: just pass in a JSON array of commands using the following format:
[
{/* first command */},
{/* second command */}
]
The result is a JSON array populated with results from each command. The commands are collectively invoked in a single HTTP request, one after another.
Great! Now you know how to use Liferay’s JSON Web Service Invoker to simplify your JSON calls to Liferay.