Crnk is a library for creating JSON:API backends in Java, and features integration with Spring Framework.

To try it out, let’s create a web service for rating dishes at restaurants. We’ll call it “Opinion Ate”.

The easiest way to create a new Spring Boot project is with Spring Initializr. Go there and choose the following options:

  • Project: Gradle Project
  • Language: Java
  • Spring Boot: (leave as default)
  • Artifact: “opinion-ate”
  • Dependencies:
    • Search for “web”, then add “Spring Web Starter”
    • Search for “lombok”, then add “Lombok”

Click “Generate the project”; this will download a zip file. Expand it.

This tutorial will assume you’re using the free IntelliJ IDEA CE as your IDE.

Open IntelliJ and choose “Import Project”. Open the project’s build.gradle file. Leave all the settings as-is. When the project opens, IntelliJ will start a build automatically.

Your project’s dependencies are configured in build.gradle. To add Crnk to your project, open it and make the following changes:

 repositories {
-    mavenCentral()
+    jcenter()
 }

+dependencyManagement {
+    imports {
+        mavenBom "io.crnk:crnk-bom:3.0.20190714142556"
+    }
+}

 dependencies {
     implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
     compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
     annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
     testImplementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test'
+    compile 'io.crnk:crnk-setup-spring-boot2'
+    compile 'io.crnk:crnk-home'
 }

IntelliJ will let you know that “Gradle projects need to be imported”. Click “Import Changes” to download the appropriate dependencies.

Resources

Crnk represents your data with classes annotated with @JsonApiResource. Let’s create a resource class representing a restaurant.

In src/main/java, right-click com.example.opinionate, then choose New > Java Class. Name it “Restaurant”. Replace its contents with the following:

package com.example.opinionate;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import io.crnk.core.resource.annotations.JsonApiId;
import io.crnk.core.resource.annotations.JsonApiResource;
import lombok.Getter;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Setter;

@Getter
@Setter
@NoArgsConstructor
@JsonApiResource(type = "restaurants")
public class Restaurant {

    @JsonApiId
    private Long id;

    @JsonProperty
    private String name;

    @JsonProperty
    private String address;
}

The @JsonApiResource annotation indicates to Crnk that this class is a type of resource that should be available via our API. type = "restaurants" indicates the type, which will appear in the URL and in the type field of our data. Crnk will set up all necessary routes, specifically:

  • GET /restaurants — lists all the restaurants
  • POST /restaurants — creates a new restaurant
  • GET /restaurants/:id — gets one restaurant
  • PATCH /restaurants/:id — updates a restaurant
  • DELETE /restaurants/:id — deletes a restaurant

That’s a lot we’ve gotten without having to write almost any code!

The Lombok annotations @Getter, @Setter, and @NoArgsConstructor will create the corresponding getters, setters, and no-arg constructor that we’ll use to work with this class.

We also need a constructor with all of these fields. Right-click anywhere in your file then choose “Generate…”. A modal will appear prompting you to “Choose Fields to Initialize by Constructor”. Shift-click to select all the fields, then click OK. IntelliJ will add the following constructor:

     @JsonProperty
     private String address;
+
+    public Restaurant(Long id, String name, String address) {
+        this.id = id;
+        this.name = name;
+        this.address = address;
+    }
 }

Next we need a Repository class that will handle persisting our Restaurants. For the sake of this tutorial we’ll just use an in-memory repository.

Create another new class in com.example.opinionate called “RestaurantRepository”. Replace its contents with the following:

package com.example.opinionate;

import io.crnk.core.queryspec.QuerySpec;
import io.crnk.core.repository.ResourceRepositoryBase;
import io.crnk.core.resource.list.ResourceList;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;

@Component
public class RestaurantRepository extends ResourceRepositoryBase<Restaurant, Long> {

    private static final AtomicLong ID_GENERATOR = new AtomicLong(3);

    private Map<Long, Restaurant> restaurants = new HashMap<>();

    public RestaurantRepository() {
        super(Restaurant.class);
        restaurants.put(
            (long) 1,
            new Restaurant((long) 1, "Sushi Place", "123 Main Street")
        );
        restaurants.put(
            (long) 2,
            new Restaurant((long) 2, "Burger Place", "456 Other Street")
        );
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void delete(Long id) {
        restaurants.remove(id);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized <S extends Restaurant> S save(S restaurant) {
        if (restaurant.getId() == null) {
            restaurant.setId(ID_GENERATOR.getAndIncrement());
        }
        restaurants.put(restaurant.getId(), restaurant);
        return restaurant;
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized ResourceList<Restaurant> findAll(QuerySpec querySpec) {
        return querySpec.apply(restaurants.values());
    }
}

Extending ResourceRepositoryBase indicates to Crnk that this is a repository to use for a certain resource type. By providing <Restaurant, Long> we indicate that this is the repository for Restaurant resources, and that the primary key is type Long.

Notice that in the constructor we set up a few test data records.

Believe it or not, with this, we’re done our app!

Trying It Out

Now let’s give it a try. Open the Gradle sidebar, then expand opinion-ate > Tasks > application. Right-click on “bootRun” and click Run.

Visit http://localhost:8080/restaurants/1 in your browser. You should see something like the following:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "1",
    "type": "restaurants",
    "attributes": {
      "address": "123 Main Street",
      "name": "Sushi Place"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://localhost:8080/restaurants/1"
    }
  }
}

If you’re using Firefox you should see the JSON data nicely formatted. If your browser doesn’t automatically format JSON, you may be able to find a browser extension to do so. For example, for Chrome you can use JSONView.

This is a JSON:API response for a single record. Let’s talk about what’s going on here:

  • The top-level data property contains the main data for the response. In this case it’s one record; it can also be an array.
  • The record contains an id property giving the record’s publicly-exposed ID, which by default is the database integer ID. But JSON:API IDs are always exposed as strings, to allow for the possibility of slugs or UUIDs.
  • Even if you can infer the type of the record from context, JSON:API records always have a type field recording which type they are. In some contexts, records of different types will be intermixed in an array, so this keeps them distinct.
  • attributes is an object containing all the attributes we exposed. They are nested instead of directly on the record to avoid colliding with other standard JSON:API properties like type.

Next, let’s take a look at the restaurants list view. Visit http://localhost:8080/restaurants. Note that this time the data is an array of two records.

Next, let’s try creating a record. We won’t be able to do this in the browser; we’ll need a more sophisticated web service client to do so. One good option is Postman—download it and start it up.

You can use Postman for GET requests as well: set up a GET request to http://localhost:8080/restaurants and see how it displays the same data as the browser.

Next, let’s create a POST request to the same URL, http://localhost:8080/restaurants. Go to the Headers tab and enter key “Content-Type” and value “application/vnd.api+json”—this is the content type JSON:API requires.

Next, switch to the Body tab. Click the “none” dropdown and change it to “raw”. Another “Text” dropdown will appear; change it to “JSON”. Enter the following:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "restaurants",
    "attributes": {
      "name": "Spaghetti Place",
      "address": "789 Third Street"
    }
  }
}

Notice that we don’t have to provide an id because we’re relying on the server to generate it. And we don’t have to provide the links, just the attributes we want to set on the new record.

Now that our request is set up, click Send and you should get a “201 Created” response, with the following body:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "3",
    "type": "restaurants",
    "attributes": {
      "address": "789 Third Street",
      "name": "Spaghetti Place"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://localhost:8080/restaurants/3"
    }
  }
}

Our new record is created and the data is returned to us!

If you’d like to try out updating and deleting records:

  • Make a PATCH request to http://localhost:8080/restaurants/3, passing in updated attributes.
  • Make a DELETE request to http://localhost:8080/restaurants/3 with no body to delete the record.

There’s More

We’ve seen a ton of help Crnk has provided us: the ability to create, read, update, and delete records. But it offers a lot more too! It automatically handles related records, allows you to request only a subset of the fields you need, allows you to include related records in the response, as well as sorting, filtering, and pagination. To learn more, check out the Crnk Guide.

Now that you have a JSON:API backend, you should try connecting to it from the frontend. Choose a tutorial from the How to JSON:API home page!

Special thanks to Harry Pritchett for his help with this tutorial!