JAX-RS @QueryParam. Reading URL Query Parameters.

@QueryParam annotation allows us to read the request parameter values which were passed as a part of URL query string for example:

site.com/api/users/r4ghtaf43c3n/messages?start=1&limit=50 where

site.com is your web site domain name,
/api/users/ is the path to your Root Resource,
r4ghtaf43c3n is the value of specific user id and can be read with @ParthParam annotation,
/messages is the path to a sub-resource which is called “/messages”,
and ?start=1&limit=50 is the url query string.

Query parameters start with ? and are separated by &. So the first @QueryParam will be the “start” and its value is 1 and the second @QueryParam will be the “limit” and it’s value is 50.

Notice that there is a big difference between @PathParam and @QueryParam annotations and you cannot use @PathParam to read the query parameters. Please refer to JAX-RS @PathParam. Reading Path Parameters example to learn how to read path parameters values.

JAX-RS @QueryParam example. Reading Request Parameters Passed via the URL Query String.

Below is a code example which demonstrates how to read url query parameters using the @PathParam annotation. Please also notice that you can use the @DefaultValue annotation to specify a default value of a query parameter. If the query parameter is missing in the url query string but your code is expecting it the value specified with the @DefaultValue annotation will be used.

    @GET
    @Produces({MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON, MediaType.APPLICATION_XML})
    public List<UserProfile> getProfiles(@DefaultValue("0") @QueryParam("start") int start,
            @DefaultValue("50") @QueryParam("limit") int limit) {
        
        ProfileService profileService = new ProfileServiceImpl();
      
        // We can now use the values of start and limit query parameters. 
        List<ProfileDto> profiles = profileService.getUserProfiles(start, limit);
        
        ...
       
    
        return returnValue;
    }

If you are interested to learn more about building RESTful web services with JAX-RS and Jersey, please check other tutorials on this web site or checkout the three video courses I am listing below which will help you greatly speed up your learning progress.

Happy learning! 🙂