GET call with request body - request body not accessible at controller

vineeth :

I am trying to do a get call with request body(JSON) as the request parameter list exceeds the limit. I am able to send the request via postman/insomnia and request is reaching till controller without any error. But the "requstBody" is empty at controller. What i am missing here?

@GET
@Path("\path")
@Consumes(APPLICATION_JSON)
@Produces(APPLICATION_JSON)
public Response getResponse(String requestBody) throws IOException { }

When I replaced @GET with @POST, requestBody has value. For GET call do we need to add anything more?

hamid ghasemi :

There are two ways for sending parameters in an Http Get method. PathVariable and RequestParam. In this way, sent parameters are visible in the request URL. for example:

www.sampleAddress.com/countries/{parameter1}/get-time?city=someValues

In the above request, parameter1 is a path variable and parameter2 is a request parameter. So an example of a valid URL would be:

www.sampleAddress.com/countries/Germany/get-time?city=berlin

To access these parameters in a java controller, you need to define a specific name for the parameters. For example the following controller will receive this type of requests:

@GetMapping(value = "/countries/{parameter1}/get-time", produces = "application/json; charset=utf-8")
public String getTimeOfCities(
    @PathVariable(value = "parameter1") String country,
    @RequestParam(value = "city") String city
){
    return "the method is not implemented yet";
}

You are able to send RequestBody through a Get request but it is not recommended according to this link.

yes, you can send a body with GET, and no, it is never useful to do so.

This elaboration in elasticsearch website is nice too:

The HTTP libraries of certain languages (notably JavaScript) don’t allow GET requests to have a request body. In fact, some users are suprised that GET requests are ever allowed to have a body.

The truth is that RFC 7231—the RFC that deals with HTTP semantics and content—does not define what should happen to a GET request with a body! As a result, some HTTP servers allow it, and some—especially caching proxies—don’t.

If you want to use Post method, you are able to have RequestBody too. In the case you want to send data by a post request, an appropriate controller would be like this:

@PostMapping(value = "/countries/{parameter1}/get-time", produces = "application/json; charset=utf-8")
public String getTimeOfCitiesByPost(
        @PathVariable(value = "parameter1") String country,
        @RequestParam(value = "city") String city,
        @RequestBody Object myCustomObject

){
    return "the method is not implemented yet";
}

myCustomObject could have any type of data you defined in your code. Note that in this way, you should send request body as a Json string.