When Should You Use @PathParam vs. @QueryParam in Your RESTful APIs?

Best Practices for Using @PathParam vs. @QueryParam

When developing RESTful APIs, the choice between using @PathParam and @QueryParam can impact the organization and performance of your URLs. While there is no universal convention, certain guidelines can help you make informed decisions.

Using @PathParam for Category Delineation

Consider using @PathParam for defining the categories or types of resources. This allows you to drill down into the hierarchy of entities by using PathParams to specify branch levels. For example:

/Vehicle/Car?registration=123

Here, /Vehicle/Car represents a category, and registration=123 is a query parameter used to specify an attribute of the Car object.

Using @QueryParam for Instance Selection

In contrast, @QueryParam is more suitable for specifying attributes or filters used to select a specific instance of a class. This approach allows for more flexible filtering and pagination options:

/House/Colonial?region=newengland

In this example, /House/Colonial defines the category, while region=newengland is a query parameter used to refine the search to specific attributes.

Path Parameters vs. Query Strings

The example below illustrates the different ways you can structure URLs using PathParams and QueryParams:

/category?instance
@Path("/employee/{dept}")
Patient getEmployee(@PathParam("dept")Long dept, @QueryParam("id")Long id) ;

/category/instance
@Path("/employee/{dept}/{id}")
Patient getEmployee(@PathParam("dept")Long dept, @PathParam("id")Long id) ;

?category+instance
@Path("/employee")
Patient getEmployee(@QueryParam("dept")Long dept, @QueryParam("id")Long id) ;

In general, it's best practice to include required parameters in the URI path and optional parameters in the query string. This approach ensures clear and concise URLs while providing flexibility for filtering and pagination.

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