java - Selectively expand associations in Spring Data Rest response -

i have standard spring data jpa , spring data rest setup which, correctly, returns associations links correct resources.

{     "id": 1,     "version": 2,     "date": "2011-11-22",     "description": "xpto",     "_links": {         "self": {             "href": "http://localhost:8000/api/domain/1"         },         "otherdomain": {             "href": "http://localhost:8000/api/domain/1/otherdomain"         }     } }    

however in some requests have association "otherdomain" expanded (so client not have n+1 requests full data).

is possible configure spring data rest handle response in way?

the default responses have stay same make sure payloads put requests symmetric ones gets return. however, spring data rest introduces feature called projections (see jira ticket details) works follows:

you create dedicated interface , add properties want include in response:

public interface myprojection {    string getmyproperty();    myrelatedobject getotherdomain(); } 

you can either

• annotate interface using @projection , place in same package domain type or subpackage of it
• or manually register projection using repositoryrestconfiguration , call projectionconfiguration().addprojection(…) manually (by extending repositoryrestmvcconfiguration , overriding configurerepositoryrestconfiguration(…)).

this cause resources exposed domain type accept projection parameter (name configurable projectionconfiguration) name of projection. if given, skip default rendering (which includes rendering links related entities instead of embedding them) , let jackson render proxy backing given interface.

an example of can found in spring restbucks project. see orderprojection interface definition.