What is the best way to “fake” DELETE and PUT methods using JAX-RS?

Question

I've just started to use Jersey to create a RESTful API for my site. Its a wonderful change from having to roll my own support for RESTful services in Java. One thing I just can't seem to figure out is how to "fake" a DELETE and PUT method.

Jersey supports the annotations @PUT and @DELETE, however many Load-Balancers will not allow these methods through. In the past I've relied on the ability to define a custom HTTP header (e.g. x-method-override: DELETE) and "tunneling" within a POST request.

Has anyone found a way to bind a method using Jersey/JAX-RS annotations to custom headers? Alternatively, is there a better way around lack of support for PUT and DELETE?

Answer 1

Well here is how I've decided to handle the situation within my API. Its relatively simple and doesn't require much additional coding. To illustrate consider a RESTful api for Address:

@Path("/address")
public class AddressService {

    @GET
    @Produces("application/xml")
    public StreamingOutput findAll() { ... }

    @POST
    @Produces("application/xml")
    @Consumes("application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
    public StreamingOutput create(...) { ... }

    //
    // This is the alternative to a "PUT" method used to indicate an "Update"
    // action.  Notice that the @Path expects "/id/{id}" which allows 
    // us to bind to "POST" and not get confused with a "Create"
    // action (see create() above).
    //
    @POST
    @Produces("application/xml")
    @Consumes("application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public StreamingOutput update(@PathParam("id") Long id, ...) { ... }

    //
    // This is the typical "GET" method with the addition of a check
    // for a custom header "x-method-override" which is designed to 
    // look for inbound requests that come in as a "GET" but are 
    // intended as "DELETE".  If the methodOverride is set to "DELETE"
    // then the *real* delete() method is called (See below)
    //
    @GET
    @Produces("application/xml")
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public StreamingOutput retrieve(
      @PathParam("id") Long id, 
      @HeaderParam("x-method-override") String methodOverride)
    {
      if (methodOverride != null && methodOverride.equalsIgnoreCase("DELETE")) {
        this.delete(id);
      }

      ...
    }


    // 
    // This is the typical "DELETE" method.  The onlything special about it is that
    // it may get invoked by the @GET equivalent is the "x-method-override" header
    // is configured for "DELETE"
    //
    @DELETE
    @Produces("application/xml")
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public StreamingOutput retrieve(@PathParam("id") Long id) { ... }

}

Answer 2

It's not really REST anymore, but in a similar situation we defined POST /collection/ to be insert (as normal), POST /collection/{id} to be update, POST /collection/{id} without body to be delete.