Download Text file using JAX-RS RESTful Webservice

In this tutorial we are going to see how to download text file using RESTful web service @Produces(“text/plain”) annotation.

Create maven web application project and add Jersey dependency in pom.xml. Find Jersey 2.x maven dependency configuration below. If you are new to maven refer our maven tutorials.

Jersey 2.x dependency in pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.ehowtonow</groupId>
  <artifactId>RestTutorials</artifactId>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>RestTutorials Maven Webapp</name>
  <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
   <properties>
        <jersey2.version>2.19</jersey2.version>
        <jaxrs.version>2.0.1</jaxrs.version>
    </properties>
  <dependencies>
      <!-- JAX-RS -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.ws.rs</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.ws.rs-api</artifactId>
            <version>${jaxrs.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Jersey 2.19 -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey2.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-server</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey2.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey2.version}</version>
        </dependency>
  </dependencies>
  <build>
    <finalName>RestTutorials</finalName>
  </build>
</project>

DownloadTextFile.java

package com.ehowtonow.webservice;

import java.io.File;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response.ResponseBuilder;

@Path("/filedownload")
public class DownloadTextFile {

 private static final String FILE_PATH = "C://ehowtonow//java-tutorials.txt";
 @GET
 @Path("/txt-file")
 @Produces("text/plain")
 public Response downloadFile() {
  File file = new File(FILE_PATH);
  ResponseBuilder responseBuilder = Response.ok((Object)file);
  responseBuilder.header("Content-Disposition",
    "attachment; filename=\"java-tutorials-corner.txt\"");
  return responseBuilder.build();
 }
}

@Produces(“text/plain”) used to set output response text file. Content-Disposition in response header to tell user agent to pop up download box to download file

Configure Jersey 2.x Servlet dispatcher

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
 "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
 "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>
	<display-name>Restful Webservice Example</display-name>
	<servlet>
		<servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
             <param-name>jersey.config.server.provider.packages</param-name>
			<param-value>com.ehowtonow.webservice</param-value>
		</init-param>
		<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
	</servlet>

	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

Now you can run the service and access the service by calling the following URL

http://localhost:8080/RestTutorials/rest/filedownload/txt-file

1. Restful Webservice HelloWorld Jersey 2.x Example
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