JAX-RS vs Spring REST – Differences
In this article, I will be covering the differences between JAX-RS/Jersey and Spring REST.
Table Of Contents
What is REST?
REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It is an architectural style that can be used for web services. A REST server exposes functionality as REST endpoints which are simply URLs. A REST client simply uses the services exposed by the REST server by accessing the corresponding URL.
What is JAX-RS
JAX-RS stands for Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS). It is the standard Java API for developing RESTful web services. The latest version of JAX-RS is JAX-RS 2.0. It is part of Java EE 7, so it does not need to be included separately. It is just a specification, it does not provide an implementation. Jersey is the reference implementation of JAX-RS specification. There are other implementations of JAX-RS like RESTEasy, etc
What is Spring REST
The Spring framework also provides REST support. The Spring MVC module can be used to develop a REST service. It defines several annotations that you can use to develop a REST application.
What are the differences between JAX-RS and Spring REST
Although both JAX-RS and Spring REST can be used to create a RESTful service in Java, there are several differences between the two as follows:
| JAX-RS | Spring REST |
|---|---|
| JAX-RS is the standard Java specification for RESTful web services | Spring REST is an alternate way of writing REST services in Java, it does not implement JAX-RS |
| JAX-RS is just a specification, you will need to include an implementation like Jersey in order to write REST services | Spring REST is the complete implementation for RESTful services by Spring. It can be used by itself. It does not implement JAX-RS |
| JAX-RS uses standard annotations that are part of Java EE | Spring REST uses its own custom annotations for REST |
Some important annotations in JAX-RS and Spring REST
| JAX-RS | Spring REST | Use of annotation |
|---|---|---|
| @Get | @RequestMapping, @GetMapping | Used to specify that the method maps to an HTTP GET method |
| @Post | @RequestMapping, @GetMapping | Used to specify that the method maps to an HTTP POST method |
| @Path | @RequestMapping | Used to specify The URI that the method or class maps to |
| @QueryParam | @RequestParam | Used to specify a query parameter |
| @PathParam | @PathVariable | Used to specify a path parameter |
Further Learning
Spring MasterClass
Spring Tutorial For Beginners
Step by Step Spring MVC Tutorial
Spring Framework in Easy Steps
Developing RESTful web services using JAX-RS and Jersey
Conclusion
In this article, I provided a comparison between JAX-RS and Spring REST. I hope this article was useful in understanding the differences between Spring REST and JAX-RS.